Comic Info
Comic Name: Civil War: Front Line
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Ramon Bachs/Steve Lieber/Leandro Fernandez/Lee Weeks/Kei Kobayashi/Kano/David Aja/Sean Chen/Rick Magyar/Roy Allen/Marinez Lucas/Jorge Lucas/Eduardo Barreto/Frazer Irving/John Lucas
# of Issues: 11
Release Date: Release Date
Civil War: Front Line #2
Reprints Civil War: Front Line #1-11 (July 2006-November 2007). The New Warriors televised attempt to take down a group of superheroes in Stamford, Connecticut has led to disaster. Nitro exploded and destroyed a large portion of the town including a school full of children. Now as the battle lines are drawn between Iron Man who is pushing for superhero regulation and Captain American who believes secret identities should be allowed, reporters Ben Urich and Sally Floyd are writing about the encounter. Speedball finds himself heading to trial over the deaths, and an underground faction might be living secretly in the United States…and the sleeper cell could threaten the safety of the country.
Written by Paul Jenkins, Civil War: Front Line collects the limited series from Marvel Comics. Meant to fill in gaps in the big event series Civil War, Civil War: Front Line shows a more civilian side to the conflict. The series was originally released as two volumes but later released as a collected volume.
Civil War really screwed up the Marvel Universe. The series fractured the sides and the fractures haven’t ever really come back together. The problems with the Civil War limited series are exemplified here, but in general, Civil War was the first of a larger decline in quality for Marvel Comics’ big event series.
Civil War: Front Line does have some legitimate strong aspects to it. You get to see more about what happened when Peter Parker revealed his identity and since it was a story years in the making. There is a bit of Marvels mixed into the series with the observers aspect of the story. Ben Urich and Sally Floyd are watcher in the Marvel Universe and represent the conflict for the everyman…either you are Captain America or you are Iron Man. That is worth exploring, but it gets bogged down in this volume.
Civil War: Front Line #3
The back-up stories are problematic. The Atlantean sleeper-cell storyline is quite tedious and underdeveloped and the Speedball storyline also paints the character so uncharacteristic of the character that people got to know for years in New Warriors. Plus, you get the really horrible Jack Ruby/Lee Harvey Oswald moment where he’s shot and his dull transformation into the mopey Penance.
This moment also is demonstrated through the series. The writers continuously draw comparisons between the battles of the Marvel Comics’ Civil War and real battles. I find something about this insulting. It trivializes the real battles and people that died in them…by comparing them to battles where often the heroes come back to life. It feels a bit dirty and trashy.
Civil War: Front Line isn’t very good. It used to be that event comics were self-contained to the event comic. Now, the comics sprawl and crawl. It is hard for readers to keep up with all the parts and if you don’t read all the parts, sometimes the stories don’t make much sense…the events of Civil War are not even consistent throughout the spin-off material. Civil War isn’t the worst offender in this case, but it is the start of the downfall of the big event series.
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