Review of Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) by Lillian C — 22 May 2008

It's a look back at the golden age of DC comics with a spin that really punches everything up a notch from their sometimes cheesy, sometimes born of ignorance, mostly aimed at children beginnings. Basically the entire Justice League is on display. Superman, is an already established hero by virtue of being the first super-powered comic hero. He is expertly characterized as the embodiment of the mythic America. The one that once ensured the rest of the world would look up to us. He encounters his friend Wonder Woman in a Korean village at the end of the Korean War. Wonder Woman is a true amazon in this depiction. She literally looks down upon the Man of Steel from her massive height as she explains she not only allowed the massacre that surrounds them, she feels it is righteously justified. She is a woman who truly worships war.

We see the Flash, already a fledgling hero, mostly concerned with the apprehension of small time jewel thieves. Batman makes appearances in two historical flavors. He begins as the truly terrifying original detective comics hero and is later given a shockingly believable transition to the happier, campier Batman. Other heroes make cameo appearances throughout the film. Aquaman is appropriately relegated to smallish cameo.

Every scene is stuffed from wall to wall with winks to the comics with no exposition supplied. There's a scene involving the invisible jet that provides almost no clues as to what the invisible jet is without already knowing that Wonder Woman has such a thing, and it's done amazingly.

The bulk of the film concerns the origins of Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern, which are handled both faithfully and with new zest.