Civil War: Front Line

One week after the close of Civil War comes the close of the sidelines book. So many different stories took place in this run, I'm going to have to break them up by individual storylines. Bear with me.

EMBEDDED (Issues 1-11)
This is the main story of Front Line, following longtime Marvel reporter Ben Urich and Sally Floyd, fresh off her story in the post-House of M Generation M mini. The two basically float around for 11 issues, talking to random figures in the Civil War, and come to the big revelation that Tony Stark was pulling strings for some purpose. That purpose was to get the whole registration process to work by planning the Atlantean assassination attempt (see Sleeper Cell below). It works when explained in the final issue, but unfortunately not really when looking at the whole story.

A major problem here, as with most of Civil War, is that Tony Stark is made to be the bad guy. Throughout the first 10 parts of Embedded, Urich and Floyd's efforts point towards Tony Stark being a shady figure behind the scenes, as well as a king douche bag in the forefront. That's all well and good, but then with his side winning the war and Stark becoming a prime force of the new Marvel U, suddenly he has to be seen in a bright light, so part 11 features a massive turnaround, where Floyd and Urich see the wisdom of his plan, so they won't tell anyone.

So all is right with the world, except for me, who had to wait months and months for this non-resolution. Nothing was quite as bad as issue 10, where Floyd and Urich keep trying to tell each other Stark's secret, but are distracted each time. With all of the other stories done by issue 10, was there really a need for 11? If nothing else, D-list heroes Bantam and Typeface get killed during this storyline. Sad day.


THE ACCUSED (Issues 1-10)
This story features Speedball, who is the sole survivor of the New Warriors after their fateful Stamford mission that started this whole mess. Devoid of his powers and quickly arrested, he's offered amnesty by registering, by again and again refuses to do so. When he's given his day in court, he's shot by a man in the crowd. He comes to, decides to register, and creates the identity of Penance, wearing a costume with spikes on the inside, so he can use his powers (now activated by pain).

This is another story that goes one way for over half its run, then suddenly turns towards the end. The entire series runs on Speedball maintaining that the New Warriors did nothing wrong and should not be treated as criminals. Even when he agrees to register, it seems to be more out of personal motives, rather than seeing the good in doing so. But in the last chapter, suddenly he's angst ridden about the deaths of the people of Stamford, and creates the new identity as a way to atone for his crimes. This ending came directly out of the blue, and didn't fit with the rest of the story at all.

Another thing this story featured were the inhumane conditions of the 42 prison facility. With Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Yellowjacket in charge, and Captain Marvel running it, these conditions are completely out of place. It's somewhat explained as a part of Stark's plan to get heroes to register, but still, when heroes are killing themselves, something's wrong with the story.


BACK-UP STORIES (Issues 1-9)
These were no more than three pages at the end of each issue, showing scenes from Civil War next to similar scenes from American history, with voice overs giving commentary. Not really even worth mentioning.

THE PROGRAM (Issue 2)
This was a couple pages showing Norman Osbourne's reaction to Spider-Man unmasking. I guess it would be a setup to his inclusion in the Thunderbolts, but not really important.

SLEEPER CELL (Issues 3-9)
This story, featuring agents of Atlantis disguised as regular humans, spanned three seperate storylines. The first was a signal being sent out for the sleeper agents to shed their disguises...which largely went nowhere. Why couldn't they have just been Atlanteans sneaking above the water that day? There was no point to the hiding...at least not at this point in time.

The second saw SHIELD draft a reluctant Wonder Man to investigate. The story I picked up here was SHIELD forcing a registered super-hero into action against their will, but this was a point quickly dropped when Wonder Man was taken down. The agents he was fighting? I really don't know what happened to them. Don't worry about it, I guess.

The third saw an Atlantean diplomat shot by a gun-toting Norman Osbourne. This act apparently was part of a master plan (see Embedded), but at this point, it served really only to justify Namor's rage against the humans, and hinting at his appearance in Civil War #7. This story really could have only had this part, and nothing would really have suffered for it.

Front Line was not a bad read, but it suffered a great lack of importance. Nothing substantial took place in it, and what did was swept away at the story's close. Though Penance is set to be featured in Thunderbolts, I doubt he will serve any significant purpose in the grand scheme. The sleeper agents are an interesting concept which may be picked up in upcoming stories. Rather bland, but somewhat neat for what it was.

