Infinite Frontier #0

Infinite Frontier #0

DC Comics 2021

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, James Tynion IV, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad

Joelle Jones, Tim Sheridan, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Joshua Williamson, Geoff

Johns, Geoffrey Thorne, Scott Snyder

Illustrated by David Marquez, Jorge Jimenez, Alitha Martinez, Mark Morales, Joelle Jones

Stephen Byrne, Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Jamal Igle, Alex Maleev, Todd Nauck

Dexter Soy, Howard Porter, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson & John Timms

Coloured by Tamra Bonvillain, Tomeu Morey, Alex Sinclair, Emilo Lopez, Jordie Bellaire,

Stephen Byrne, Alejandro Sanchez, Hi-Fi & Brad Anderson

Lettered by ALW’s Troy Peteri

The next phase of the DC Universe begins here! Dark Knights: Death Metal presented the darkest threats of the Multiverse. DC Future State revealed what may lie ahead. Now it’s time to look into the Infinite Frontier of the current-day DC Universe.

In Gotham City, The Joker jolts citizens awake with an attack even the Dark Knight never expected. In Brazil, a young woman discovers her destiny and her connection to the Amazons. In Belle Reve, Amanda Waller plots an invasion of Arkham Asylum. In the far reaches of space, Mongul dreams of galactic domination, while the Green Lantern Corps hosts a summit of its greatest enemies. At the Hall of Justice, the League joins forces with Black Adam. Beyond the mortal world, Wonder Woman settles into a new role in the godsphere. And somewhere in the DC Universe-it’s the return of Stargirl, in an all-new tale written by Geoff Johns!

This oversized, all-star issue kicks off the next great era of storytelling and excitement as top writers and artists reveal what’s next for the World’s Greatest Heroes and opens the door to some of the greatest stories of 2021.

Alright so here’s the introduction to next thing in DC Comics. Am I impressed, not terribly and here’s why. We’ve had so many reboots and iterations since the Original Crisis on Infinite Earths and this is an attempt to take aspects of all of them and merge them into one. There are questionable choices being made here, yes my opinion, along with this Quintessence which I guess I supposed to be their version of the omnipotent cosmic tribunal type deal. Is there any good reason Nubia is an angry black woman, Amazon? Sigh the gay Alan Scott is a mistake, again my opinion as I didn’t like that run and with Obsidian around why do both of them have to be gay, asks the gay man.

I do like the Birds of Prey reference as Barbara is once again taking the mantle of Oracle. I do like seeing Jade and Obsidian and hope they will be a part of a new JSA series. I’ll reserve judgement on Titans Academy until I see more. There is so much with Jonathan Kent that I don’t agree with but hey it is what it is and that’s he conceived on one earth, born on another and raised on yet another well there’s a lot of convoluting going on there. Oh Green Arrow and Black Canary sigh yes please we need a series starring these two.

Happy to see Stargirl again and with the potential of having a long lost group back makes me wonder why no All Star Squadron? That was one of the best series before Crisis and of course I want to see my Freedom Fighters as well so let’s get on those alongside a real Legion of Super-Heroes title. Simon Saint and Scarecrow hmm interesting duo but why does the latter now appear to be a cross between Edward Scissorhands and some crazy medical experiment? I also kind of want Saint to be Simon Dark but that’s my fanboy coming out.

The Spectre taking Diana on a tour through the new changes was highly reminiscent of the Kingdom Come journey. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that either but I guess it was co-opted because it was an easy way to show us all the new changes. By contrast there is one arc that I am looking forward to seeing come to life in its own series and that is with the House of Heroes. Maybe we’ll finally see Captain Carrot get to be part of a team?

The interiors here are wonderful as usual. Though I will say the epilogue is some of the absolute worst work i’ve seen at DC. The man should’ve retired already and i’m ashamed for him to see this work he’s done. I question why he gets work when men like Stephen Sadowski and Phil Jimenez both have some of the best styles and have had some of the greatest runs in DC’s history are left out in the cold.

Like everything what we like and don’t like is subjective to the reader. There are some great things to look forward to and others that I will gladly pass on but there should be something for everyone. One final note, please do not reboot or restructure or restart the multiverse any more it is a tired trope, along with these yearly year long crossover events, no one is really interested in all that. They start strong and finish weak and that should speak for itself.

​

This is a large issue and it is definitely worth picking up and seeing what tickles your fancy. There’s a lot more than what we see here as well, Beetle and Gold, Justice League Dark and of course Task Force X, or Suicide Squad led by Peacemaker. So you’ve heard my opinions now it’s up to you to grab a copy and form some of your own.