Better late than etc. (3/5 reviews)

Justice League: The New Frontier #1: Buy the DVD! Actually, I may just do that - it was playing in the Beguiling last Wednesday, and someone apparently tried to erase one of the original's biggest flaws by giving the villain an actual personality this time - but this is a nice little package either way. Cooke's selective nostalgia is still weirdly fascinating. He treats post-war America with justified ambivalence (Ike himself orders the hit on that fifth columnist Batman!) but when the 60s dawn it curdles into Camelot hagiography, as if Arthur Schlesinger had been scripting Superman on the Beltway rather than pocketing names. Somewhere an unsuspecting young man is one ill-advised bong hit away from writing his term paper on Uncle Ben as JFK figure (the Green Goblin being McNamara, ho ho). However, the main story here mostly eschews that sort of reverence in favour of two-fisted action and nifty gadgets and predictably gorgeous, impeccably composed artwork. The backup strips are equally lighthearted - hell, the second is just one gag, though I like that Jayne Mansfield and Gloria Steinem have both entered DC continuity (and drawn by J. Bone). Anyway, worth the cover price for Cooke's pages and their unfussed, Cadillac-stylish intrigue alone. Why bother with Hal Jordan, Square-Jawed Moral Beacon when King Faraday's sneaking around?