This week on View from the Gutters our topic work is DC: The New Frontier, the Eisner, Harvey, and Shuster Award-winning series by Darwyn Cooke. Published in 2004, The New Frontier is one of DC's finest Elseworld comics. Set primarily in the 1950s, it visits a version of the DC universe on the boundary between the Golden and Silver Ages, in which the various heroes first appear in the year of their first publication—primarily focusing on Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter, although the JSA, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other popular characters of the time feature prominently.

The series aims for a more realistic take on the period, including addressing issues of racism, sexism, the red scare, and the space race—albeit through a comic book lens. The dichotomy of the upbeat 4-color attitude of the times when contrasted with a more modern story-telling and social sensibility creates a fascinating landscape against which Cooke paints a story of heroism against all odds.

In our recommendation section our hosts nominated Fables, Freak Angels, iZombie, Stagger Lee, Translucid for discussion on our next episode, and our selected title is Stagger Lee.

Our hosts for this episode are Andrew Chard, Joe Preti, Tobiah Panshin, Kayleigh Fleeman, and Cade Reynolds.