Civil War: Front Line #3

Oct 17

Oct 17 Civil War: Front Line #3

Civil War continues from Fantastic Four #538

Embedded, Part 3

Following the passage of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA), the superhero community has been torn in half. Reporters Ben Urich and Sally Floyd have been covering the conflict for their respective newspapers.[1] Sally has made contact with a group of superheroes that are resisting the new law. Blindfolded, she is taken to their secret meeting place in an abandoned warehouse to interview their leader, Battlestar (Lemar Hoskins).[2]

The vigilante known as Solo (Jason Bourne) isn’t sure that they can trust Sally not to turn them in. However, the others want to give her a chance to tell their story. Typeface (Gordon Thomas) tells her that they are against the new law and have banded together to fight against it. They have heard that Captain America (Steve Rogers) has his own group fighting against the SHRA, and they plan on making contact and joining up with them.[3] When Sally points out Typeface is under investigation for arson and that his true identity is known to the public.[4] She wants to know why he has joined the anti-registration forces. He tells her that he fought for his country and does not want to see its freedoms diminished. This sounds to Sally a lot like something a homegrown terrorist would say, but Solo assures her that he will not allow acts of terror be committed for their cause.

All Battlestar wants to know is if the powers that be really understand what it is they are doing, who they are trying to arrest, and if they remember who the real bad guys are.

Meanwhile, Ben Urich is at the Baxter Building to interview Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) of the Fantastic Four, one of the architects who is building the resources needed to enforce the SHRA. Urich has heard that Richards and those in support of the SHRA say that it is the only way to avoid America’s self-destruction.[5] He wants to know how he can be sure that this will happen without the new law. Reed passes Ben a tablet that projects a holographic map of the United States. First he shows all the collected data of superhuman incidents over the past 9 years. He then shows a projection of what it would look like if incidents continued to grow at that rate. The growth looks to Ben like the spread of an illness across the country, but questions if Reed got the math right. Richards reminds him that they got to his lab through an anti-gravity hallway and says that his track record speaks for itself. Urich finds this kind of thinking dangerous, but Reed retorts by saying that dangerous thinking is what got man to the moon.

Ben Urich is unconvinced and Reed goes further by saying that numbers don’t like. Urich doesn’t entirely by that. He points to how baseball stats, opinion polls, and stock fluctuations should all be able to predict outcomes but sometimes the contrary occurs. They vary according to public perception. Reed thinks Urich is oversimplifying things, and Ben hopes he is right because he thinks it is absurd to think that public sentiment can be measured by saying numbers don’t lie.

Later, Sally Floyd comes upon a police barricade in the middle of the street. Spotting a news photographer named Geoffy Creswell crouched behind a bench, she asks him what’s going on. He points her attention to two superheroes, Thunderclap and Bantam, who are on either side of the conflict. The pair have been duking it out in the street for the past half hour. The situation goes bad when Thunderclap clashes his metal gauntlets together causing a sonic clash that knocks Bantam into a fuel truck. A downed powerline then ignites the gas, causing a massive explosion. Thunderclap is horrified by what has happened as he didn’t mean to seriously harm his opponent. As he wanders off in a state of shock, Sally and Geoffy follow emergency response to get a close look. Writing about this later, Floyd opines on the idea that war is viewed as an impersonal conflict. After seeing the horribly burned body of Bantam, Sally asks the reader to tell that to the families of the dead.[6]

Recurring Characters

Ben Urich, Sally Floyd, Anti-Registration Underground (Typface, Battlestar, Solo, Masked Rose, Freeware, Skybolt), Mister Fantastic, Thunderclap, Bantam

Continuity Notes

The SHRA is a new law that was passed into law in Civil War #2. It requires all superheroes to register with the government. This law will remain on the books until Siege #4.
Three of the characters among the resistance are new characters who make their first appearance. They are unidentified here but are given names in Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1 and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #14. They are Masked Rose (Josephine Tyler), Freeware (Kurt Duryea), and Skybolt (Zack Zimmerman).
This is true, as seen in Civil War #2-3, Captain America is against the SHRA and formed a team of “Secret Avengers” to fight against the new law.
For more on Typeface’s past, including the crimes he is being investigated for, see Peter Parker: Spider-Man #23-24.
Ben Urich reminds himself that Iron Man is Tony Stark. Tony revealed his double life to the public in Civil War: Front Line #1.
As of this writing (October, 2024), Bantam is still considered among the deceased.

Topical References

Sally Floyd states that Timothy McVeigh also fought for his country then went on to be a terrorist. McVeigh served in the military during the Gulf War. McVeigh was radicalized by white nationalism and conspiracy theories. He became the infamous Oklahoma City bomber in 1995 when he set off a huge fertilizer bomb in from of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. His crime was particularly heinous because many of his victims were children attending daycare at the building. He was quickly caught and was found guilty of his crimes. He was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. You could argue that this is a topical reference because (tragically) there has been no shortage of nutcases like McVeigh in recent times that you could place a more contemporary real world example here. However, on the other hand, you could say that Sally was making a historical example as opposed to a contemporary one, in which case it would not. YMMV.
Reed Richards states that “dangerous thinking is what got us to the moon”. He is referring to the Apollo 11 space mission that was conducted from July 16 to 24th, 1969. Which was the first time man had landed on the moon. As this is a historical reference, it would not be considered topical.
Ben specifically compares the spread of superhuman incidents to the bird flu, which is a colloquial term for avian influenza, a respiratory illness that can jump from birds to humans. At the time of this story, there was a massive outbreak of the H5N1 strain of this illness in 2003 and 2004. As this is relative to the date this story was published (2006) that’s probably why it is specifically mentioned. While the illness is still prevalent as I write this (October, 2024) references to real world illnesses, in theory, will eventually become topical as there are advances in medical science and potential cures. Case in point, avian flu is not quite as deadly as it used to be thanks to vaccination.

