Justice League: A New Frontier is, of course, based on the award winning comic of the same name from 2003 - 2004. It's the second of DC's new direct to video releases, and makes up for some of the flaws in the first one. Superman: Doomsday had problems because it was totally new, unfortunately. It was a completely new story, a retelling of the Doomsday event, that was similar, but also very different from, the comic that spawned it. Add in the fact that the art style was nearly identical to the animated universe style, (despite not being related to the animated universe in any way), and it led to a lot of confusion for viewers because it wasn't really advertised that way. New Frontier has none of these problems.

The story from the comic has been faithfully transferred into this new medium. A few bits were cut or reduced to background references, (mostly the initial plot points featuring The Losers, but they do get a small amount of screen time), but everything critical to the story and the characters was kept in, and is revealed at a comfortable pace.

The art is also perfectly transcribed from panel to screen, and my kudos have to go out to the animators, who nailed, dead-on, the look from the comic. They even managed to squeeze the brilliant and delightfully blocky art from the covers into the opening sequence. The colors, motions, facial expressions are all fantastic. It looks as if a 1950's DC comic sprang to life, and we get to see the wonderful details that got lost in that still frame, four color world.

Another plus for the film is that I believe this may be the first time the Martian Manhunter's origin has ever been animated. It remains true to his backstory and as he is one of my favorite characters, I'm excited that others will get to see his tragic and touching origin.

The voice acting is all top-notch as well, and well-cast. Lucy Lawless, despite the irony due to her previous work as Xena, makes an excellent Wonder Woman. Neil Patrick Harris also does a great job voicing the Flash. The entire line-up is fantastically acted and remarkably star-studded. Hal Jordan? David Boreanaz from Buffy fame. J'onn J'onzz? Miguel Ferrer also voiced the main character in Bioshock. Superman? You may know Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atriedes in Dune. The list goes on.

The only other praise I can give to New Frontier is this. It's bridged the gap. Not just as a bridge between the Golden Age of comics and the Silver Age, as they intended, but from the comics to films. This will hopefully break ground for a slew of new and amazing work by DC's animators. For me personally however, it's also bridged the gap between comics and the series. It's already supplanted, in my mind, the origin of the Justice League in the animated series. Given that it has a totally different art style, actors, and even characters in some cases, this is remarkable. This story IS the origin of the League, boiled down to it's very essence, and in its most pure form. I can't think of anything more fitting to recommend to anyone who loves or has ever loved comics.