Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 10:08 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/CIVWARFL0106_FLCOV.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/CIVWARFL0106_FLCOV.jpg" width=100 height=150 hspace=10 align=left alt="Civil War: Frontline #6"></a>Reviewer: Robin Lewis, lucillerobin@aol.com
Story Title: Civil War: Frontline (part six of ten)
Four stories set in the background of Civil War.
Story Title: "Embedded, Part Six"
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Penciler: Ramon Bachs
Inker: John Lucas
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Story Title: "The Accused, Part Six"
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Steve Lieber
Colorist: June Chung
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Story Title: "Sleeper Cell, Part Four"
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Lee Weeks
Finishes: Sandu Florea
Colorist: Sotocolor's J Brown
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Story Title: [Untitled]
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Jorge Lucas
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Cover: John Watson
Assistant Editor: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com/)
While Civil War has been handling all the eye-catching super-powered action, Frontline has been filling in the blanks. Blanks like 'What are the press doing?', 'What happened to Speedball?', 'Is Namor still really annoyed about the whole deal?' and, most importantly, 'How many ways can we make the pro-reg side look like ****'s?'. The answer to that last one is 'Oh, hundreds'.
All through the issue we have the pro-reg heroes claiming to be feeling really bad about the whole thing (imprisoning friends, killing them, perverting the course of justice, holding people without charge, keeping library books way past their return date, etc), but, you know, it's necessary. It rings hollow, as it has done since the crossover started, because little to no effort has been put into explaining why it's necessary. In the first story Ben Urich asks Stark why he's now using mass murderers to enforce the law. The answer is ... uh ... we thought it was a good idea at the time, but I have to go now, bye? In the second story Speedball asks Reed Richards how it feels to be responsible for all this, and the answer is ... uh ... it feels really bad but, you know, it's necessary? Oh, come on.
We get a look into the Negative Zone prison Reed, Tony and Hank have built, and although you might think that these three heroes would make sure that a secure holding facility designed to imprison people who they were fighting alongside a few weeks ago would be something more than a row of cells with dirt floors, you would be wrong. Oh sure, from the outside it looks hi-tech and state of the art, but when you get inside Reed & Co have gone for that 'back to basics' feel, and have come up with something to truly make you feels as if you're in a gulag. Seeing as this is the Negative Zone, one assumes they imported the dirt floors specially. For God's sake, can't Marvel even make one concession to the pro-reg side? All it would have taken is for the prison to have been livable, but no. Stick 'em in 10 by 10 cells and drive them to suicide, that'll learn 'em. Reed makes an appearance here, brow furrowed with honest concern about Speedball's plight. Jenkins does a good job of expressing the obvious wrongness of the situation, furthering the cause of rehabilitating Speedball from buffoon to thoughtful hero, but the conversation simply can't work. Reed's been accused of being overly focused on the big picture, making him blind to the problems inherent in the pro-reg side, but that's not the issue here. The issue here is that Reed's not a moron. The pro-reg side are co-signing obviously abhorrent measures, so his hand-on-heart declaration of sincerity simply doesn't ring true. It isn't helped by the fact that Jenkins writes Richards like a pompous jerk: stetching your neck up three feet and stating 'I'm going to be up here until you calm down' is, when said to a man who's life has turned into something from Midnight Express, a tad insensitive. My complaint about this kind of thing isn't that Marvel should be dumping pages of philosophical debate into what are superhero action comics, but when half the hero population starts coming on like the KGB we're going to need a little more than we've been given so far, especially in comics like this, whose only purpose is to fill in the details that aren't being handled elsewhere.
The third story continues the intriguing plot folowwing the machinations of Atlantis while Civil War is raging, and the final story continues the theme of historical parralels by casting the anti-reg brigade as the plucky RAF in the Battle of Britain, while SHIELD get the bad luck of being cast as the Luftwaffe. Yes, that's right, Civil War has invoked Godwin's Law, thus making any further debate impossible. The story's about personal bravery, and the joy that can be found in death-defying courage, but it's also a fitting capstone for what is a blatantly one-sided argument in this series. As a big, bold, comics event Civil War is doing just fine, thank you very much, but Marvel have surely got to stop claiming that they want to present both sides as equally valid points of view. It's patently untrue in almost every one of the comics in this line-wide crossover, and seeps from every pore of this issue.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mhalf.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mnone.jpg
Both sides can agree: BUY at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=20322)[/QUOTE]
Story Title: Civil War: Frontline (part six of ten)
Four stories set in the background of Civil War.
