Civil War: Front Lines (Spoilers)

Victor Von Doom

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So.....I just read Civil War's tie-in --- Front Line. It's actually pretty good. It gives you the media's POV on the entire incident.


We baiscally get 2 stories inside. There is "Embedded" that follows Ben Urich and some reporter named Sally thru the events of Civil War. This story is ok. There's a funny scene where Sally throws herself at Spidey and he has to let her down gently.

The second story is "The Accussed". This is the story of the only survivor from the Stamford Incident..........Speedball. He is now powerless and under arrest via S.H.I.E.L.D. This story is so-so.

So yeah......that's it. A small tie-in that isn't really worth your money.....but not a waste either.
 
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Re: Civil War series discussion (spoilers)

Victor Von Doom said:
So.....I just read Civil War's tie-in --- Front Line. It's actually pretty good. It gives you the media's POV on the entire incident.


We baiscally get 2 stories inside. There is "Embedded" that follows Ben Urich and some reporter named Sally thru the events of Civil War. This story is ok. There's a funny scene where Sally throws herself at Spidey and he has to let her down gently.

The second story is "The Accussed". This is the story of the only survivor from the Stamford Incident..........Speedball. He is now powerless and under arrest via S.H.I.E.L.D. This story is so-so.

So yeah......that's it. A small tie-in that isn't really worth your money.....but not a waste either.



I liked it a lot. And 64 pages of story a month is an amazing deal!
 
Jenkins' first story is pretty good, and I think his characterizations are good. I like his Urich and I think his Spider-Man was very good, capturing the awkward, joking nature of the character but still making him sound like an adult (better than Bendis' version, where he sounds too juvenile). The art is weak in pleaces - Sally looks like a well-developed 14 in several panels, instead of like an adult, but it's fairly expressive, anyway.

The second stroy is just okay, but it's the third story that really got my attention - because it made me very uncomfortable, to be pushing that wall between real-life and fiction. Having the story of the interned family juxtaposed against Spider-Man's troubles made the divide between real life and fiction seem that much more obvious and jarring - instead of drawing me into the comic and his troubles, it really distanced me from the fiction and felt like a cheap shot. Very odd reaction.
 
I picked it up because the guy behind the counter said it was basically Civil War 2 which after reading I could understand, but really seems like a tie-in that is aimed at character development and little else.

One thing I wondered about was why did they arrest Speedball? It didn't seem like at the tie of the Samford incident he had broken any laws. I guess SHIELD is a entity unto themselves.

3.5/5
 
MaxwellSmart said:
I picked it up because the guy behind the counter said it was basically Civil War 2 which after reading I could understand, but really seems like a tie-in that is aimed at character development and little else.

One thing I wondered about was why did they arrest Speedball? It didn't seem like at the tie of the Samford incident he had broken any laws. I guess SHIELD is a entity unto themselves.

3.5/5

He led a team into a situation he knew they couldn't handle for the sake of ratings.

At the very least that was a breach of the peace, they could probably peg him with murder through gross misconduct or manslaughter as well.
 
Victor Von Doom said:
...follows Ben Urich and some reporter named Sally...
Sally is Sally Floyd from Generation M (also written by Jenkins). Dunno if it was her first appearance, bu the story seemed like it.
 
Sally appeared in Generation M - this is a continuation of her story. It's a really good read, and provides her intetesting basck story, which is a tragedy in itself.

Anyway, this issue was alright - I prefered the survivors story to the first.
 
had a chance to read this...it wasn't that bad, it was better than i expected. what i REALLY liked was the jap story at the end. i knew a few people that were put into those things...
 
I like nigma, for finding the issue discussion threads to post in, so I don't have to dig them up myself. :D

I didn't like this. First story was boring, can't even remember what the second story was - was in the Speedball thing? I liked the Speedball thing.

I probably won't read the next issue - I couldn't be bothered reading most of this one.
 
I actually don't see what's so terrible or "waste of paper" about this. This wasn't BRILLIANT!!! either, though. It was just an alright issue.
 
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Ice said:
I actually don't see what's so terrible or "waste of paper" about this. This wasn't BRILLIANT!!! either, though. It was just an alright issue.

