Secret Invasion: Front Line #1

[Spiffy]

I've defended this series in its past incarnations, but this time (at least with what we've seen so far) I think I'm going to have a lot more trouble.

I HATED a lot of what we saw.

I could nitpick on lots of things, but what REALLY irritated me was the "we were innocent until this happened" crap. As if New York hadn't JUST been invaded by aliens a few months earlier, continuity-wise. And all that dreck about how New Yorkers in M.U. N.Y.C. might only see a superhero once in their lives. Bull. Sh@t! Not with all the heroes tearing up New York City defending it from the Hulk, and then a few months before that all of them fighting each other all over midtown Manhattan.

Feh. This better GET better quickly, 'cause its starting off reeking. And this time it can't even be conveniently blamed on Sally Floyd (which, sorry Floyd-haters, was always a copout anyway).

[HeckBoy]

Civil War left a bad aftertaste in my mouth for these Front Line books but it's nice to see I'm probably not missing anything.

[ivesaidway2much]

I've defended this series in its past incarnations, but this time (at least with what we've seen so far) I think I'm going to have a lot more trouble.

I HATED a lot of what we saw.

I could nitpick on lots of things, but what REALLY irritated me was the "we were innocent until this happened" crap. As if New York hadn't JUST been invaded by aliens a few months earlier, continuity-wise.
Here's a direct quote from the book:

There was a time before now. When the world was a bit more... well, innocent is poor choice of words. We haven't been innocent for years. But there was a time before now. Before the Skrulls. Which part of it made you think that New Yorkers are innocent in 616 Marvel?

[Will.S]

I was wondering what you guys thought of this book.

I didn't pick it up, nor do I intend to at this point but I'll probably follow the reviews here to see if it's worth my money in trade format.

[CyberHubbs]

I like the premise, so I'll be picking it up. Unfortunately, I've slacked off the last two days and have yet to visit the LCS.

[ivesaidway2much]

I was wondering what you guys thought of this book.

I didn't pick it up, nor do I intend to at this point but I'll probably follow the reviews here to see if it's worth my money in trade format.I thought it was pretty good. It was what I thought Civil War Frontline was going to be: a man on the street's perspective of superhero events. Basically it's a cross between Marvels and Secret Invasion. Though obviously not as good as Busiek on Marvels, I thought Reed's writing was much, much better than Paul Jenkins' Frontline books. A good read, although I didn't care for the last page.

I'd at least recommend checking out the first couple of pages at your LCS to see if you like it.

[Omega Alpha]

It's better than Paul Jenkins', but that isn't really hard.

[Will.S]

I thought it was pretty good. It was what I thought Civil War Frontline was going to be: a man on the street's perspective of superhero events. Basically it's a cross between Marvels and Secret Invasion. Though obviously not as good as Busiek on Marvels, I thought Reed's writing was much, much better than Paul Jenkins' Frontline books. A good read, although I didn't care for the last page.

I'd at least recommend checking out the first couple of pages at your LCS to see if you like it.
Thanks for the impressions.

It's better than Paul Jenkins', but that isn't really hard.
Paul's very hit and miss with me lately, his Frontline stuff did nothing for me but his Penance Relentless book was actually pretty good.

[Spiffy]

Here's a direct quote from the book:

Which part of it made you think that New Yorkers are innocent in 616 Marvel?
All right then... its just pretentious.

Saying "innocent is a poor choice of words" is basically the same thing as saying "I want to say innocent but I couldn't possibly justify it". The idea is the same as actually saying it, with a cop-out added at the end.

And defining the world as "pre-invasion" and "post-invasion" is tiresome because this isn't the first invasion. Or even the first that year!!!

[Affinity]

I liked it.

I care about the Nurse more than anything. And really, for me to care about someone already is pretty good characterization.

[thebhamgunslinger]

i thought it was pretty good. i wasn't planning on picking it up but the cover looked kind of cool. don't know if i'll follow it all the way to 5 or not, but it seems off to a good start.

[Mr. Earl Brooks]

I thought it was pretty decent. The Spider-Man/Menace fight that was thrown in means that Spider-Man has the absolute worst schedule ever in terms of continuity.

In terms of this being in continuity with regard to WWH and things, this is certainly a different circumstance. Hulk wasn't beaming super powered crazies into Times Square and killing Super Heroes, and he certainly seemed more intent on revenge rather than on conquest. Secret Invasion, however, is happening everywhere. Presumably to the X-Men in San Francisco, to MI:13 in London, and probably any number of initiative teams across the US. The events of Who Do You Trust? seemed to suggest the populace that being gassed in to submission and the upcoming "Embrace Change" shenanigans certainly lead one to a different feeling than when the Hulk arrived with a forewarning Hologram, etc.

