Civil War: Front Line #4

Oct 17

Oct 17 Civil War: Front Line #4

Civil War continues from Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1

Embedded, Part 4

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] The two meet up for coffee to talk about the stories they are following.

Sally is still deeply upset that she saw Bantam die in a fight over the new law and can’t help but wonder if the gas truck that blew up and killed him wasn’t put there intentionally.[2]

Ben reminds her that a reporter’s job is to observe and report the news, not fabricate conspiracy theory. Ben relates to Sally’s feeling recalling how — years ago when he was a mere sports reporter — he witnessed the coming of the Silver Surfer.[3] Learning that humans weren’t alone in the universe in such a fashion really changed the way he looked at humanity. It was such a traumatic incident that he admits that he drank himself stupid for an entire year, but that was nobody’s fault but it his own. When Sally tries to explain that lawmakers are making a mockery of the US Constitution, Ben gets to the point of his story: As a reporter, you can’t take a situation personally. That you need to make a judgement based on what you see, not what you expect to see. Otherwise the job will chew you up and spit you out. Still, Sally has to follow up on a story she is covering, and says that she can’t help but think this entire thing stinks somehow because she believes that somebody has something to gain from all of this.[4] After paying for her coffee she gets up to leave and Ben tells her to not do anything stupid. Once she is out the door, Sally Floyd admits to herself that it is too late for that.

When Ben later leaves and heads to the parking lot where he parked his car, he finds a note on his windshield. It has a cryptic message reading “Closer than you think. Listen to her.” Ben looks around, but the parking lot is deserted.

Meanwhile, Sally reconnects with the Anti-Registration Underground, a band of lesser known heroes that are against the SHRA.[5] One of the group, Network, once again raises the idea that they need to find Captain America and his movement and join forces.[6] While Typeface (Gordon Thomas) agrees, that is easier said than done and he worries that gathering in such a large group will put them all at risk of being captured.

That’s when communications go down and Solo (Jason Bourne) gets his hackles up. Seconds later, they are ambushed by a SHIELD Cape-Killer, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) have come to apprehend them all. Solo accuses Sally of selling them out, but she denies this. Battlestar (Lemar Hoskins) tells her to get down before she gets hurt, then orders Gladiatrix (Robin Braxton) to get the reporter to safety. That’s when the building is rocked by an explosion that pins Robin under debris, she tells the Floyd woman to keep running.

As SHIELD begins rounding people up, Sally makes a call to Ben Urich to tell him what is happening. She is convinced that while Solo’s accusations are not true she can’t help but feel like pro-registration forces have been keeping tabs on and following her because of her reporting. Just as she is warning him to be careful with his sources, the line goes dead.[6]

At that moment, Ben is walking into a dead end alley to see if someone has been following him as well. At the end he discovers that someone has left a package for him. As he undoes the string, he is horrified to find a pumpkin bomb inside. He is then confronted by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn), who is somehow free from prison. Osborn is furious about all the bad things that Ben has said about him in the news and he intends to set the record straight…. Personally![7]

Recurring Characters

Ben Urich, Sally Floyd, Anti-Registration Underground (Battlestar, All-Out, Attacker, Awe-Striker, Basic Black, Canasta, Captain Kinship, Dahntu, Freeware, Gladiatrix, Green Guardswoman, Harbormaster, Haunter, Human Haze, Iguanid, Johnny Justice, Kruzado, Lawman, Masked Rose, Natural, Network, Orange Crusher, Panthrax, Peace-Lover, Quiblah, Scorecard, Skybolt, Solo, Spaceheat, Staten Island Star, Stone-Tough, Tosser, Typeface, US Annie, Winter Woman, Warbug, Xantippe, Zapster), Iron Man, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Green Goblin, SHIELD, (in flashback) Silver Surfer

