YMMV / DC: The New Frontier

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Did the Centre manipulate Theodore Smiesel into writing a book about it as Evil Gloating, or did he do it in defiance of the entity? Batman and J'onn speculate that the Centre was speaking through Smiesel due to the writing style, but Smiesel seems to think that he's successfully fighting the Centre's will to write the book and warn people. The Centre may have just been tricking him into thinking that, but the book does provide some helpful insight to its enemies.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Jeremy Sisto as Batman.
• Complete Monster:
  • Original comic: The Centre is the malevolent mind behind Dinosaur Island, a living land mass from the dawn of life on Earth whose size is dwarfed only by its own massive ego. Having created its own "paradise" to preserve the dinosaurs from extinction, the Centre has fed off and created tortured, agonized mutants from these "lesser things", garnering a reputation of fear and suffering from civilizations throughout the centuries. In response to mankind becoming more advanced and powerful, the Centre begins plotting to leave the planet to escape the danger they pose, sending out monstrous scouts to locate the materials it needs. The Centre's dark will is so powerful that its mere intentions begin causing wide-scale psychic havoc, driving countless people to acts of paranoid violence and encouraging the growth of cults that perform Human Sacrifice in the name of its greatness. After devastating Themyscira, the Centre launches its ultimate attack with an unending army of monstrous mutant dinosaurs, Mind Raping the massive assembly of heroes who have united to stop it from enacting its terrible cleansing of "vermin" from the planet. Concerned only with its own glory, the Centre is intent on spreading its rule to every corner of the solar system, purged of all life that would oppose it.
  • Animated film: The Centre is a malevolent Eldritch Abomination and one of the first living beings to emerge from the Earth. Growing paranoid of the danger humanity presents to it in the wake of the atomic bomb, the Centre decides that they must be "cleansed" from the planet and begins reaching out with its Psychic Powers, radicalizing numerous innocents into crazed murderers or doomsday cults who worship the Centre and sacrifice children to the monstrosity. Upon finally revealing itself to the world, the Centre unleashes unending hordes of mutated dinosaurs to bring about mass death and carnage, and after being exposed to Ray Palmer's fatal Shrink Ray, makes a mad charge to take as many "lesser beings" out with it as possible in the ensuing explosion.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • John Wilson aka "John Henry" is a new character ^note He has some similarities to John Henry Irons aka Steel, but the actual Irons is seen as a kid by the end, implied to have been inspired by him who dies without interacting with the other leads, but the Realism-Induced Horror of his backstory and his fearsome war against the Klan make him a very popular character.
  • In some fans' eyes, Nice Guy, Badass Normal Ace Pilot "Ace" Morgan is more notable and impressive in this story as a formidable yet supportive friend of a few main cast members than he is as the star of his own long-running series (although his team does have a bigger subplot in the comic version of the story), Challengers of the Unknown.
  • Iris West only has a few scenes, but fans adore her for her warmth and closeness with Barry, how she figures out his Secret Identity, and her eloquence as a writer.
  • Adam Strange (at least in the comic, in the film he's Demoted to Extra). He doesn't get much prominence until the last issue of the story, but his status as The Cassandra and the way he nonetheless does some useful planning for the heroes while retaining his main-timeline combat skills make him a character the fans enjoy.
  • Karin Grace is a Satellite Character to Rick Flagg and is Adapted Out of the film, but her past incarnation's Action Girl moments, Dark and Troubled Past, and Hidden Depths are all faithfully adapted in a way that somehow make her a fan favorite just as much if not more than she was in the past.
• Fanfic Fuel: Who are the four Mystery Men besides Superman and Wonder Woman who continue to operate with government approval?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A special issue where Batman and Superman duke it out has a moment where Batman calls Supes a "motherless alien". Superman is very pissed off by this. What, no "Save Martha"?
• Misaimed Fandom: The cartoonish art style and hopeful ending are held up as a superior alternative to darker and adult-oriented comics that flooded the market from the '80s onwards. This is overlooking the fact that The New Frontier was intended to be a deconstruction of America's idealised image of the 1950s, showing bigotry, rape, distrust, ignorance, and senseless conformity as commonplace. That said, the story's overall viewpoint leans heavily towards that of a World Half Full.
• Nightmare Retardant: Batman's first costume is supposed to look intimidating, but due to Darwyn Cooke's Lighter and Softer art style he still looks pretty cuddly.
• One-Scene Wonder: Many briefly seen characters in both the comic and movie make seriously powerful impressions, but one notable one is the unnamed reporter who may be Historical Domain Character Edward R. Murrow. In his one scene, he reports on Wilson's death and paints him as a Doomed Moral Victor (with the scene being especially memorable in the comic) in an affecting and sympathetic manner.
  • Robin gets a single scene, but him fanboying over Superman and showing how Batman mellowed makes him a favourite. He got a one-shot among Kid Flash years later.
  • The finale shows, the Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol, the Metal Men, Animal Man, Vigilante, Plastic Man and The Atom in all their Silver Age glory.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • While John Henry's story is still meaningfully (albeit briefly) referenced in the film and would have been hard to include in a PG-13 film, many fans are mad it is reduced to a news story and a shot of his gravestone at the end instead of being shown in its entirety.
  • The Challengers of the Unknown, the Suicide Squad, and the Losers being Demoted to Extra disappointed many fans due to their colorfulness and direct relevance to the bigger story arcs in the original comic.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite all the buildup as a major character, Superman is quickly knocked out by the Center and is missing until the end.
  • Robin only appears briefly, and is just used as a plot device for Batman to tell Superman about his new Lighter and Softer style.^note He does get a solo story in the 2008 Special comic Cooke did as a tie-in to the animated movie.
  • Aquaman only makes a brief appearance at the end.
  • The Blackhawks aren’t much more than Spear Carriers, which is disappointing, considering that they're a military unit who openly side with the costumed heroes, are pilots like Hal and Ace, and are a multinational team in a story that references the more xenophobic aspects of an Eagleland setting.
• Unexpected Character: Seeing the Blackhawks in a story set after World War II and the Challengers of the Unknown at all (especially with Ace Morgan hovering just below main character status) is a bit surprising for some fans, but they show up to fight alongside the heroes nonetheless.
• The Woobie: Poor Martian Manhunter. He's forcibly teleported to Earth and the scientist who did so died moments later, leaving him with no way to return. Just when he finds a way back to Mars, things go awry and he's held in captivity, with Superman pointing out the government's double standards towards aliens who don't look "right".

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