Civil War: Front Lines (Spoilers)

[Victor Von Doom]

Man I love this tie-in. Consistantly one of the best tie-ins Civil War has. Even better than the Runaways/Young Avengers or F4 tie-ins.

So here's a brief summary for the different stories:

Embedded - Urich tells JJJ and Robbie about his run-in with Green Goblin. They don't believe him and he spends the issue trying to convince them. Sadly, JJJ doesn't and once they confirm from sources that Osborn has been locked up the entire time, Urich freaks out and JJJ fires him. Meanwhile, Flyod is walking down the street and some mystery guy comes up behind her and goes all Deep Throat (the political informant pervs) on here and tells her that she's being followed and that she's following the wrong story. When she turns in the story she does have S.H.I.E.L.D storms her office and arrests her and her editor for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and harboring the ID of unregistered combatants.

The Accused - Speedball is being transferred from prison to what he thought was his trial. She-Hulk informs him that he is being transferred to a new holding facility under the joint jurisdiction of S.H.I.E.L.D and the U.S govt. Speedball arrives at the site and sees the group of heroes who were captured during the raid that Floyd was at. The prisoners soon learn that the facility is located in the N-Zone. We close with the site of what could very possibly be "Project 42" (what Tony and Reed have been working on).

Sleeper Cell - We open with Wonder Man shooting a commercial for the Registration Act. When he finishes, he flies back to his office and is blackmailed by the govt to investigate the Atlantean Sleeper agent.

The History Lesson - That's what I'm calling it. :wink: Compares the events of Civil War with the Battle of Secessionville fought in Charleston, SC. During this battle, 2 brothers names James and Alexander fought on separate sides. It was only later that they learned that they had fought directly against each other at Secessionville.



I love 'em all. Even the lackluster events in "Sleeper Cell".



4/5

 

[Ultimate Quicksilver]

Nitro could blow up anytime, he was with the drug that enhanced his powers. Since they are heroes the first thing they will do is try to reason, first try to talk to Nitro he would go boom. It's not Speedballs fault. Bad place, bad time, and bad idea, but not his fault. Nitro is the guilty one and he is the one taht should be called baby-killer. I'm hopinf Speedball gets his powers back and get some revenge.

 

[Ice]

Nitro could blow up anytime, he was with the drug that enhanced his powers. Since they are heroes the first thing they will do is try to reason, first try to talk to Nitro he would go boom. It's not Speedballs fault. Bad place, bad time, and bad idea, but not his fault. Nitro is the guilty one and he is the one taht should be called baby-killer. I'm hopinf Speedball gets his powers back and get some revenge.

It is part of Speedball's fault for wrecklessly going in there the he and the otehrs did without having a plan. I mean for the love of goodness, do you think Iron Man would fight them IN FRONT OF A SCHOOL FULL OF CHILDREN?!

 

[Ultimate Houde]

If he was drinking at the time, yes.

 

[Ultimate Quicksilver]

It is part of Speedball's fault for wrecklessly going in there the he and the otehrs did without having a plan. I mean for the love of goodness, do you think Iron Man would fight them IN FRONT OF A SCHOOL FULL OF CHILDREN?!

That's what I meant with "Bad Idea"
But you can't really choose where are you going to fight with a higher caliber villain. It's like Galactus, they always fight in earth... He could step on the folks...

 

[MoS]

And for the contrarian review.... it's not that I thought it was a bad comic (except for that last story), it's just that I don't find it very gripping.

Civil War: Frontline #5 (Jenkins/Back/Lieber/Weeks/Martinez/Watson; Marvel). Since I'm not a fan of Spider-Man comics, the whole Green Goblin story is of little/no interest to me, except for the idea that he's being controlled by a mysterious third party. (What I know about Green Goblin I mostly got from the Spider-Man MOVIE, which is how little I know.) The Sally Floyd story plays out to the semi-inevitable arrest by Evil SHIELD™ for withholding information on confidential sources. Poor Speedball gets to go on a long trip to his new home. Wonder Man gets blackmailed by more Evil SHIELD™ agents because he didn't read the fine print on the registration form he signed. Did Marvel hand out the same information packets to all the writers about how Civil War should be a balanced story? It doesn't read that way. In She-Hulk #10, Jen calmly explains registration to Hellcat - Jen's a lawyer and has most definitely read the fine print and knows what it can potentially mean, and yet she supports it. The last story in the book continues to irk me as a bit too pretentious - this week it's excerpts from the letters home of two brothers, one Union one Confederate, as their regiments fight each other in the first attempt to take Charleston during the Civil War. The comics comparison is to Iron Man and Spider-Man (umm, they're still on the same side at this point in the story, guys).

 

[Ice]

That's what I meant with "Bad Idea"
But you can't really choose where are you going to fight with a higher caliber villain. It's like Galactus, they always fight in earth... He could step on the folks...

