Freak Comics

During the Civil War event earlier this year I was pretty bored. I was just getting in to Marvel and decided to read the entire event… every single tie-in. That was a mistake. Most of the tie-ins were poorly written… an attempt to ride the coat tails of Civil War’s great promotional success.
Out of all the Civil War comics I read, Front Line was by far my favorite. It gave the reader an alternate perspective on the war by following two reporters Ben Urich and Sally Floyd.

I’m now on board with Marvel. After the Civil War ended I decided to keep being a sucker and signed up for all the Initiative titles. This was a smart move because the Initiative is actually good. Then World War Hulk came along. I took a quick look at the check list at my favorite comic shop and decided to skip most of the tie-ins. I even decided not to sign up for World War Hulk: Front Line, assuming it wouldn’t be able to hold a candle next to the excellent writing of Civil War Front Line. I did however purchase the first issue and quickly found out that I was wrong.

Brought to us by Paul Jenkins and Ramon Bachs (the same creative team that gave us Civil War Front Line), World War Hulk Front Line fills in a few gaps between the events of Civil War and World War Hulk by briefly telling us how the Front Line newspaper was started. I love the fact that Ben Urich and Sally Floyd now own a secretly funded corporation-independent news paper (My guess is that this paper is being funded by Tony Stark AKA Iron Man… then again I could be way off).
Later we get a unique perspective of the Hulk’s Warbound as they deal with the city of New York as political delegates.
This comic is smartly written. It’s also well illustrated and fast paced. Front Line does a very nice job blending in with it’s events without rehashing the stuff we already know, just as it did with Civil War.

If you’re reading World War Hulk, I highly recommend pairing it with Front Line.