A review by loop
Civil War: Front Line by Steve Lieber, Ramón F. Bachs, Paul Jenkins, Lee Weeks

5.0

I had been meaning to read this for a while. This is really where the meat of Civil War is. This is where all of its effects are explored more intimately. I really do love Jenkins' writing, I've loved everything of his I've read. He manages to make lots of political statements very tastefully, and really gets deep into some of the intricacies of the Superhuman Registration Act. This comprises of 4 different stories (issues are about 33 pages). The first story following Ben Urich and Sally Floyd reporting on each side of the war was incredible, the second story about Speedball's incarceration was really good too, the story about the Atlantean sleeper cell was good, and the last bit of each issue with a poem making parallels between the CW and various wars in history was pretty neat. The reason I went back to read this now even though I am in the Secret Invasion period is because this sets up some of the elements in Secret Invasion and Dark Reign (especially with Norman Osborn), and since I plan on reading Ellis' Thunderbolts next, this felt like a natural pre-requisite. The art was pretty solid too. Even while having different artists for each of the stories, it all felt very cohesive in style. Laura Martin's coloring for the bulk of the main story was also a treat.

I give this a very strong 8.5/10, but I'll round it up to 5/5 stars because it has heart. By far the best Civil War tie-in and better than the main event itself.