February 26th marks the day DC Comics and Warner Brothers Animation present JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER on DVD. To better prepare you guys for the movie, we’re taking a weeklong look back at the original six-issue mini-series. If you missed Part One, you can find it here. Today is Part Two, and Saturday will be Part Three. Something tells me following this special weeklong look to the end will yield some sort of reward for faithful readers.

Oh, who am I kidding? I can't keep a secret from you guys. The reward is not only going to be a copy of JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER on DVD, but also the trade paperback collection of the comic.

That's all I'm going to spill. You'll just have to tune back in on Saturday for the official contest announcement. Now, on to DC: The NEW FRONTIER- Part II.

As always, click on a picture to view it in a larger state.
Moderate Spoilers Ahead.

“Every night I wake up not dead…”
Where the first two books took the time to introduce us the major players (Hal Jordan, John Jones, the Flash) book three throws a curve, and introduces us to more supporting members of the epic. We first encounter the Challengers of the Unknown, four men who band together after all surviving the same horrible plane wreck. From there Cooke catches us up with Task Force X, nicknamed the Suicide Squad since every mission is supposed to be their last. In the midst of their fight against what appears to be a pterodactyl in New York, one of their own goes down. The remaining members are all baffled by the appearance of the beast, save one Col. Rick Flagg who claims to have seen something that terrible on an island in 1945.
Cooke’s pacing and panel direction are at their best here. Take a look at how much happens in three panels he has on just one page.

His eye for character placement to heighten emotion and get the character’s thoughts across, while saying as little as possible, rivals that of any film director.
After these interludes, we’re finally caught back up with Hal Jordan and his efforts as a test pilot. It’s not the glamorous life behind the stick he thought it would be. Most of his time is spent in ridiculous test after ridiculous test. It appears something is up behind the scenes as Hal is put to work under Col. Flagg and Karin Grace (another member of Task Force X), who seem to be the ones putting Hal through so much trouble.
After catching up with Hal, Cooke takes some small time to remind us just how far our country has come since 1957. Here we see just how  respected Wonder Woman is after being awarded a medal for her efforts in Indo-China.

John Jones and Batman also have a very interesting heart to heart about their meeting during the cult break-up.

Batman knows something is going on with this “Center” the cult was following, and instructs Jones to check into a book recovered from that night. After a look at the book’s contents, Jones makes a terrible discovery. Not only is this "Center" very bad news, but it also has already begun loosing its evil into the world. In these last few pages we're also introduced to government agent King Faraday, who let’s Hal in on the big secret: a mission to Mars.

“You had better be talking about the cars flyboy…”
Hal Jordan has been selected to be the pilot on a mission to Mars. It’s just too bad Col. Flagg claims Jordan is a showboat during simulated flights, and scraps him from the mission. But that’s not all folks. You see, one of the engineers on the secret mission has cracked. He flees the embrace of the USAF, and goes running to the loving arms of the Gotham PD. Detective John Jones in particular. But before the engineer can divulge anything other than a supposed mission to Mars, King Faraday shows up to take him into Federal custody. But not before our resident Martian can shake Faraday’s hand.

After learning the truth, Jones updates Batman on his research into the Center. Jones then heads off to Ferris Aircraft to try and hitch a ride home. Not everything goes as he hopes when Faraday stops him at the risk of his own life. There’s big super twist of a shocker, which I don’t have the heart to spoil. Needless to say, Jones doesn’t make it on board, but Faraday is convinced to let him live.
Even though Hal was scrapped from the mission, something bright and green seems to have plans for him elsewhere as the issue closes with Hal vanishing, leaving only a trail of green smoke in his wake.

Cooke and team deliver another stellar chapter here. They take their time knowing how much of the story relies on this space mission, so devoting essentially an entire issue to it doesn’t detract from the momentum one bit. Sneaking in plot points like the Flash calling it quits, and a quiet moment for Wonder Woman back on Themyscira, help set things up for the big two part finale Cooke has in the works. Believe me kids, you’re going to want to check back in on Saturday to see where all of this is going. Have I mentioned yet that Saturday is going to be a double-sized finale spectacular?


See you Saturday.

Previous POINTS of ORIGIN:

Issue #1

Issue #2  & Issue #2 Variant

Issue #3

Issue #4

Issue #5

Issue #6- Part I