Project expects everything to be extremely brillant and worthy of his time, or it's complete utter trash

Unless it was written by Ellis or Moore, then it's the best thing ever
 
Ultimate Houde said:
Project expects everything to be extremely brillant and worthy of his time, or it's complete utter trash

Unless it was written by Ellis or Moore, then it's the best thing ever

No... I just expected more and wasn't interested.
 
About Issue #2. I did not really get what was going on in the story about Norman Osborn. What does he mean by "you broke the rules"? Also, who were those people with him? Were they S.H.I.E.L.D.? If so, what are they trying to do with him?

Also, is anyone else liking the mini so far, but is just skimming the last section, with the parallels to past historic stories? I guess it helps fill up the pages but I can't even read it all the way through without getting bored.
 
So "Frontlines" is becoming my fav tie-in. We get short-n-sweet stories from different perspectives on all the events of Civil War. I like it. It really humanizes everything that's going on with these heroes. It makes you realize that while they might be larger than life heroes......they're still just people. People with regular lives and friends.

While this mini is nothing groundbreaking....it still produces quality stories.


A short recap on the stories:


Embedded - We see Ben Urich dealing with the shocking revelation of Peter Parker. Does he feel betrayed? Yeah...but he understands. Now he's trying to get an exclusive with Peter. We also see the conficting opinions on the new from JJJ and Robbie. Of course JJJ wants to burn him at the stake but Robbie tries to show him what a hypocrite he is being since JJJ wanted to support all the heroes that register and out themselves.

Plus we see the other main reporter here, Ms.Floyd talking to Firestar. Firestar again says the same thing Spiderman was saying last issue. Basically, that the RA is wrong. We then get the revelation that Firestar is not gonna register due to the fact that she's no longer gonna be Firestar anymore. It's just too expensive.

Cut to another part of town. Some random hero named Prodigy is drunk and causing a scene. Iron Man arrives to talk some sense into him but the guys drunk so violence ensues. Iron Man subdues him and the special task force comes in to take him away. Urich witness the whole thing and comments to himself that regardless of who thinks this whole thing is wrong....no one will question the enforcers....until its too late.


Accused - We see Speedball being held in an interrogation room. A S.H.I.E.L.D agent comes into the room and tells Speedball that he is being held in confinement until his trial. He offers him a plea bargain. If Speedball signs the agreement, he will not be held responsible for the Stamford incident, and agrees to assist in the training of S.H.I.E.L.D agents to track and subdue unregisterd individuals, and he will become an employee of S.H.I.E.L.D. If he doesn't sign....he goes to prison. Speedball declines.

We see him then taken from a Guantanamo Bay-ish holding area and transported to an unnamed prison. He then learned his is the new fish on the line. :lol:


The Program - shows the rest of the conference after Peter unmasks. He answers a couple questions like how he got his powers, what he does for a living, why he does what he does and then comments about Norman Osborne. Every couple of panels we see Norman saying "You broke the rules!". A couple of SHIELD agents appear behind Osborne and ask him if he's ready to play by a new set of rules?


A small gem in the series are the historical comparisons in the back. Each issue it looks like they compare what is happening in the events of Civil War with events from history.

ultimatedjf said:
About Issue #2. I did not really get what was going on in the story about Norman Osborn. What does he mean by "you broke the rules"? Also, who were those people with him? Were they S.H.I.E.L.D.? If so, what are they trying to do with him?

I guess the unspoken rule is that, even though they might know the IDs amongst hero and villain, you do not reveal yourself or speak of your enemies to the public. Basically...you don't out yourself. I guess.......

I believe that the RA doesn't just apply to heroes. If villains were to register...who to say that they can't be reformed and put to use by the govt. I think they might wanna recruit him to bring down some unregistered individuals as well.

ultimatedjf said:
Also, is anyone else liking the mini so far, but is just skimming the last section, with the parallels to past historic stories? I guess it helps fill up the pages but I can't even read it all the way through without getting bored.

I like the mini very much. The history stuff is good. It can be boring at times but its one of those things that you just have to push yourself to read thru for the payoff or lesson.
 

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