Rant: Delay, delay, delay!

I remember back in mid-July when I picked up my copy of Civil War #3 and was shocked to see Thor standing tall on the final page. Wow, I thought, this story is getting really good! I couldn't wait for the next issue of Civil War to see how Cap's team was going to deal with that. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited.

This story comes to mind because in less than 24 hours, I'll be posting my review of the Civil War mini-series. That's right, the same one who's third issue caused me to walk to a comic shop in the sweltering mid-July heat. And this issue will be only the fourth one to come out since that time. A seven issue mini-series. It launched back on May 3rd, 2006. Depending on who you talk to, this extended scheduling may have been purposely done by Marvel. I don't think three months past a monthly format was the intent, but it did allow all the stories around the Marvel Universe to be told in their own ways. Problem is, most of those stories wrapped up a few months ago. Much of the Marvel Universe has gone past the Civil War, making the final issue slightly lackluster. Even major tie-ins like New Avengers and Spider-Man have begun their post Civil War stories, leaving everyone else scratching their heads.

Marvel is the major example of the declining importance of regular schedules in high-profile books. As shown of late, the higher profile the comic, the less likely it is to actually come out on time. While rank and file titles, in no means lacking in quality, crank out an issue a month (or more), the highly advertised books will make their debut date, then whenever they feel like it. It's gotten to where many fans have come to expect hyped-up mini series to vanish before they end their stories.

A big part has become the popularity of getting writers from other fields to write comics. Kevin Smith, once a highly praised comic writer, has gotten a lot of flack over this. Two of his mini-series, Daredevil: The Target and Spider-Man/Black Cat, came to an unexpected halt in 2002, after one and three issues, respectively. The latter was finished three years later, with an obvious shift in tone over the lull, and the former has yet to have a second issue. The ridiculous delays have damaged Smith's prestige in the eyes of comic fans, and few people are actually expecting him to finish his Daredevil book.

A more recent example would be Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, a mini-series written by David Lindelof (co-creator of Lost). The book had two issues, then nothing. Marvel continued to solicit, then push back the release date of the third issue, until finally at the end of 2006, it cancelled the book until further notice. While they assure it will eventually be finished, skeptical readers are not holding their breaths. Another highly-anticipated story gone due to inability to put out stories.

The trend is not limited to mini-series, either. After Grant Morrison left New X-Men for a DC-exclusive deal, it was announced that the retooled X-Men would be headed up with a new flagship title called Astonishing X-Men, written by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, amongst other things). The first story arc (issues 1-6) came out in a timely manner, and was highly praised by X-Men fans. However, the second storyline (issues 7-12) started meeting delays that the other X-Men titles (Uncanny written by Chris Claremont and X-Men written by Peter Milligan) did not suffer. Therefore, the flagship title began falling behind the other books. Six main characters (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, Beast, Colossus, Wolverine) found themselves in something of a limbo, awaiting the next issue. When the storyline completed, Whedon and penciller John Cassaday announced they would be returning for 12 more issues, but with a more spaced out pace (bi-monthly issues). However, the second issue, even with two months between, was still delayed. The book is now on issue 20, where other books launched at the same time are in the mid-30s. It's still promoted as the flagship X-Title, though. That should say something about the X-World.

Finally, I have to say that it's not simply guest writers from other industries causing problems. Take NYX, the supposedly regular series by Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. After four issues, the book simply vanished. Missing so long, high-profile artist Josh Middleton left for DC and the book was eventually retooled as a mini and finished with little cheer after seven issues...two years after it began.

DC isn't completely innocent of this either. Mainstream books like Teen Titans and Justice League of America often miss their regular weeks due to delays, but are usually followed by two issues released within two weeks of one another to make up. It is rare that a DC book will simply vanish. For a shining example of DC's dedication, their 52 mini-series, set to be released once a week for 52 weeks, has not missed a single week (as of issue 41). In this field, DC is a much better example of making deadlines.

So should we sacrifice timely comics in exchange for high-profile creators? I say no, no, a thousand times no. What's the use of an exceptional comic if it doesn't come out at all? Hopefully the fling of such creators will die down and we'll enjoy our better titles at a more regular pace. If I wanted to see the work of the creator of Lost, I'd watch Lost.

NOTE: Is Bryan Singer ever going to do a run on Ultimate X-Men? It was announced like two years ago. God, I hope not.