[SeritoNiN]

This was one of the few invasion books I enjoyed. It gave a very personable feeling, exactly what Reed said he wanted to do. A great perspective from the common man through the invasion. I dug it a lot, if only the rest of the books were this good of a read.

[Pyro]

Well, I thought it was overall pretty good. It's definitely more Cloverfield, and less whatever the hell Paul Jenkins was doing, which is what I always wanted out of the Front Line series. However, I agree with Spiffy that it was very hard to swallow some of the conceits the book laid out. "The average New Yorker still might only see Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four once, maybe twice, in a lifetime." Really? When Spider-Man goes on patrol at least a few times a week, and nearly all of their many battles take place in the city? And invading aliens shouldn't be so unexpected, when not that long ago, the Hulk and his alien friends demolished the entire city, Avengers Tower included!

Reed just made a bad choice underplaying the average New York citizen's familiarity with the super population. He's trying to put too much realism where it doesn't apply. Superheros stick out a lot more than celebrities wearing sunglasses and a hat. Also, in real life the average person isn't often put in life threatening situations, I imagine New Yorkers in the Marvel Universe are. It worked better in books like the Young Avengers where it said every other day, traffic is held up due to some super tussle (I think it was YA) and stuff like that. Still, it wasn't enough to ruin the book for me. If you ignore that, the rest of it's pretty good. And I really liked the art. If the quality stays at this level, I'll buy all five issues.

Will S., from your posts I've gotten the impression that we have similar taste in comics. I would recommend this book. Especially if you didn't like FL under Jenkins.

[Arrogantcur]

Paul's very hit and miss with me lately, his Frontline stuff did nothing for me but his Penance Relentless book was actually pretty good.

For God's sake WHY??? After reading what Baldwin did in that book I wish they really had killed him off.

[CyberHubbs]

NY is a big place, so I suppose a normal citizen could go their entire life without seeing some superheroes. The aftermath of a battle, sure, but that doesn't mean you saw Hulk and Sentry punching each other in the face. Or that you even notice Spider-Man swinging overhead while you're doing your daily thing.

It's a tough decision for the writer, of course. Either have the city's population shrug their collective shoulders at yet another invasion, treating it like a daily occurrence that might slow the subways down a little and make you late for that important meeting, but that's about it, or go the other route which, I think, calls upon the reader to suspend their disbelief a little and adds a lot more of an alarmed mood to the story.

[tlunning]

I generally enjoy the Front Line books and this seemed like a good start- establishing the characters and the mystique of the invasion. Who knows what the Skrull occupation strategy is!? Will humans be enslaved, killed en masse, we don't even really know what sort of situation Ulrich is writing from. Obviously there was a big alien invasion story last summer too, but WWH was more about revenge on specific heroes, not conquering the planet. Maybe it should be World War Skrulls!

[Arrogantcur]

It's a tough decision for the writer, of course. Either have the city's population shrug their collective shoulders at yet another invasion, treating it like a daily occurrence that might slow the subways down a little and make you late for that important meeting, but that's about it, or go the other route which, I think, calls upon the reader to suspend their disbelief a little and adds a lot more of an alarmed mood to the story.

I think that by now residents of NYC should react this way:

"Uh oh, the city's under attack again. I hope that everybody I know and care about lives through it and my home isn't destroyed."

Worried, instead of indifferent or shitting-their-pants-panicky. Since they've managed to survive everything else, it's reasonable to expect they'd have a certain amount of faith that everything will turn out okay eventually. They just have to weather the storm.

That's if they hear the city's under attack but are presently safe. If there's a battle going on right in front of them that could conceivably get them killed, they should be scared to death. No matter how often the city's been attacked I don't think anybody would be indifferent to a threat on their life.

[Pyro]

NY is a big place, so I suppose a normal citizen could go their entire life without seeing some superheroes. The aftermath of a battle, sure, but that doesn't mean you saw Hulk and Sentry punching each other in the face. Or that you even notice Spider-Man swinging overhead while you're doing your daily thing.

It's a tough decision for the writer, of course. Either have the city's population shrug their collective shoulders at yet another invasion, treating it like a daily occurrence that might slow the subways down a little and make you late for that important meeting, but that's about it, or go the other route which, I think, calls upon the reader to suspend their disbelief a little and adds a lot more of an alarmed mood to the story.Are we talking the whole of New York or just New York City? Because if it's just the city I don't buy that. NYC isn't that big. I mean, you could probably drive the length of it within an hour depending on various factors. Superhumans and their fights attract attention and there have been so many in any and all parts of the city, that superhumans would have to be in the background of life. I think just visiting Times Square you'd have a good chance of spotting a superhero, seeing as that spot is depicted so often in books.

