Comic Book Resources

So does life.

The curious thing is that while the series were running, I often heard people say the opposite: "If you read Civil War: Frontline, then Civil War makes sense."

(No firm opinion here, having only read Civil War in parody recaptioned form....)

Front Line was the best part of Civil War. Easy.

You really thought that? Because I thought CW: Frontline #11 might be the most embarrassingly bad comic I read this decade. "Captain America doesn't get to speak for America because he doesn't have a MySpace page, while we don't mind at all that Iron Man mind-controlled someone into shooting a foreign ambassador and provoking a war because he was doing what had to be done" is, frankly, the most absurd piece of desperate rationalization I've ever heard in my life, and to have it come from two people who are supposed to be professional journalists strained credibility to the breaking point.

But in general, yes. Civil War is much more workable as a story if you don't find out about Tony Stark shooing ambassadors, mind-controlling supervillains, and deliberately rigging the stock market. I'd also say that the whole story works much better if the "Illuminati" concept is ditched too, but that's just me. (The Illuminati is an ugly retcon--sort of crammed into continuity like a bamboo sliver under the fingernails of past comics.)

I'd say that Frontline was more creatively consistent than Civil War proper. The true story stuff was compelling at the beginning of the book, but they became hackneyed and offensive near the middle of the series, and I'm glad they were dropped.
Jenkins made sure the characters were sympathetic and true to themselves.
Now, I'm not saying it was good throughout. Issue 11 was so heavy handed and idiotic that I just couldn't bring myself to reread it.
Millar had an evil Tony who was worried only about making sure the whole thing went his way. Jenkins wrote him simply as an enforcer of the law.
And I think Jenkins' take should be the more definitive take on post-CW Iron Man.
I just ignore CW. People just say something badass and punch someone else in the face.

Yeah I can kind of agree with this. All Frontline really did was show Tony Stark to be more evil that he already was. The Sleeper Cell stuff and Penance stories had little to do with CW proper. I always ignored the Correspondence parts at the back as they were complete rubbish.

If you ignore the final issue (#11), FrontLine was one of the high-points of the entire Civil War event. It was well-written, had some strong stories, and was packed with both emotion and intrigue. Unfortunately, the pay off issue was a huge letdown and, from what I can tell, has been largely ignored for the most part with all of the Civil War follow-up. That being said, if you can get past that issue, I think that FrontLine did a lot to advance the entire Civil War plot.

Then again, unlike much of the internet (who still bought each issue and all of the tie-ins), I really liked Civil War as a whole.

Having finally managed to sit down and read the main Civil War miniseries from front to back, I can't help but realize how weak a story it actually is, and how miserably paced the major character turns are. Tony Stark seems to pin his entire emotional life on the few mini-speeches of a grieving mother, Captain America can't remain consistent between being stereotypically "badass and stereotypically out-of-touch and Boy Scoutish, and Spider-Man comes off as a fickle imbecile who goes from certainty to doubt to opposing certainty in a ridiculously short number of pages.

It's as if every single character has ADD and serious personality deficits, so that they feel only one strident emotion at a time, and switch affects so quickly their psyches should have whiplash. It doesn't help that almost everyone's dialogue sounds alike and is paced in the exact same way, or that Maria Hill really ought to have been given a mustache to twirl in most of her scenes.

Having read just Civil War and not even looked at Frontline, I think it's amazing that Civil War could be made to make less sense. However, I don't doubt it for a minute that.

Levantine - it's easy, just imagine that instead of Iron Man doing this because he thinks it's right, doing it because he wants to make more money.

Oh, and that Captain America surrenders because he just doesn't "get" America, since America's all about Nascar and MySpace, donchaknow.

The main story in Frontline (excepting issue 11), and the Speedball storyline (up to the nonsensical Penance shit) are great comics. They absolutely add to the Civil War story. The Sleeper storyline was "eh" and the less said about the clumsy analogues the better.

I didn't finish 'Front Lines', because I couldn't make it through 'Civil War' proper, but 'Front Lines' was great up until at least halfway through ... so it sounds to me like the ending of 'Civil War' was so bad that even Jenkins couldn't make it work.

Given what I have read about the ending of 'Civil War', I have no trouble believing this.

Generation M already taught me that nothing Paul Jenkins writes is worth paying attention to in the first place.

I don't even think Front Line, as a comic, is all that bad (okay, the end bits were pretty bad, as a bunch of characters made some bizarre decisions not exactly set up by previous events/actions). In fact, if the comic was just the main story, I think I would recommend it (I said as much when I reviewed the first issue). It just doesn't work alongside Civil War, though, as every little thing it added to the Civil War concept just undermined Millar's view of Civil War.

- Tony attempting assassination of ambassadors

- Tony using brainwashed super villains to do the assassinating

- The terrible conditions of the prison the superheroes were kept in (both actual physical appearance, and how the prisoners were being treated)

- Blackmailing superheroes into doing what the government wanted

- Iron Man manipulating events and the stock market to make money (not for personal profit, of course, but still!)

One of Millar's biggest facets of Civil War was that Tony Stark wasn't a bad guy - yet Civil War: Front Line is pretty clear in the fact that, yes, Tony Stark IS a bad guy.

