Reconstruction 8.2 (2008)
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Justice League: The New Frontier. Warner Premiere, 2008.
<1> Comic books have a tradition of ignoring history, both personal and cultural. Umberto Eco's essay on Superman noted that, despite having had numerous adventures, Superman did not accumulate a personal history. As Orion Ussner Kidder explains in a review of Eco's article,
The second, and far complex, feature of the Superman cycle is related to his narrative immortality. Superman does not "consume himself," [. . . ] which means that his actions do not consume time, he "accomplishes a given job [. . . and] at this point the story ends. [. . .] If [the story] took Superman up again at the point where he left off, he would have taken a step toward death" [. . . ] His immortality, in the comics, comes with an inability to actually progress as a character.
He cannot be allowed to, for example, clearly enunciate and recall all of his adventures because doing so would imply that he'd had specific experiences that could be documented and numbered; experiences that have a finite number at all would ruin the illusion. Within this timelessness and deathlessness, Eco locates what I've taken to calling the "neverwhen" of American superhero stories, and he describes as "the illusion of a continuous present."
When Marvel Comics introduced its superhero line in the 1960s, it broke the "neverwhen" trend and had the characters make casual references to, and become involved in, contemporary trends. Now, forty years later, Marvel tries to ignore that Spider-man used to mention Ed Sullivan and that the Thing and the Human Torch met the Beatles in the band's mophead prime.
<2> DC Comics, home of Superman, had less connection to history than its competitors. During World War II, when the superhero genre first exploded onto the scene, many superheroes fought Nazi and Japanese villains, but DC superheroes rarely did. DC's covers featured patriotic tableaus (heroes posing with soldiers or flags or selling war bonds), but the stories usually ignored the country's conflict.
<3> This makes Darwyn Cooke's 2004 graphic novel DC: The New Frontier, and the 2008 animated adaptation Justice League: The New Frontier, an unusual choice for the publisher. The story places the emerging "Silver Age" DC line-up deeply within the culture and conflicts of the 1950s. Considering that the market for direct-to-DVD animation is to be an electronic babysitter, making such a movie steeped in Cold War references is a daring move.
<4> As the story of Justice League begins, the wartime superhero group the Justice Society of America has been forced to disband rather than reveal their secret identities to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Superman and Wonder Woman signed loyalty oaths to the US government to continue operating, but Batman and newcomer The Flash are vigilantes fighting crime illegally. Wonder Woman has raised the ire of the government. Sent to Indo-China on a covert mission, she found a group of caged women kept as sex slaves by the rebels. Wonder Woman released the captives and watched as they killed their unarmed captors. Superman is dispatched by the US government to chastise Wonder Woman for violating their mandate.
<5> The debate between Superman and Wonder Woman establishes one of the central themes of the movie: the aggressive aims of the US government and the belief that dissent equals disloyalty. (One is tempted to speculate about parallels Cooke intends with the Bush administration and its wars in the Middle East.) Two government agents from the DC mythos—Rick Flagg Sr. and King Faraday—represent the conservative, pro-government viewpoint. They come into conflict with Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan, John (the Martian Manhunter) Jones, and the Flash.
<6> Hal is a pacifist. We first meet him flying a combat mission in Korea with his wingman, future Challenger of the Unknown Ace Morgan. Hal refuses to fire on enemy jets that attack them, branding him "pink" in Faraday's eyes. Faraday attempts to abduct the Flash, and the Flash responds by retiring. A catalyst for much of the action is J'onn J'onzz, a Martian drawn to Earth by a "radical" scientist's attempt to communicate with Mars. Evidence that a Martian has arrived leads Flagg and Faraday to launch an armed mission to Mars.
<7> From pop culture of the period, Cooke borrows the trope of using aliens from outer space as symbolic of the racial, cultural, and political Other feared by 1950s America. We are reminded several times that Superman and Wonder Woman are immigrants, so their decision to sign loyalty oaths seems like an attempt at assimilation in the face of a cultural fear of outsiders.
<8> Taking on the secret identity of Gotham City cop John Jones, the Martian Manhunter tracks the growing threat of The Center, an ancient entity who has decided to eradicate the human race for its violent ways. The "naked simplicity of an absolute," in Faraday's words, draws both the government agents and the vigilantes together to assault The Center, and the Justice League of America is born.
<9> The climactic battle takes place in 1960, seven years after the story began. Those years of political tension and animosity seem to be erased when Superman makes a speech, declaring, "We need to reclaim this country for free men and women everywhere." As the movie's title suggests, there is an implicit link between Superman and John F. Kennedy, whose "New Frontier" speech plays over a final montage that shows more superheroes emerging to follow the lead of the JLA. Therefore, even as Justice League: The New Frontier is surprisingly honest about the conflicts of the 1950s, it mythologizes Kennedy as a savior who instantly resolved all those conflicts.
Works Cited
Kidder, Orion Ussner. "Umberto Eco, 'The Myth of Superman' (long)." Four-Colour Commentary. 1 Mar. 2006. 11 May 2008 <http://staticred.net/four-colour/archives/002653.html>.
Christian
L. Pyle
Bluegrass Community and Technical College
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