I mean, I agree that saying superhuman sightings are common takes the urgency out of a story, but I think it's more believable. That said, I'd still take a good story over a believable one. That's why I read comics in the first place!

[CyberHubbs]

Are we talking the whole of New York or just New York City? Because if it's just the city I don't buy that. NYC isn't that big. I mean, you could probably drive the length of it within an hour depending on various factors. Superhumans and their fights attract attention and there have been so many in any and all parts of the city, that superhumans would have to be in the background of life. I think just visiting Times Square you'd have a good chance of spotting a superhero, seeing as that spot is depicted so often in books.

I mean, I agree that saying superhuman sightings are common takes the urgency out of a story, but I think it's more believable. That said, I'd still take a good story over a believable one. That's why I read comics in the first place!

New York City isn't big, per se, but it is cluttered and a lot more of a compact kind of big. Goes without saying that you could entirely miss a fight going on one street over in some spots, until the Hulk came crashing through a building and bounced right over your head.

Depends on the kind of fight, too. The Hulk/Sentry brawl? Sure, it looked cool. But they practically blew NYC up! The WTC collapse brought almost the entire city to a standstill, and that was just one block of destruction. Hefty destruction, sure.

But, yeah. I'd rather 'forget' WWH and continuity, and just consider Front Line on its own merits. I agree with you there!

[jackolover]

"The average New Yorker still might only see Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four once, maybe twice, in a lifetime." Really? When Spider-Man goes on patrol at least a few times a week, and nearly all of their many battles take place in the city? And invading aliens shouldn't be so unexpected, when not that long ago, the Hulk and his alien friends demolished the entire city, Avengers Tower included!

Reed just made a bad choice underplaying the average New York citizen's familiarity with the super population. He's trying to put too much realism where it doesn't apply. Superheros stick out a lot more than celebrities wearing sunglasses and a hat. Also, in real life the average person isn't often put in life threatening situations, I imagine New Yorkers in the Marvel Universe are. .

I've been living in my city, but mainly the burbs, and I haven't seen one shooting in 55 years, or one criminal having a shootout with cops. Now maybe the citizens have seen a superhero 3 times in their lifetime, depending if the citizen is in the flight path of said hero otherwise he would just read it in the Daily Bugle.

To me, I think Brian Reed hit the nail on the head. Most people don't get to see anything, with the hours they keep, and the fact they aren't in the heroes lanes of activity.

[Spiffy]

NY is a big place, so I suppose a normal citizen could go their entire life without seeing some superheroes.
Geographically its reasonably large (if you include outlying boroughs), but the thing is that people COLLECT in certain places. If you have a fight in Times Square, or outside of Macy's, or around the Empire State Building, or in City Hall Park, etc. a disproportionate amount of people will see it.

And lets use the inevitable comparison--the WTC disaster. A LOT of people saw that with the naked eye. In the M.U.'s version of NYC, buildings are getting holes knocked in them or blown up all of the time. So, it just makes sense that a lot of people would see those incidents as well--and probably at least a tiny peek at the figures fighting.

[Pyro]

I've been living in my city, but mainly the burbs, and I haven't seen one shooting in 55 years, or one criminal having a shootout with cops. Now maybe the citizens have seen a superhero 3 times in their lifetime, depending if the citizen is in the flight path of said hero otherwise he would just read it in the Daily Bugle.

To me, I think Brian Reed hit the nail on the head. Most people don't get to see anything, with the hours they keep, and the fact they aren't in the heroes lanes of activity.But superhuman crime is way more of a spectacle than real crime. They dress up in costumes, shoot beams of energy all over the place and hold hostages way more often than ever happens in real life. It all becomes just a big to-do. Plus, some superheroes often make public appearances even when not fighting or rescuing people. The FF probably do benefits and stuff. She-Hulk goes to clubs and bars. The Thing buys coffee. With the sheer number of super people in NYC... I just don't see how it could be otherwise.

Also, (and this might be a bit off-topic) I've been watching a lot of Superman: The Animated Series lately, and the citizens of Metropolis seem pretty familiar with Superman, and he's pretty much the only hero they have in town. He's just always around, in their business.

[jackolover]

But superhuman crime is way more of a spectacle than real crime. They dress up in costumes, shoot beams of energy all over the place and hold hostages way more often than ever happens in real life. It all becomes just a big to-do. Plus, some superheroes often make public appearances even when not fighting or rescuing people. The FF probably do benefits and stuff. She-Hulk goes to clubs and bars. The Thing buys coffee. With the sheer number of super people in NYC... I just don't see how it could be otherwise.