And that is a total different situation. You can't just go "Hey Galactus, why don't we fight over there instead?". With these guys, he could've moved them elsewhere. It's very sloppy work to not know your surroundings because when you don't...we'll, you saw in Civil War #1.

 

[Shihad]

And that is a total different situation. You can't just go "Hey Galactus, why don't we fight over there instead?". With these guys, he could've moved them elsewhere. It's very sloppy work to not know your surroundings because when you don't...we'll, you saw in Civil War #1.

Yeah but i don't think they could have done that in the civil war 1 fight, i mean Nitro ran away, he ran towards the school.
And i think it all happened in seconds, there wasn't much time to react, i mean Speedball was taking down his own villian, granted he was doing it in a stupid way
I don't think its Speedballs fault, i don't think he should sign the document saying its his fault.

 

[Ice]

Yeah but i don't think they could have done that in the civil war 1 fight, i mean Nitro ran away, he ran towards the school.
And i think it all happened in seconds, there wasn't much time to react, i mean Speedball was taking down his own villian, granted he was doing it in a stupid way
I don't think its Speedballs fault, i don't think he should sign the document saying its his fault.

The school was right across the street! If you knew who you were going up against, you need to know what they can do. And you need to check the area as well. For something that they were doing (the reality show) that should've been a top priority!

 

[ProjectX2]

Which is why they attacked quickly, trying to neutralize them straight away... unfortunately, Nitro escaped, and Namorita tried to stop him, but before she could... BOOM.

It's Nitro's fault, but at a consequence of Speedball, whose team should have really been prepared. But blaming the whole thing on Speedball? That's a bit ridiculous. It's just the government's way of pinpointing the whole thing on superheroes.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

The school was right across the street! If you knew who you were going up against, you need to know what they can do. And you need to check the area as well. For something that they were doing (the reality show) that should've been a top priority!

They do a reality show, if they show super villians being close to a school, then it is more dramatic for the public when they win.

 

[Ultimate Quicksilver]

The old Nitro wouldn't have the power to destroy all that, and Namorita knew. They tought it was under control. ANY HERO would have done almost the same thing, no one was expecting Nitro to blow like that. It's like Spider man is fighting shocker and making jokes and all of a sudden he destroys a whole building with his sonics. It's not something you see everyday.

 

[MaxwellSmart]

This was a desent issue. My favorite story was actually Wonderman. I got goose bumps when he said, " You know damn well I didn't sign up for a draft" and gets "Read the fine print, sir. That's exactly whoat you signed up for" in response. That right there shows me what this is going to turn into.

The Speedball story was pretty shocking. I guess this prison is the mysterious "42." I can't wait to see how they're going to break them out of the Negative Zone.

 

[Shihad]

Which is why they attacked quickly, trying to neutralize them straight away... unfortunately, Nitro escaped, and Namorita tried to stop him, but before she could... BOOM.

It's Nitro's fault, but at a consequence of Speedball, whose team should have really been prepared. But blaming the whole thing on Speedball? That's a bit ridiculous. It's just the government's way of pinpointing the whole thing on superheroes.

Exactly i got the idea that Nitro pretty much ran out the back door??? pretty much the other side of the house, because Namorita has to fly like over the house and trees and chase him.
I think the New Warriors thought it would be contained either to inside the house or back/front yard
And Ultimate Quicksilver is right, because in Wolverine didn't Nitro say he got given MGH.

 

[Random]

I recall reading the Nitro has the ability to control the explosions to his limb for power punches (or something like that). The thing is who would expect that he would go critical specially right next to a school. The main point it Nitro knew there was a school he knew the consequences and decided to become a mass murderer. Him and only him is responsible. If a guy spots a fugitive from America's most wanted and decides to take him in himself, a chase starts and inorder to stop his pursuer the fugitive opens fire on the man and into a crowd of people, killing many. Is it the fault of the citizen who acted or the fugitive who actually pulled the trigger. Should the man have called the cops? Yes, but he didn't kill anyone.

 

[Void.M]

The school was right across the street! If you knew who you were going up against, you need to know what they can do. And you need to check the area as well. For something that they were doing (the reality show) that should've been a top priority!

You forget the range of Nitros Explosion Chances are even if he was far from the school the school would have been destroyed anyway.And its not like he knew Nitro had taken MGH(wich by Nitro the Stamford thing was planed)


Btw....How did the New Warriors find them?..Im guessing the goverment dude who Planed it(if Nitro is telling the truth)..Tiped them off....


The Negate Zone...Is that Even ethical?..I mean their going to put the Anti -reg there? they dont even put villians there for god's sake.

 

[Ice]

From the shipping thread:

Civil War: Front Line #6-#7 (JUN061955/JUL061956D, $2.99ea; FOC 08/17/06), #8 (JUL061957D, $2.99; FOC 08/31/06), #9 (AUG062036D, $2.99; FOC 09/21/06) & #10 (AUG062037D, $2.99; FOC 10/05/06) will now contain 40 pages with ads, not 32 pages without ads, but will still have 32 pages of story.