Story Title: "Embedded, Part Six"
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Penciler: Ramon Bachs
Inker: John Lucas
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Story Title: "The Accused, Part Six"
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Steve Lieber
Colorist: June Chung
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Story Title: "Sleeper Cell, Part Four"
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Lee Weeks
Finishes: Sandu Florea
Colorist: Sotocolor's J Brown
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Story Title: [Untitled]
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Jorge Lucas
Letterer: VC’s Randy Gentile
Cover: John Watson
Assistant Editor: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com/)
While Civil War has been handling all the eye-catching super-powered action, Frontline has been filling in the blanks. Blanks like 'What are the press doing?', 'What happened to Speedball?', 'Is Namor still really annoyed about the whole deal?' and, most importantly, 'How many ways can we make the pro-reg side look like ****'s?'. The answer to that last one is 'Oh, hundreds'.
All through the issue we have the pro-reg heroes claiming to be feeling really bad about the whole thing (imprisoning friends, killing them, perverting the course of justice, holding people without charge, keeping library books way past their return date, etc), but, you know, it's necessary. It rings hollow, as it has done since the crossover started, because little to no effort has been put into explaining why it's necessary. In the first story Ben Urich asks Stark why he's now using mass murderers to enforce the law. The answer is ... uh ... we thought it was a good idea at the time, but I have to go now, bye? In the second story Speedball asks Reed Richards how it feels to be responsible for all this, and the answer is ... uh ... it feels really bad but, you know, it's necessary? Oh, come on.
We get a look into the Negative Zone prison Reed, Tony and Hank have built, and although you might think that these three heroes would make sure that a secure holding facility designed to imprison people who they were fighting alongside a few weeks ago would be something more than a row of cells with dirt floors, you would be wrong. Oh sure, from the outside it looks hi-tech and state of the art, but when you get inside Reed & Co have gone for that 'back to basics' feel, and have come up with something to truly make you feels as if you're in a gulag. Seeing as this is the Negative Zone, one assumes they imported the dirt floors specially. For God's sake, can't Marvel even make one concession to the pro-reg side? All it would have taken is for the prison to have been livable, but no. Stick 'em in 10 by 10 cells and drive them to suicide, that'll learn 'em. Reed makes an appearance here, brow furrowed with honest concern about Speedball's plight. Jenkins does a good job of expressing the obvious wrongness of the situation, furthering the cause of rehabilitating Speedball from buffoon to thoughtful hero, but the conversation simply can't work. Reed's been accused of being overly focused on the big picture, making him blind to the problems inherent in the pro-reg side, but that's not the issue here. The issue here is that Reed's not a moron. The pro-reg side are co-signing obviously abhorrent measures, so his hand-on-heart declaration of sincerity simply doesn't ring true. It isn't helped by the fact that Jenkins writes Richards like a pompous jerk: stetching your neck up three feet and stating 'I'm going to be up here until you calm down' is, when said to a man who's life has turned into something from Midnight Express, a tad insensitive. My complaint about this kind of thing isn't that Marvel should be dumping pages of philosophical debate into what are superhero action comics, but when half the hero population starts coming on like the KGB we're going to need a little more than we've been given so far, especially in comics like this, whose only purpose is to fill in the details that aren't being handled elsewhere.
The third story continues the intriguing plot folowwing the machinations of Atlantis while Civil War is raging, and the final story continues the theme of historical parralels by casting the anti-reg brigade as the plucky RAF in the Battle of Britain, while SHIELD get the bad luck of being cast as the Luftwaffe. Yes, that's right, Civil War has invoked Godwin's Law, thus making any further debate impossible. The story's about personal bravery, and the joy that can be found in death-defying courage, but it's also a fitting capstone for what is a blatantly one-sided argument in this series. As a big, bold, comics event Civil War is doing just fine, thank you very much, but Marvel have surely got to stop claiming that they want to present both sides as equally valid points of view. It's patently untrue in almost every one of the comics in this line-wide crossover, and seeps from every pore of this issue.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mhalf.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mnone.jpg
Both sides can agree: BUY at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=20322)[/QUOTE]