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.
Bantom was seemingly killed when he was knocked into a fuel truck last issue. As of this writing (October, 2024), he is still considered among the deceased.
This was likely during the first modern appearance of Galactus on Earth which took place in Fantastic Four #48-50. Per the Sliding Timescale, that would have been roughly ten years prior to the main story.
In Civil War: Front Line #9, Ben Urich will discover that Stark Industries is the one profiting from the civil war.
A number of the heroes depicted here make their first appearances here or had done so last issue. Many of them are unidentified by name. Their costumed identities and real names are revealed in either Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1 or Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #14.
- Freeware (Kurt Duryea), Masked Rose (Josephine Tyler), and Skybolt (Zack Zimmerman) were all introduced last issue.
- All-Out (UTA-110), Attacker (Richard Traine), Awe-Striker (Cecily Johnson), Basic Black (Norman Gentry), Canasta (Henry Cavanaugh), Captain Kinship (Edward Randlebuck), Dahntu (Charles Luc Phan), Green Guardswoman (Natalie Bell), Harbormaster (Sean Beckett), Haunter (Marcos Runmeyer), Human Haze (Steve Cochrane), Iguanid (Tom Boldstep), Johnny Justice (Jonadab egyscol), Kruzado (Dorothy Cardoza), Lawman (Leon Frankfurt), Natural (Beru Addison), Network (Valerie Martin), Orange Crusher (Andy Gardner), Panthrax (Alex Mitchell), Peace-Lover (Barry Kanczeski), Quiblah (Jared Nelson), Scorecard (Bill Merrick), Spaceheat (Charles Yameogo), Staten Island Star (Russel Feldman), Stone-Tough (Ted Pendleton), Tosser (Ferrris Hartke), US Annie (Harriet Best), Winter Woman (Angela Stover), Warbug (Bernard Van Buren), Xantippe (Mandy Atkinson), and Zapster (Langley St. Margaret), all make their first appearances here.
As seen in Civil War #2-3, Captain America formed his own resistance movement dubbed the “Secret Avengers”.
Here is the status of every Underground member following the SHIELD bust:
- Battlestar, Solo, Gladiatrix, and Network will be incarcerated in Prison 42 until they are sprung by Captain America’s Secret Avengers in Civil War #6.
- Typeface is seen being transferred to Prison 42 next issue.
- All of the other members of this group are listed as potential Initiative recruits in Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1, but as of this writing (October, 2024), none of them have been seen since.
Norman Osborn was recently busted for murder in but released in Civil War: Front Line #2. The reason why Urich is a target is because he has written two exposes on Norman Osborn, tying him to the Green Goblin. The first being in Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil #1, and the other following the events of The Pulse #1-5, the latter of which landed Norman in jail.

Topical References

Sally Floyd is depicted jotting down notes on a palm pilot. This piece of technology was commonly used by professionals and reporters around the time this story was published in 2006. However, they have fallen out of common use thanks to the advent of smart phones and tablets. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.
Speaking of obsolete technologies, both Ben and Sally are depicted as having “flip style” phones that were also popular at the time this story was originally published. They too have fallen victim to the advent of smart phones.

The Accused, Part 4

Robbie Baldwin, aka Speedball, has been made the scapegoat for the Stamford Disaster. Incarcerated and powerless, he refuses to admit that he has done anything wrong. Hassled by a fellow inmate named Toomey, Robbie challenged him to a fight in the prison boxing ring. As the fight begins, the other prisoners have all bet against Baldwin, with the exception of his cellmate, the silent Hickey, whom everyone thinks is nuts.

At first, Toomey is the only one landing punches, but Robbie remains cocky as he is getting a measure of his moves. Once he has done that, the former New Warrior is able to dodge the the next punch. This allows Robbie to land his first punch which staggers Toomey. While he is stunned, Baldwin starts laying into him with a series of rapid punches. When his opponent takes another swing, Robbie side steps out of the way and lands an upper cut that knocks Toomey flat on his ass. This punch causes his confidence to waver as Robbie thinks he might have broken his hand with the blow.

Meanwhile, the prison bookie doesn’t like the idea of Baldwin winning the fight as it would put him out of a lot and tells a plan to one of the other inmates. That inmate pulls a shiv out of his prison shirt and waits for Baldwin to land another knock down punch. While Robbie is busy gloating over his opponent, the prisoner then slices open a tendon in the back of his leg. This causes Robbie to collapse in agony and while he is trying to make his way to the ropes, Toomey gets back up and slams his foot down on Robbie’s cut leg with a sickening crack. Baldwin screams in agony as he collapses onto the ropes. The noise has brought a guard out to see what all the noise is about just as there is a bright flash of light from Robbie’s body. When the light is gone, Toomey and all of the inmates on the opposite side of the ring have asll been knocked out by a powerful jolt of energy.

Later, after being patched up, Robbie is allowed a visit from his mother who is in hysterics over his condition and situation. When she asks what happened to his leg, he lies and tells her he walked into a door. This upsets her even more that he has to ask her twice where his father is. Maddie Baldwin tells Robbie that his father isn’t coming because of the shame he has brought to the family. He isn’t happy to hear that neither of his parents have much support for him. His mother tells him that the news calls him the most hated man in America. She then tells him that the newspaper called to ask if he had any remorse for his part in the explosion. She wanted to tell them that he was, but she knows that Robbie isn’t.

