The artwork of this series is ragged but good. Bachs can draw normal humans, fat, old or thin very well. This is what a series like this needs. What wasnt very impressive was his Ironman. Fortunately his Spider-man was nice. He adds good solid backgrounds that capture the feel of the story. The supplement by Kobayashi was very pleasant visually, although it had storytelling problems. In some frames, it was difficult to understand that Spider-man was crawling a movie screen. Read Full Review

The best thing about this series is the human touch it adds to this massive event, and this is played out brilliantly in each separate story. It also serves as an interesting opportunity for Jenkins to express a political view but is in danger of having an adverse effect on the series as a whole. The separate art teams do a good job in each story and gift the book with the sombre realism that is required. All these make Front Line a great spin off and provides a welcome addition to the Civil War. Pick it up. Read Full Review

Final Thoughts: ...Shove it down the liberals throats so hard they think the Wednesday Sports page is the Sunday Edition! Despite the fact that the miniseries probably wont hold up well in the future, in the now it has an interesting premise, fun characters, wonderful art, and a very human perspective on Marvels Big Event. In fact, this issue is a better start to a miniseries than Civil War #1. Read Full Review

With so many important events taking place outside of Civil War proper (Iron Mans press conference here, as well as Spider-Mans identity crisis over in Amazing Spider-Man), I have to wonder whether the main series will be as self-explanatory as Marvel claims it will be. Already, the timeframe is utterly confusing; its impossible to have separate series enhance the larger picture when its so hard to make connections between the various pieces. Still, Front Line has the potential to be a nice companion piece to Civil War, and the variety of stories, adless format, and biweekly schedule should make it even more worth following once the story gets off the ground and finds its identity. Read Full Review

Although it looks like its going to be an interesting place for Civil War related tidbits and for the storyline of Mark Millars core title to get a slightly deeper level of exploration, if Front Line can t stand on its own two feet then I dont really see the point of it being a separate title in its own right. I would have imagined that the point of books like this is to give the events of Civil War some depth by presenting them from a human perspective. Instead, the reader has so far gained about as much insight into the crossover as any random onlooker in the Marvel Universe, and if the Embedded section of the book doesnt get more interesting and examine the core of the Civil War conflict more thoroughly next issue, I cant see many people sticking around for the full 10 issues. Read Full Review

Point of contention three: Turning superhero powers into an explainable science. The second story reveals that Speedball is still alive because, after taking the brunt of an explosion and being flung hundreds of miles across the country and crashing to the ground, his powers started to make a loud buzzing and then explode again and turn off permanently. Eh, what? Look, I know were reading about superheroes with crazy powers, but Marvels trying to show us that the Marvel U government treats superheroes like weapons that need to be registered and that the rules of reality now apply to the Marvel U, but powers can also turn on or off because of explosions? Is the only way to keep Speedball around to turn him all grim and gritty? Methinks they missed the point about why people like these characters. Read Full Review

I give this book because I can say exactly one thing about this comic, but there are too many mistakes, a sign of bias in the entire crossover, and average art. Its really not worth buying, unless the rest of the series turns out phenomenal. Read Full Review

On a whole, I realize I really dont care that much for the characters and stories being told in this issue. Both the Stark and Speedball tales left me feeling cold and bored. For a mini-series called Front Line you might think there would be at least some action in these pages. Unfortunately, there isnt a single panel. Despite the best efforts of the final tale, this issue fails to be enjoyable in any sort of meaningful way and deserves to sit on the shelf waiting for some poor kid to confuse it with the real Civil War mini-series. Read Full Review

I do feel a little churlish for picking this comic apart as I cant remember the last time that either Marvel or DC attempted to tell a story that was actually about something significant. But merely trying is not enough, and theres no excuse for the sheer unbridled hamfistedness of this poor effort. Theyre certainly aiming high with this, but theyve ended up in the shit. Read Full Review

Civil War Front Line #1 flat out sucked. The writing was pitiful. The story was uninteresting. The dialogue was amateurish. This issue was too heavy handed. Jenkins is clearly more interested in conveying his political beliefs rather than doing what he should be doing as a comic book writer entertaining us! In no way can I recommend anyone wasting their hard earned money on garbage like this issue. I'm torn on what to do. I usually give a long mini-series 2 issues to hook me. Plus, I don't know how many important Civil War storylines are going to be addressed in this mini-series. So, part of me wants to try Civil War Front Line #2 and the other part wants me to save my money for comic books that are actually enjoyable to read. Read Full Review