 |
| Characters and Art © 2006 by DC Comics |
|
| Characters and Art © 2006 by DC Comics |
|
Writer and Illustrator: Darwyn
Cooke Synopsis:
Collects all six issues of DC: The New Frontier, along with missing
pages, sketches, alternate covers, reference notes, and more. |
The Absolute Edition gives us lost pages that fill in gaps. Here's a mini-adventure of our heroes... The Challengers and the Suicide Squad hover in Challenger One high over a misty Pacific Island. (Monster Island, though they don't know it yet.) Prof and Rock descend with two Suiciders, Rick Flagg and Jess, on jet platforms code-named "Gizmo-One". |
The object is to determine if this island is spewing monsters "tear-assing around the California coast and buzzing New York." If so, "containment". The island has been kept classified since 1945. "The brass" have handed the project to the Challs.  "Holy crap!" yelps Rocky. |
Pterodactyls flap by. Brontosaurs bob in the water. Rick Flagg thinks the herd has been thinned. Prof posits the dinosaurs might be dying, so some flee the island. Nearby, unseen, are the rotting helmets and hats of The Losers.  Gizmo-One touches down to reconnoiter the cave. Prof, Rocky, and Flagg enter. |
Up in Challenger One, Ace frets about losing their signal. Karin Grace of the SS gets a mental image of "something large and round... Avoid it. It's a trap." Karin, Flagg explains, is "mildly empathic. Her sense of the moment can be acute." In the cave, the explorers find rotting junk from WWII. Including Johnny Cloud's flight jacket. He'd half-hoped to find "that maniac living here as King of the Island." Not so, but he left "a goodbye note". |
 "This is The Story of The Losers" begins the message on the cave wall. It goes on to list them - Gunner, Sarge, Johnny Cloud, and Capt. Storm - and how they died. The stark message is the warning. "... my visions reveal a spirit so vast that it has no beginning or end... It is a living thing." OK... Perhaps what Karin Grace senses is a "creature big enough to consume these prehistoric horrors -" They're interrupted by a monster not huge, but plenty big. |
 |
| On Challenger One, Ace registers "seismics off the map. Some kind of quake." Karin Grace registers "some kinda seizure" and collapses. "Sooo big - kkk!"  Challs run for the jet platforms. Rocky gripes, "A friggin' monster and an earthquake. Fantastic." The youngest Suicider, Jess, registers "Ants... in a circle... of fire." |
As the island-hoppers jet off, the island cracks. "Incredible. It's like the island just swallowed [the dinosaur] up."  Back on Challenger One, they find Karin's seizure ended with the quake. "It's OK, Miss Grace," says Red. Still staggered, Karin whispers, "OK... Ha ha. It's OK..." As we'll learn later, Monster Island is actually The Centre, a sentient monster dedicated to wiping out humanity. For now, it's a mystery... |
Comment This is the only gap starring the Challs. Mostly it shows the cave wall warning about The Centre. Not really needed, so left out of the original version. Moving on, there are a ton of sketches in the appendices. |