 

[ShadowPrime]

I keep coming back to the same thought - and expressing it badly! *S*

This series is really based on a 'trick'. That is, nothing... NOTHING... happens in the Marvel Universe that is beyond the control of the writers. Obvious, and yet... in some ways, so easy to forget.

There was nothing inherently different, or much more reckless, about the Warriors' attack on the villains, from any of a ZILLION other scenes that have played out in the Marvel Universe... EXCEPT that the writers DECIDED to make this one different.

I keep recalling an issue of MIRACELMAN, in which he was fighting his archenemy (Nemesis?) and they were throwing cars at one another. MM, narrating, says something like "I would like to be able to tell you that all those cars were empty...but they weren't". The point is that in that issue, the writer did not want to leave the reader with any comfort zone, any way to get around or to "suspend disbelief" re what was happening. He explicitly turned a comic book convention on its head, with intent.

In the Marvel Universe, heroes and villans regularly slug it out on city streets. They fire all sorts of weapons. We see tons of collateral damage - mostly to property. But, thanks to the "magic" of the writers, we rarely see innocents being hurt. It becomes a non-issue. Hero X throws Villain Y back through a building - Villain Y crashes through the wall and out through the roof. Did Villain Y, as he rocketed through the building like a missle, strike anyone on the way through? Did the collapsing debris kill anyone? Maim anyone? We don't know. And we mostly don't care, because in MOST titles, there IS that "comfort zone" - the books are not "about" what would be the real consequences of two superpowered beings having a knock down drag down fight in the middle of a city. It would take away from the "fun"!

So when the heroes confront Nitro, there is nothing special there - except that the writers consciously bend the rules in play at most times, and in most places in the Marvel Universe, and have a group of kids get caught in Nitro's blast. In a sense, the writers CHEAT.

Guess what I am trying to say, again... badly, AGAIN!... is that I think there is a sort of dishonesty at the core of this series. It is as if the Marvel Universe is a Danger Room simulation, set on a relatively safe setting, or one of those TREK holodeck simulations, with safetys turned ON, and someone comes along and tinkers with the settings. Okay, well... what are you going to do, just turn them back ON to "safe" again, once you have exploited the concept here? I suspect the answer is YES. And to me that is cheap.

Shadow

PS - And, to me, in a Marvel Universe with the safetys turned OFF, registration makes sense. Perfect sense. Unless we are supposed to say that anyone who puts on a mask has an inherent right to make his or her own law, and is accountable to no one for the consequences. What is Cap fighting for here? The "right" to be a vigilante? Isn't that rather perverse?

 

[E.Vi.L.]

If a guy spots a fugitive from America's most wanted and decides to take him in himself, a chase starts and inorder to stop his pursuer the fugitive opens fire on the man and into a crowd of people, killing many. Is it the fault of the citizen who acted or the fugitive who actually pulled the trigger. Should the man have called the cops? Yes, but he didn't kill anyone.

Random, if you ever, through an amazingly wacky coincidence, find yourself in that situation, DON'T DO IT!

Call 911.

Yes, the citizen who acted like a moronic braindead cowboy in your example can be held to account in the situation you described.

The fugitive too, obviously. But the raging idiot who think he is John Wayne is gonna get his too. That ain't what the good samaritan law is about.

 

[Darkling]

PS - And, to me, in a Marvel Universe with the safetys turned OFF, registration makes sense. Perfect sense. Unless we are supposed to say that anyone who puts on a mask has an inherent right to make his or her own law, and is accountable to no one for the consequences. What is Cap fighting for here? The "right" to be a vigilante? Isn't that rather perverse?

The Guys who dress up in primary colours and get a corny sounding name who cause harm (these guys are the villains) are held accountable, by the other people in primary colours with corny names (these are the heroes).

Where were the massive government task forces and Negative Zone prisons for Doc Ock and his ilk?

The government didn't seem that concerned when these guys were rampaging around but suddenly Captain America wants to go about saving peoples lives without a permit and it requires every sinew of the government power to be extended.

As for what Cap is fighting for, he is fighting for the rights of hero's not to take orders from a demonstrably corrupt apparatus in Shield (an organisation that used slave Labour in the very recent past, forcibly acquired information from people's minds and wanted to do pre-emptive rounding up of individuals under no legal basis) and the US government (which was perfectly happy to see the Avengers nuked off the face of the planet and periodically sends giant Purple Robots to kill its citizens or put them in concentration camps).

On top of that he is fighting against the drafting of all people with powers whether they wish to engage in super hero activity or not.

In the real world just registration might work, but the SHRA isn't just registration and the Marvel world isn't the real one.


If the US government ends up in charge of the Super Heroes then before long Iron man will be leading Spiderman and Thor in Operation Iranian Freedom and Daredevil will be patrolling those areas key to the current party's re-election and not Hell's kitchen, that is the political nonsense Cap thinks they need to stay above and since up until this point (and it seems the Stamford event was manipulated by the Government now) things have worked out pretty well then it should continue.