by Charlie Brooks, CMRO Contributing Writer
World War Hulk: Front Line
Issue #2
Written by Paul Jenkins, Art by Chris Moreno & Ramon Bachs
Published: September 2007
World War Hulk: Front Line #2 veers away from the presentation of the miniseries first issue by giving us two stories (well, technically three, but one of those is a gag story). That’s a bit odd, but in the end I suppose it makes sense, since the end of the last issue saw the tale split into two directions: Sally Floyd and Ben Urich’s “man on the street” view, and Danny Granville teaming up with one of the Hulk’s Warbound to find the killer of Arch-E, the Hulk’s sentient robot buddy. One of these stories is much more interesting than the other.
We start off with what I think is the weaker of the two tales: “Embedded: Behind Enemy Lines.” This is picking up the part of the plot that follows Sally Floyd and Ben Urich as they witness the unfolding events of World War Hulk #2. The narrative is unfortunately mostly concerned with having Sally and Ben panic while the Hulk smashes up the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. The idea of seeing a superhero battle from the little guy’s perspective is a decent one, but it fails to deliver here. Front Line seems to want to channel Marvels, which is a classic work that shows the common man’s perspective on the big superhero events of the Marvel Universe. But Marvels has two things that this story lacks. First, it has a character who thinks deeply about the subject matter and who adapts his world view based on what he sees. Here, Sally and Ben are mostly just freaking out. That’s to be expected, since the Hulk’s battles are causing total chaos, but there’s no development in this story – it starts with Sally and Ben panicking, and it ends with them panicking. Other than briefing us on what happens in World War Hulk #2, there’s not a lot of content here.
The other thing that Marvels had that Front Line lacks is a distinct difference between the retelling of the story and the original. Marvels worked because it took the wacky, idealistic styles of the Golden and Silver Ages and took them seriously. Nowadays, comics already take a more grounded approach, so the “man on the street” perspective becomes a bit redundant. The big feeling that Front Line #2 is trying to get across is the feeling of dread as the Marvel heroes fall before the Hulk. But that feeling was already captured to perfection in World War Hulk #2, where we got a wonderful large panel of the Hulk and his Warbound dragging their fallen foes through the streets. World War Hulk #2 accomplished in one panel what Front Line #2 takes 12 pages to tell, and it does so much better, letting the art speak for itself.
“Embedded” does have one thing going for it, and that is the middle of the story where Daredevil makes an appearance and interacts with Sally. This is showing us something that didn’t happen in the main book, which is where Front Line #1 excelled. It also captures the gritty feel that the rest of the issue fails to grasp by having Daredevil point out how hard the poor neighborhoods like Hell’s Kitchen are going to be hit in the battle with the Hulk. Even if the Hulk is defeated, the odds of somebody picking up the pieces in Hell’s Kitchen are pretty low. Daredevil’s appearance is pretty powerful, and it would have been nice if the rest of the story could have drawn from that instead of wasting dialogue on something that was previously accomplished in silence.
From “Embedded,” we jump over to “Costume Division: Death of an Android,” which deals with Danny Granville and the stone man Korg working together on a murder investigation to find out who killed the android Arch-E-5912. This is where the whole issue should have been, in my opinion. It does something more than just recap the events going on in the main event book. The relationship between Danny and Korg is getting the type of vibe we’d expect in a buddy cop film, with Korg not understanding Earth ways and Danny freaking out a bit because he’s out of his element. Unfortunately, because the book is split between multiple stories, we don’t get much development of either the characters’ relationship or the mystery at large. We know more of less what we knew at the end of last issue: Arch-E is dead, and Korg needs to find his killer. Korg’s dialogue is a bit off, leaving me to wonder if writer Paul Jenkins did much reading up on the way he was portrayed in Planet Hulk, but it’s not too bad. Continuity is also a bit iffy here, as it must take place before “Embedded,” as Korg is helping out the Hulk in World War Hulk #2. It probably would have been better to have “Costume Division” first in this issue to keep chronology as intuitive as possible. That would also have been leading with strength, since this story is certainly the more fun and interesting tale in this issue.
Last in this issue, we have “War is Heck,” which is a fun two-page piece dealing with the misadventures of Captain Rectitude. It’s a fast, simple setup and good for a smile. It’s obviously an out- of-continuity joke, so whether you enjoy it depends on how much you like Marvel’s brand of humor. For my part, it is nice to see a bit of a gag in a Front Line comic, since Jenkins tends to get preachy and overly-serious in these stories. And if you don’t like it, it’s only two pages long.
While World War Hulk: Front Line #2 doesn’t slide toward the lack of quality that I initially feared when I started going over this title, it does take a step backwards from where it was last issue. By splitting the story in two, we now have a less interesting lead-in tale taking away page time from a much more intriguing mystery story. There’s still time for the miniseries to recover from these early gaffes, though, and even the less-than-stellar first story has a standout spot. If you liked Front Line #1, then this second issue is worth checking out. It contains just enough good stuff in it to leave fans holding out hope that the story will pick up once again in the next issue.
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