The Accused, Part 3

Robbie Baldwin, aka Speedball, has been made the scapegoat for the Stamford Disaster. Incarcerated and powerless, he finally is given a chance to speak with a lawyer. Answering the call is She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), however when she goes over his options, all he can do is make jokes about the rough treatment he is getting in prison.[1] Jen is trying to get him moved to a more appropriate prison facility, but the speed in which the SHRA was passed into law and the severity of his charges will make it a difficult battle that will take years. She suggests that he take the plea deal that has been offered to him. However, Robbie refuses to accept responsibility for what happened in Stamford, saying there was nothing he could have done to prevent what happened. She-Hulk takes little pity on this, saying that he didn’t need to be there in the first place.

She reminds him that the current political environment is not going to compel a jury to see the difference between Speedball trying to apprehend Nitro. This is because so many people died in Stamford, many of them children, and that some of the remains may never be identified. When Robbie says he can’t change the past, she sternly tells him to change the present.

After their meeting, Robbie is escorted back to his cell where he receives jeers from the other inmates. One of them, a tough guy named Toomey, vows that he is going to kill Baldwin, but will do it slowly over time so he suffers. Robbie isn’t scared by this and tells Toomey that he has faced worse and doesn’t need his powers to beat him up and is looking forward to his next meeting. The guards then toss Baldwin into his cell and tell him to shut up, or they’ll slip broken glass into his food. When his cell door is locked, Robbie lips off at the guards as well. Robbie then looks at his cellmate a blind mute named Hickey. He doesn’t know what Hickey has done to be imprisoned here but has come to consider him his only friend in prison. He likes Hickey because he doesn’t say much and has come to think of him as a good guy.

The next day he has another meeting with She-Hulk who has come back with the local state marshal and the governor. They have agreed to make another plea offer, which would have Robbie’s sentence commuted to three years community service as a registered costumed hero. However, Robbie refuses to sign what is essentially an admission of guilt. After Jennifer tells him that this is the best offer he is going to get, Robbie agrees that he’ll sign as soon as Hell freezes over.

Recurring Characters

Speedball, She-Hulk, Hickey, Toomey, Eric Marshall

Continuity Notes

She-Hulk has been representing the legal interests of members of the New Warriors post SHRA, as seen in She-Hulk (vol. 2) #8. Speedball was involved in the Stamford Disaster in Civil War #1. At the time, the New Warriors had been slumming it as reality TV stars since New Warriors (vol. 3) #1. After the blast, Robbie’s powers were burned out, as we saw in Civil War: Front Line #1.

Sleeper Cell, Part 1

Detectives Keith Dixon and Donna Altieri have been called to the a bizarre scene. Someone has bombed Joe’s Marine Mania, a pet store that specializes in fish. Laying on the ground, surrounded by dead fish, is Maria, the wife of the owner. Trying to figure out what went down, they begin interviewing Karen Mason, one of the upstairs neighbors. She talks about how the owner of Marine Mania, Joe, was really good at raising fish. The other interesting thing about Joe is that he spoke in a strange accent. When Karen asked Joe if he came from Eastern Europe or somewhere close, all Joe could muster as a response that he did indeed live “close”.

What they don’t know is that night, Joe and Maria were watching the news that evening. The main story was about a number of whales that have suddenly beached on the California cost. Marine experts are baffled because it seems as though the whales are all doing this intentionally. Seeing this, Joe suddenly got up and went into the bathroom, concerning his wife a little. Once inside, Joe injects himself in the neck with a strange green formula. Suddenly, Joe reverts back to his true form, that of a blue skinned Atlantean![1]

Recurring Characters

Keith Dixon, Donna Altieri, Atlanteans

Continuity Notes

As will be revealed throughout the run of Civil War: Front Line, Joe is part of an Atlantean sleeper cell that was placed among the surface dwellers as spies and saboteurs.

Topical References

The TVs in this story are depicted as CRT models, this should be considered topical as this is now an obsolete technology. In the flashback, Joe is depicted watching the game show Wheel of Fortune. Reference is also made to its former host Pat Sajak. This should be considered a topical reference because this is a real world TV show and Sajak retired as host of Wheel of Fortune in 2024.
The whale that is beached in Coronado is stated as being taken to Seaworld. Seaworld is a chain of amusement parks that include marine exhibits. It was established in 1964 and is still in operation as I write this, despite incidents of animal abuse and employee deaths at the hands of its animals. This is another topical reference as Seaworld is a real world business.

Futility*

Preface: We are told about Wilfred Owen, an American soldier who was enlisted to fight in World War I in 1917. He fought in France and in August of 1918 saw his friend and fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon severely injured and sent to England. Owen returned to the front lines and died in battle just seven days before the war. What is presented is a poem that Own wrote titled “Futility.”

We then see World War I soldiers desperately trying to save the life of a wounded comrade juxtaposed with first responders trying to save the life of Bantam after he was blown up in his fight with Thunderclap.[1] When they fail to save his life, the firefighters mourn his loss.

Recurring Characters

Bantam

Continuity Notes

One of Bantam’s dying thoughts is an image of him standing side-by-side with Captain America. The two fought together in Captain America Annual #12.

* This story was not given a title, I have added one to differentiate it from the other stories in this issue

… Civil War continues in Thunderbolts #104