Broken Frontier

John Tensen straddles the line of judge, jury and executioner while waging a war against corrupt paranormals.

So far I am enjoying the look back at Marvel’s New Universe line of characters that exploded onto the scene back in 1986. The majority of the books were unique in many ways and much of the heroes deviated from the type of hero exemplified in the Marvel Universe at that time.

Justice came along with a vengeance and although you may draw slight comparisons to either Thor or the Punisher, this character was engaging in a number of different ways. First of all, John Tensen believes himself to be a warrior from a far off fantasy land who was mysteriously transported from his home world. He lands smack dab into the middle of downtown Los Angeles and begins an assault on judging the corrupted with use of his psychic sword and shield emanating from both his hands.

Simply calling himself Justice, he begins to snuff out a series of drug dealers while trying to cope with his newfound environment. To make matters even worse, Justice’s actions ultimately raise the notice of the FBI and it doesn’t take long for him to become a wanted man. In doing so, he befriends a friendly cab driver and eventually allies himself with an FBI agent named Becky.

This sets up the crux of the series, until halfway through when Justice realizes (with the help of Night Mask) that he’s actually not from a far off fantasy land. Instead he learns that he’s living within the waking dream of another paranormal criminal named Dad, and that he’s really FBI agent John Tensen. The series then switches focus and John (feeling lost) cannot go back to his old life. He then decides to remain judging the corrupted, but now instead of tracking down normal people he goes after paranormals.

In this one-shot issue, Justice is in the midst of tracking down a paranormal (Rodney Jung) with the ability to secrete an addictive substance. The two meet at a club, and Justice confronts him only to have his quarry slip from his fingers. Again, it doesn’t take long before both paranormals face each other once more at a garage being run by Rodney and his daughter. Only this time Justice manages to kill Rodney and in doing so irks the wrath of his daughter.

Justice feels responsible for allowing the young girl to witness the execution of her father, so he quickly attempts to explain his actions. But unfortunately for him, she refuses his explanation and instead attempts to kill him with the use of her father’s handgun. In what turns out to be unprecedented move, Justice decides to kill her since she’s been tainted now as well. It’s a strange turn of events, even for a Justice Warrior like Tensen.

Now of course, I am leaving you hanging here. Does Justice really kill her, or does he let her off the hook? It’s a good question, but I’m afraid I can’t give this one away. All I am going to say is that Justice is put through an emotional wringer with severe moral implications attached to it. So that means writer Peter David did his job well enough for my personal tastes.

I really enjoyed the story he crafted around John Tensen, and it was a solid read throughout. If I had one minor complaint it would have been the use of a few modern references that shouldn’t apply here given the fact this story is supposed to take place in the mid 80’s. It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I found it be rather odd for the sake of continuity.

Now as for the art here, I really enjoyed Carmine Di Giandomenico’s work on this issue. He employs a more linear approach to storytelling, but his figures remain very dynamic for the most part. I am not that familiar with his work, but I do remember his previous work on Marvel’s What If spotlighting Captain America fighting in the Civil War. His work on this issue is bang on and very comparable to that previous work.

I know I have already stated this before, but Marvel has done an excellent job with revisiting the New Universe. This issue is no exception and if you enjoy thoughtful and provoking stories then I suggest giving this one a try.