Generation M already taught me that nothing Paul Jenkins writes is worth paying attention to in the first place.

Amen. What a colossal piece of crap that was.

Generation M already taught me that nothing Paul Jenkins writes is worth paying attention to in the first place.

Sorry, but I think you're making a bogus leap. That's one of his more recent works and it really says nothing about the majority of his career.

For example, he wrote a very cool and interesting Inhumans story with Jae Lee, which is certainly "worth paying attention to in the first place".

Well, none of it was much good in any case. The only Civil War comic which I felt gave some adaquate character rationalisation was that Iron Man Captain America one-shot.

For example, he wrote a very cool and interesting Inhumans story with Jae Lee, which is certainly “worth paying attention to in the first place”.

Absolutely. Jenkins' recent stuff may be crap (and, point of fact, it IS), but that doesn't take away from some very impressive work of his in the past.

SEAN

Unfortunately, Generation M was the first thing I'd ever read by Jenkins. And since then all he's done has ranged from marginally accepted (Frontline) to downright loathed (CW: The Return). For me he's definitely been a case of bad first impressions making a major impact on me (I had the same issue with Bendis after reading House of M).

Sorry, but I think you’re making a bogus leap. That’s one of his more recent works and it really says nothing about the majority of his career.

For example, he wrote a very cool and interesting Inhumans story with Jae Lee, which is certainly “worth paying attention to in the first place”.

It's the exact sort of leap you would make if it was the first book of his you read Dan.

It’s the exact sort of leap you would make if it was the first book of his you read Dan.

Ooo-kay. Or not.

I wouldn't know, I did ignore Font Line. The only parts of Civil War I've read are the core title, New Avengers (the Luke Cage episode was one of the high points in all of CW, IMO) and Amazing Spider-Man. Reading those three CW didn't seem so bad, though Millar wrote Tony better than JMS did.

Sorry, but I think you’re making a bogus leap. That’s one of his more recent works and it really says nothing about the majority of his career.

For example, he wrote a very cool and interesting Inhumans story with Jae Lee, which is certainly “worth paying attention to in the first place”.

I've read a ton of Jenkins stories besides Inhumans, and they were all pretty terrible. So I'm not denying that Inhumans may be good, after all I haven't read it, but even if it is it seems to be the anomaly or fluke and not the norm. One good work in the face of dozens of horrid ones isn't enough to reverse the claim of Jenkins being a bad writer, in my opinion.

He had a couple of good stories with Spidey, The Sentry with John Romita JR was decent and the first three issues of Origin were good. He even won an Eisner for Inhumans so don't knock the man just yet.

I took the main story in Frontline #11 to be Jenkins way of saying that nowadays most Americans care much more about American Idol and NASCAR and MySpace than they do about the federal government eroding civil liberties. Which, to be honest, you could make an argument for. I mean, I know people who got totally worked up about that Sanjaya guy on American Idol, who were throwing fits that the guy was on the show. Yet these very same people had no opinion about George W. Bush or the war in Iraq.

The point is that Jenkins is arguing that it doesn't matter how hard Cap fights for a cause, if the average joe on the street remains indifferent to it. It has often been observed that democracy requires participation and effort to work. And if you have a public were people are more concerned with reality TV than rampant govt corruption, well, nothing is going to change.

See Ben, part of the problem that you think the way you do, failing to realize that not everyone wants to make out with Michael Moore and trash W. Some of the average Joes on the street don't care if the FBI can see what books you check out from the library if it keeps another couple thousand innocent people from dying in a terrorist attack.

Just because I'm not out in a goofy protest against the war, doesn't mean I don't care. It means I don't support your view.

not everyone wants to make out with Michael Moore

I certainly don't want to make out with Michael Moore, either. Unless he was a hot chick. Which, of course, he obviously is not

Anyway, my point is that there are a lot of people out there who have no opinion, who can't be bothered to look at the world beyond their television screen. That's what I'm criticising. Obviously you have an opinion about the state of the nation. Which is good. I disagreee with your opinion, but at least you have a viewpoint and you've thought about the issues. I'm just pissed off at people who feel the most important news item of the day is the current status of the Anna Nicole Smith baby custody battle.

I didn't read Civil War. Ignorance is bliss.

I never really liked Jenkins' work and his Inhumans series hasn't changed my opinion.

I get the point he was trying to make with Frontline #11, but it was badly written! The journalist arguments made no sense whatsoever (much like Speedball's sudden change of mind when he turned into Penance). Neither did her decision not to reveal the truth to the american public, what kind of journalist would refuse to run a story like that?!? It was WAY bigger than Watergate!

Civil War was bad, yes, but Frontline was even worse. Jenkins should only work on his own character-owned series.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Wow, Paul Jenkins wrote Generation M as well?

That explains why that stupid drunk "reporter" barfly character is in Frontline.

Seriously, Frontline's last issue and Civil War's last issue were so incredibly awful, I stopped reading Marvel entirely. Boxed up and gave away every Marvel comic, movie, game, and collectible in the house. 20 years was a lot to fit in the car...