When Robbie tries to explain that it wasn’t his fault again, she tells him that it doesn’t matter. She tells him that he should at least pretend to have some remorse if he doesn’t want to get railroaded during his upcoming trial. When he refuses to do that, she understands that it is a matter of principal for him and that he has always been too stubborn to change his ways. When his mother turns to leave, she tells him that she will love him no matter what. Trying to lighten the mood, Robbie tells her that it was swell and asks her to bring his father next time so he can watch them bicker with one another just like old times.[1] Fighting back tears, Maddie tells her son that there will be no next time. Once she is gone, Robbie drops his head down in sorrow.

Recurring Characters

Speedball, Maddie Baldwin, Toomey, Hickey

Continuity Notes

Speedball jokes about his parents bickering, which was a hallmark of the characters in Speedball #1-10.

Topical References

Maddie Baldwin says she heard on CNN that Robbie is the most hated man in America. This should be considered a topical reference as CNN is a real world TV network.

Sleeper Cell, Part 2

Detectives Keith Dixon and Donna Altieri have been called to an explosion at Joe’s Marine Mania. They have learned that the wife of the proprietor was dead, but there is no sign of Joe. Through interviews, they only thing that they know about him is that he knew a lot about fish, and spoke with a distinct accent that nobody could place. Donna also finds it peculiar that Joe, a recent immigrant, was able to finance a specialty pet store without taking money from the mob. When Keith suggests that he might have been some kind of suicidal mutant who spontaneously combusted, Altieri quashes that by reminding him that there aren’t many mutants anymore.[1]

The next theory they float is that perhaps Joe was a Russian sleeper agent or something. While they are on the right track, what they don’t know is that Joe was an Atlantean who was chosen to pose as a ordinary human on the surface world until he received the code to drop his cover. This signal came in the form of a number of whales that suddenly beached off the coast of California. As Keith goes over the basic idea of how a sleeper agent would operate, Donna asks her partner what he thinks their mission is. Keith doesn’t know, it could be that they are going to assassinate the President or something.

When she doesn’t like that idea, Dixon asks her what she thinks is going on. She figures Joe was cheating on his wife and decided to commit insurance fraud to cash in on his business and wife and cut out of his current life. While this sounds reasonable, Keith says its not as interesting as his head. Donna then jokingly asks him who he wants to play him in the move. As they walk off the scene they don’t notice that Joe — having dropped his human disguise — has stolen a firefighter’s outfit so he can slip away unnoticed.

Recurring Characters

Keith Dixon, Donna Altieri, Atlanteans, (in flashback) Sub-Mariner

Continuity Notes

At the time of this story, the Scarlet Witch had used her reality warping abilities to de-power most of the mutant population, as seen in House of M #8/Decimation: House of M - The Day After #1. This will remain the status quo until Avengers vs. X-Men #12.

Topical References

When Donna asks Keith who he wants to play him in the movie about this case, he jokingly tells her that he’d want Will Smith. At the time of this story, Smith was at the height of his career. This reference should be considered topical as you could replace Smith’s name with a more contemporary African-American actor.

Goodnight Saigon*

Preface: A write up about the Adjutant Gerneal’s Center file from 1981 that the United States suffered 50000 fatalities during the Vietnam War, including 3000 military personnel who either died or were MIA and over 300000 were wounded. In 1995, on the 20th anniversary of the war, the Agence France Presse was given fatality figures of over 1100000 killed in action and over 60000 wounded.

What follows is an adaptation of the lyrics to Billy Joel’s son Goodnight Saigon. It is paired with soldiers in Vietnam entering a village where they take heavy casualties, taking prisoners and mourning their dead. This is juxtaposed next to the SHIELD raid on the Anti-Registration Underground.

Recurring Characters

SHIELD, Anti-Registration Underground (Battlestar, All-Out, Attacker, Awe-Striker, Basic Black, Canasta, Captain Kinship, Dahntu, Freeware, Gladiatrix, Green Guardswoman, Harbormaster, Haunter, Human Haze, Iguanid, Johnny Justice, Kruzado, Lawman, Masked Rose, Natural, Network, Orange Crusher, Panthrax, Peace-Lover, Quiblah, Scorecard, Skybolt, Solo, Spaceheat, Staten Island Star, Stone-Tough, Tosser, Typeface, US Annie, Winter Woman, Warbug, Xantippe, Zapster), Iron Man, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Sally Floyd

* 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 X-Factor (vol. 3) #9.