Justice League: The New Frontier

What’s the Story?

In the mid-1950s, America's Cold-War pathologies, conformity, and anti-Communist paranoia have even turned against the nation's superheroes, forcing many of them to go underground -- all except Superman, who took a loyalty oath to the US government. But the Flash is berated for keeping his identity secret (and wearing a politically suspect red costume), Batman is a fugitive, and Wonder Woman (as she helps some oppressed peasants in a far-off place called Vietnam) complains that her adoptive country is not as dedicated to truth, justice, and the American Way as it used to be. But the Justice League pulls together again to fight the rise of "the Center," a powerful ancient life-form, pre-dating the dinosaurs, who has also decided that humanity is a planetary nuisance and decides to eradicate mankind altogether.

Is It Any Good?

This is a feature spinoff of the Justice League of America TV cartoon series -- not a pilot but rather a super-sized valedictory episode, super-stuffed with super-events that superhero super-fans will consider super-canonical. In addition to the battle against the Center (an entity so powerful it can put Wonder Woman and Superman both out of action), the audience gets to behold the interconnected origin stories of two other DC superheroes, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern, as well as the Flash revealing his identity to the woman he loves and Batman's early motivations in partnering up with Robin the Boy Wonder (to present a more "friendly" image to Gotham citizens during the fearful Fifties).

It's rather amazing that the overstuffed narrative holds together as well as it does, and some good scriptwriting and clever tie-ins to real-world events and attitudes help to keep all the various super-balls in the air. But viewers who are total strangers to the Justice League gallery of heroes and villains and their involved backstories -- Green Arrow, Hawkman, Gorilla Grod, Aquaman, the Joker etc. make cameos -- may find it all rather confusing. Even a few DC Comics connoisseurs might have wanted a bit more breathing room.