146 DC: THE NEW FRONTIER
appears in the fi rst illustrated panel on the fi rst page of the fi rst issue, where a team of
soldiers have been sent to extract a scientist carrying vital data, who had crash landed
in the Pacifi c. On the island they encounter prehistoric monsters, manifestations of the
island’s malevolence, and are wiped out after successfully transporting the scientist’s notes
off the island. Th e narrative threads that follow establish the growing distrust between
superheroes and the government, as most of the vigilante “mystery men” who fought
crime during World War II are hunted down by the police or co-opted as covert agents
for government agencies. A lot of Th e New Frontier is dedicated to showing the bristling
of ideologies as Wo n d e r Wo m a n confronts Superman over his complacency to serve
the government, Th e Flash evades capture by the authorities, and Martian Manhunter
attempts to hide his extra-terrestrial origin from the rest of the world. Meanwhile, mys-
terious attacks by dinosaurs become more frequent in coastal areas, and psychic disrup-
tions generated by the island cause more and more people around the world to succumb
to madness. Th e heroes are united as they investigate these occurrences, some, like Bat-
man and the Martian Manhunter, by following the ravings of the cults and artists who
have been infl uenced by the island’s evil, and some like Superman and Wonder Woman,
who are directly attacked by monsters. Meeting at Cape Canaveral, Florida, the heroes
form a plan of attack to defeat the island, and under Superman’s leadership disregard
their ideological clashes for the greater good of humanity. In the ensuing battle, Hal
Jordan assumes the mantle of the Green Lantern, having previously been bequeathed a
magic power ring from a dying alien but having been unsure of his right to use his new
power. Meanwhile, Th e Flash uses shrinking technology developed by Ray Palmer (later
to become the Atom) to destabilize the island molecularly, ending its threat to humanity
and ushering in the dawn of a new heroic age.
Th e title of Th e New Frontier comes from John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s acceptance
speech to the offi ce of President of the United States in 1960, and is meant to invoke
the idealism and hope of that speech. Th e speech itself ends the story, and is framed
by the last few pages of the sixth issue of DC: Th e New Frontier, which depict famil-
iar DC characters and scenes that would appear throughout that decade. Th e story
functions partly as a historical allegory of the Silver Age of comics, which began
roughly around 1954 and picked up momentum through the early 1960s. DC: Th e
New Frontier’s depiction of government distrust for heroes has a historical analog;
for example, in the 1954 hearings about comic book violence held by the U.S. Senate
Subcommittee on the Judiciary and prompted by psychologist Fredric Wertham’s
publication of Seduction of the Innocent. Similarly, the island’s appearance and mode
of operation recall those of the demons and supernatural forces in Lovecraftian-style
horror, one of superhero comic’s chief competitors in that time period. Th e conspic-
uous absence of superhero stories about the Vietnam or Korean wars is also manifest
in the ideological clash between Wonder Woman and Superman: Wonder Woman
bristles at the government, which co-opts her for covert missions but ignores her
overt message of equal rights to all people and sexes, and she is forced to retire as a
spokesperson for America so that she does not expose the government’s agenda.
