DC: The New Frontier 6
November 2004

Book Six
"Justice League of America"

Writer and Illustrator: Darwyn Cooke
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Assistant Editor: Valerie D'Orazio
Editor: Mark Chiarello
64 pages
$6.95

Synopsis: Earth's heroes, mostly unsuper, take on the Centre. But it's the superguys who wrap it up. The Challengers are shoulder to shoulder with the best of the best.

The story opens on the Moon, of all places. The mystics of Earth (and beyond), Dr Fate, the Spectre, Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, and Billy Batson meet for a meal and decide not to intervene. "Mankind needs a new road to travel, carved by the heroes of tomorrow."

At Cape Canaveral, Lois Lane breaks down broadcasting Superman's death. Rocky Davis, never far from Lois, gibes to Jimmy Olsen. "Ahh, the grieving woman mooning over her lost hero. Looks like it's time for a little of the old sympathy tactic." Jimmy snarls. "Rocky Davis, ladies' man. What an ass. She loved him."

Adam Strange is released from Arkham Asylum. Hal Jordan uses his ring to make the rendezvous. Ray Palmer gets dragged out of bed.

At the Cape, June Robbins, sometimes Challenger, watches over John Jones. The Martian suffers from his psychic link with The Centre.

While heroes meet and mill, Prof Haley, Doc Magnus, Niles Calder, and other brains ponder an attack. Adam Strange brings in Ray Palmer. His shrinking ray works - except the subject blows up. Prof and Magnus bobble their pipes. "Exactly!" They have plans for Flash too.

The Centre is a living island chock full of dinosaurs bent on wiping humanity off the planet. The attack plan has two stages. Pilots are needed. Blackhawks. Green Arrow. Larry (Negative Man to be) Trainor. Captain Adam. Ace Morgan. And dozens more.

Ace explains Stage One. Most pilots will bomb the island as a diversion. "While it's distracted, the idea is to sneak a couple of bombers loaded with atomic warheads inside the blamed thing Try to hurt it, slow it up. Drop the payload, out the other side, and boom."

Stage Two. Ray Palmer's imperfect shrinking ray, carried all over the island by the Flash, will shrink it so it blows up. They make it sound easy. Blackhawk says drily, "Humanity at stake and all that, eh?" Ace is just glad to see "Wingman Jordan" finally showed up. "Let's cook that son of a bitch, Pappy."

Time to go.

No one speaks. Two men are grinning: Ace Morgan and Blackhawk. (This is an absolutely gorgeous two-page spread that has to be seen to be believed.)

Pilots prep and pull out. Lois Lane broadcasts. "Such bravery in the face of staggering odds." But they're interrupted. The dinosaur carcass on the beach blows open. A small army of dino-horrors burst out. Rocky yelps, "Oh, Christ, here we go!" Rocky attacks with a flamethrower. Jimmy Olsen snaps photos while a dinosaur tries to eat him. Instead of snapping a shot of teeth, he gets Wonder Woman saving his life. Rocky tows him away. "C'mon, Junior. Get out of the woman's way and let her work."

WW hollers, "All of you, fight on! To the last breath, fight on!" Things get hairy. Among other problems, J'onn J'onzz reverts to his Martian form - then a dinosaur form. He's possessed! King Faraday draws the evil out of him, "like poison from a wound." Jonn is ready to fight, but Faraday is dead. June pulls Jonn away. "We have to move!"

Jonn moves. Straight up into battle in a blue cape. "My friend King Faraday will not have died in vain."

Out over the water, planes - Blackhawk One, Arrow One - bomb hell out of the island. The Sea Devils and others such as Red Ryan fish fallen flyers out of the water.

Ace Morgan and two other jets bore in. "All right, boys, take itup off the deck." Nate Adam adds, "Like the man said, it isn't when you go... it's how you go." Hal Jordan doesn't say a word. Then they're inside.

The glow inside the thing must be some illusion. Can there really be millions of creatures? Hal's mind starts spinning. Ace's voice snaps him out of it. "Now listen to me. If I know anything, it is this. In the face of the unknown, abandon reason and embrace your instinct." They pierce "the living curtain." Hal says, "To this day, I'm not certain what the other guys saw."

The fact is, they guys are inside a giant brain, and their thoughts are being bombarded by fear and doubts. Hal thinks, "We're all experiencing something... personal. Instinct tells me we head for the sun... You like it, Pappy?" But Ace sees, "There's no sun. We head for the mountain." Then everything, including their own bodies, start to distort.

The three pilots are bombarded by imagery: stars, planets, a whole universe. And pink gook that starts to engulf their planes. They're blinded, spinning, ready to puke. Hal sees his whole life fracture as it passes before his eyes. Then he breaks out - time for the ring - and he's Green Lantern.

As pink goo invades the cockpit, Ace babbles into the radio to Captain Adam. "I figure now's as good a time as any. What say we finish the mission." Adam says, "Roger that, Ace." Calm and brave words as the men grope to push the manual detonators on the atomic warheads. Adam disappears in a nuclear fireball. Ace's hair is beginning to smoke as GREEN grabs him and boogies.

Ashore, Red and Rocky greet, glad to be alive. Red says, "The boat capsized and we are goners. The next thing I know, I come to and a school of dolphins is towing us to shore."

With a sonic boom, the Flash races for the island. He ramps a wave and runs over the island, shrinking it a million ways at once. Once he looks up and sees Wonder Woman and J'onn J'onzz have his back. Then he sails off the island, caught by an angel of mercy (WW).

But the island shrinks. As it explodes. High above, Green Lantern holds Ace in a green bubble. "You've had this magic ring all along?" Hal laughs. "Say hi to the Sea Rescue boys for me." And he drops Ace ker-plunk in the ocean. GL zooms up, grabs the burning Centre, and whips it into space - gone for good.

That night, the heroes party. Until a weird ship clanks out of the ocean. It opens, and a regal figure holds a groggy Superman. "I am King Arthur of Atlantis. I come in peace." And Jimmy Olsen snaps a picture.

It's a new era.

And, as always, the Challengers of the Unknown are on the front line.

Comment

This story is not, of course, strictly a Challengers adventure. The boys are prominent, but so are a lot of other heroes. As it should be.

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