When I picked up and watched the new “Justice League: The New Frontier” movie on Blu-ray, I wasn’t sure the DC heroes reboot into the 50s thing would work. It did. I loved it. While it had quaint post-WWII American settings, the character interaction and story-telling were mature, almost adult. I think there’s a bit of profanity in that cartoon movie even.

So now there’s a comic, “Justice League: The New Frontier”, which I haven’t read, but I picked up the recently released “Justice League: The New Frontier Special” #1. Three stories, still in the 50s, centering on key DC characters, including: Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Robin, Kid Flash, and Black Canary. The writing is exclusively by wow-he’s-really-good Darwyn Cooke, natch. The stories are great. Simple and bubble gum in immediate presentation, but comfortably enjoyable in punchline. You feel GOOD when you read this. Not enlightened or challenged. Just GOOD. And that’s just FINE with me.

The art is well done, by Darwyn Cooke, David Bullock, and J. Bone. Dave Stewart colors all of it well, too. If you like old-school square Dick Tracy-ish chins, cartoonish figures, and silhouettes, you’ll absolutely love this. I did. Even if you don’t, I think you’ll find the art certainly doesn’t detract from the writing, and at the very least, based on the era, feels appropriate. My one complaint was that the layouts seemed a bit rushed or sub-optimal in some places. As if they may have started off as cartoon / film storyboards and were just never fully cultivated to sequential page-by-page comic book visual storytelling; perhaps shoehorned. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all still great stuff. Enough so, I’m looking to get “New Frontier” back issues now.

The first story is Batman vs Superman, and it is easily the best Batman vs Superman throw-down since 1986 and Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight Returns” #4. But perhaps, not AS good. Hmm. I’ll have to re-read each and compare. Anyway, Superman gets the order from POTUS to take Batman down, and Batman basically says, “Bring it, bitch.” I REALLY like watching Batman outwit and beat the crap out of other DC heroes and this battle did not disappoint. Well, perhaps at it’s very end. But it was a beat-down I’m going to be grinning about for quite some time. Superman was really friggin’ SCARED. Hahahaha. That fight alone was worth the price of admission for “Justice League: The New Frontier Special” #1, IMO. The rest is a very welcomed bonus.

I receive the first issue of “Red Mass for Mars”, and immediately, a wave of dread passes over me. I haven’t even opened to page one yet. Fuck.

As soon as I start reading, I wholly understand my panic attack. Jonathan Hickman. He throws himself into the writing, and reading it, while a true unadulterated blast, takes exertion. I submit to you: “Transhuman”. Am I really up for this?

Lest you say I poopoo the Hickman: reading that requires exertion is a “Good Thing” (TM), IMO. And I submit to you: “Red Mass for Mars”

Ryan Bodenheim’s art on “Red Mass” is a solid companion here. Bodenheims’s art feels like Frank Quitely (see “All-Star Superman”), but not as good and with shortcuts.

Actual story? I’m a sucker for Earth-apocalypto shit, and “Red Mass for Mars” fits the bill. Hickman does a SOLID job of conveying how truly screwed Earth is. That’s AFTER Earth’s burnt up, experienced super-bugs, terrorist nukes, AND gray goo. Apparently, it’s gonna get WORSE.

“Humor relief” consists of a two-page spread announcing the blatant murder and worse of the British royal family. This is the fuckin’ weird, initial, and symbolic reprisal for failure to obey a psycho superhuman international edict that the world shall instantly switch to English as the written and spoken global language; brilliantly concluded with said psycho mumbling: “Book burning and data elimination to ensue immediately. This message is not to be translated… except for the hand stuff for the deafs.”

The deafs. heh. Hickman slays.

I had read good things about this in CBG and yup, it’s rocking out.

Three issues in, and it already feels “X-Files” or “Starman”-ish from a .gov conspiracy / manhunt standpoint, respectively, but with a touch of “X-O”, and a bunch of female baggage thrown in.

Recommended. Definitely over “Resurrection”, which has just stunk it up for the last two issues.

What do you get when you REALLY take an accurate look at the life of someone who decides to be a neighborhood superhero? Absolutely NOTHING, I guess, which equates to an absolute snorefest. “Pilot Season: Twilight Guardian” and Troy Hickman take a BIG chance on the world’s comic book readership, but they’re bound to be disappointed with us and the voting results. In comparison to similar real-world vigilante documentary efforts, most notably “Kick-Ass”, “Twilight Guardian” is certainly going to pale.

To be fair, Troy Hickman COULD be toying with us. Perhaps Troy is deftly introducing us to a brutally geek girl so introverted and incapable of having a relationship that she’s making a desperate case / excuse for her pathetic existence’s loneliness as part and parcel to the life of a crime fighter. She’s not “anti-social”. She’s just too busy performing neighborhood watch duties to have a normal life. Right. And this premise COULD be interesting as a study of a psychotic-comic-book-fan-turned-vigilante, albeit via sequential art.

Despite an interesting premise though, following the Twilight Guardian, alter-ego of the aforementioned comic fan in question, simply does NOT work. If this is our heroine, to HELL with her. I just can’t connect, and she’s simply pathetic. She goes from altruistic neighborhood protector to vandal pretty damn quick. Her neighborhood watch, in the guise of crime fighter’s patrol, feels more like a series of peeping Tom ops. Her internal / journal dialogue feels ignorant, stunted, and wholly delusional. I’m just “Wha?” from the get-go. And am I supposed to feel affinity with the Twilight Guardian simply because she has a comic book collection? Perhaps AWE that her collection dwarfs my own? How about shock that she would have let alone actually READ one of her favorite issues… from NINETEEN FORTY-THREE?! Who the hell is going to relate to or even root for this character? Don’t tell me. I’d rather NOT know.

And when, if at all, does the Twilight Guardian SLEEP? Going to work all day, coming home, reading a comic, planning her route to patrol her “jurisdiction”, walking around ALL NIGHT, and arriving back home at SUNRISE? Presumably to go back to work? Look, if this is supposed to be what happens in the really real world when a totally mental girl decides to be a real life superhero, then let’s keep it real. I’ve PULLED all nighters after working all day—you do NOT go to work the next day. Certainly not day in and day out. Or maybe you try, but you get fired pretty damn quick for sleeping on the job. “Twilight Guardian” is plagued with similar not-so-real-life late-night inconsistencies, too, that simply do NOT help this title out AT ALL.

The art was a bit disappointing, but passable. Since the main character pretty much does nothing but walk around the neighborhood with her hands in her hoody’s pockets, there really isn’t much of a range of character poses or motion. Vehicles, building, etc. feel crude and straight out of “King of the Hill”. People look like bendy dolls. It’s a style, but not one I really care for. Better than a great deal of the action-pose, no-background, mainstream comic fluff we’re subjected to, though. The art for the interspersed “classic” comic panels is pretty decent—I enjoyed it AND it’s accompanying dialogue more than anything.

“Abdullah Oblongata”. heh. Good one. Much too little to win me over, though.

This is the aggravating burn I felt with the inconsistency of the LAST “Pilot Season”. Some things never change. Of three “Pilot Season” efforts I’ve read so far, “Twilight Guardian” definitely ranks last, and honestly, it’s hard to imagine reading another comic as flat-out BORING as this. Perhaps I just didn’t get it. Perhaps this was Troy Hickman warming up. Perhaps this was all just prelude and set-up to something darker, deeper, and / or more daring, but I seriously doubt I’d be willing to chance another $3 on Troy Hickman breaking out of his shell along with convincing “Twilight Guardian” to do so.