Also, (and this might be a bit off-topic) I've been watching a lot of Superman: The Animated Series lately, and the citizens of Metropolis seem pretty familiar with Superman, and he's pretty much the only hero they have in town. He's just always around, in their business.

Well you could make the analogy of Cloverfield, and how many people actually saw the creature wrecking the city. Not terribly many. They saw the damage, but the movement of the incidents happen too quickly, are over so soon, and the perpetrators are gone by the time anybody gets there. Sure, there are more incidents in MU NY than a real city, but the chances of you coming across the big timers may be very slim. You could come across a costumed Boomerang accosting a citizen in an alley. That's more likely, than seeing the big players first hand.

[CyberHubbs]

Geographically its reasonably large (if you include outlying boroughs), but the thing is that people COLLECT in certain places. If you have a fight in Times Square, or outside of Macy's, or around the Empire State Building, or in City Hall Park, etc. a disproportionate amount of people will see it.

And lets use the inevitable comparison--the WTC disaster. A LOT of people saw that with the naked eye. In the M.U.'s version of NYC, buildings are getting holes knocked in them or blown up all of the time. So, it just makes sense that a lot of people would see those incidents as well--and probably at least a tiny peek at the figures fighting.

I'll use my own experience with the WTC disaster as an example. That morning, I was working in a bookstore in Bay Plaza in the Bronx. We didn't see the plane hitting, but rather heard about it on the radio.Thing is, we're right across the river -- more or less -- from where the WTC was. All we had to do was walk right outside and look off in the distance. We'd see -- and did! -- the big cloud of smoke after both towers fell.

But we never saw the actual event. Others did, sure. While some NYers would experience heroes fighting first-hand on a semi- to regular-basis, I think a larger chunk of the population would only see the aftermath. In the case of a story like this one, I'd rather lean toward that theory instead of them seeing it as a normal occurrence.

[Abrojo]

I didnt enjoy it much. I always thought the common man point of view thing would loose its wow factor if done too much. I was unfortunately right, at least for my taste. I was bored throughout all the issue.

[DeadXMan]

at least there's no Sally.

that's an atuopmatic 10 in my book

[drwho]

Isnt the Spidey verse in the future after secret invasion? So why would Spidey be fighting Menace?

[Craig T. Nelson]

I read this in the store and I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it. I've already got that yawnfest known as Cable to fill my "why did I buy this" comic slot.

[Doc Goblin]

The fact that Jenkins isn't the writer was all I needed to give Frontline a shot again. I liked it. It was a good start to the whole "street level perspective" concept that I wish the past two Frontlines had done a better job at.

I can forgive that it kinda ignores all the devastation from WWH. Because what book hasn't? Manhattan gets trashed and I don't remember seeing that acknowledged in anything that wasn't a WWH tie-in book. So I'm not going to hold it against Frontline. I've moved on. WWH was disappointing anyway.

The thing about the average New Yorker barely ever seeing a superhero bugged me as I was reading though. I can accept that they don't see superheroes on a weekly or monthly basis or anything frequent like that. But the estimate Reed gave was way too exaggerated. Once or twice? I think I could buy into a number somewhere around a dozen. How can they even judge how often heroes are seen in a lifetime anyway? These heroes have only been around 10-15 years.

So there're things to nitpick at with the first issue. It's still a good start.

[CyberHubbs]

Isnt the Spidey verse in the future after secret invasion? So why would Spidey be fighting Menace?

No. Jackpot is featured in the Spider-Man SI tie-in, protecting New York during the invasion while Spidey is stuck in the Savage Land.

[Herr Mike]

CW Frontline was just ridiculous. Soured me on all Front Lines.

[AuburnComics]

It took a few pages for me to get into this book but once I did it was a real pleasure. It is a true refreshment to have a SI book told completely without any Superheros. It allows us to see the human reaction and drama to something that seems so normal in other books. In a book without the superheros it seems at it truly is, overwhelming.

Our guide through the issue is a Front Line reporter and he takes us through a few interviews with people who have encountered the earliest stages of the invasion. It is a refreshing take as I have already mentioned but it also serves as a great vehicle to show us events in different time periods as well as covering several different characters while still keeping continuity.

But don’t worry, even without the heros we get some great Marvel Universe scenery such as Stark Tower and by the end of the book you will really be interested in a few plain old fashion ordinary people. SI: Front Line is a great addition to the storyline and I’m really glad I picked it up.