10 Reasons Why 'The New Frontier' Will Always Be DC's Greatest Graphic Novel
9. Every Single Panel Is A Thing Of Beauty
DC Comics
Darwyn Cooke was a beautiful artist. The cartoon-esque vibrant style he so often penned served the creator wonderfully over the years, and, in many ways, seemed like a natural fit for depicting the early days of DC.
Cooke's immaculate drawings lent themselves perfectly to the New Frontier's edgy yet grounded vibe, depicting a more innocent time of the DCU whilst also containing the panels in the historical context of the era. There is a certain ironic dissonance to be had in watching Golden Age Wonder Woman battle with the Viet Cong in French Indochina, but for all intents and purposes it manages to work on every level. It creates an atmosphere that manages to abide by both the intense reality of the time and the extreme fantasy of the decade's comic book creations. This in itself is a remarkable feat, but Cooke's artistry was always a spectacle to behold - in and out of The New Frontier.
I mean, just take a look at the amount of covers he created for DC back in 2014 - they're a love letter to the medium and that fact runs clear throughout the artist's work.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
