StarCraft: Frontline, Volume 2

Starcraft: Frontline #2

by Simon Furman, Joshua Elder, Grace Randolph

The brutal...The menacing...The twisted...Confront the vast, renowned world of "StarCraft" inside this collection of mind-blowing adventures. "Heavy Armor, Part 2", the adrenaline-pumping firefight between mentor and protg escalates to a fierce climax. Will the young Viking pilot outwit the man who taught him everything? Or will the teacher remain the undisputed master of heavy armor - and doom a colony? A Ghost Story Sterilized by war, a rocky planet's bounty and dark terrors have remained safely hidden - until a Kel Morian Combine crew catches wind of it hoping to strike big.There's just one problem: the planet seems to be haunted by a 'ghost'. Newsworthy A pro-Dominion reporter lands the scoop of lifetime: an exclusive sit-down with Emperor Arcturus Mengsk following an embedded mission with terran marines. Every good reporter tells both sides of the story, but when she comes face-to-face with atrocity, can she handle the brutal truth, much less report it? Creep Feared by all and understood by none, zerg creep finally comes under the knife in the laboratory of protoss scientists. But instead of shedding light on the bizarre bio-matter, the scientists spiral into a psychologically disturbing and nightmarish struggle against a completely unknown foe.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Video Games, Comics Manga

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2008

About the author

Simon Christopher Francis Furman is a British comic book writer who is best known for his work on Hasbro/Tomy's Transformers franchise, starting with writing Marvel's initial comic book to promote the toyline worldwide, as well as foundations for both Dreamwave Production's and IDW Publishing's takes on the Generation 1 minifranchise.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy Armor - Part 2: 2 stars.

Creep: 3 stars.

Newsworthy: 3, 5 (Storyline 4+ but artworks almost made me gouge my eyes out).

A Ghost Story: 3, 5 (like above, but I enjoyed a lot the creepiness factor of this tale).

[Vivone Os · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ni u ovom dijelu ništa nema s ničim veze. Možda da sam igrala Starcraft, kužila bih više.
Svidjela mi se jedino priča „A Ghost Story“. Voljela bih znati više o njenoj pozadini.

Bookopoly 2024. – TBR Game
Buddy Readathon with Ana 2024. - 3
Globalni ciljevi: nastavak serijala

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this straight after the James Bond story Silverfin I found it a lot harder going. Admittedly the story content was a lot more intense, but then again so was a lot of the graphics. I enjoyed the Terran stories more than the Protos one, which i found unreadable. Having a story written by 5 or 6 different artists is a bit of a mind bender, the artwork is so different that it is really somewhat surreal because there is no constant flow. For me the best story in this book was Newsworthy by Grace Randolph and Nam Kim, solid story line, great visuals, big breasted chick in tight lycra suit, solid characters and some clever closing of the story. Still giving it 2 stars, but the Newsworthy story dragged it to 2.5

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun Starcraft manga. It features four stories. The first, "Heavy Armor," finishes a story that began in Frontline (Volume 1), and it was my least favorite. Two combat engineers, a master who has went insane and his best student, face off. The second story, "Creep," features a group of Protoss scientists who are studying Zerg biology. It's o.k.. It becomes horror, a Starcraft version of Pandora's Box. The third story, "Newsworthy," was my favorite. It is about a loyal Dominion citizen, a journalist, who learns that her nation is not what she thinks it is. There is one full page of art in this story that is disturbing and memorable. The final story, "A Ghost Story," probably has the best art. The story is good but really tropey: a deep space salvaging mission gone horribly wrong.

[Federico DN · Rating 2 out of 5]

More Average.

A comic based on “Starcraft”.

The game is awesome. This second comic is still average and forgettable. Just don’t.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[2008] [192p] [Comic] [Not Recommendable]
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★★☆☆☆ StarCraft: Frontline, Volume 1
★★☆☆☆ StarCraft: Frontline, Volume 2
★★☆☆☆ StarCraft: Frontline, Volume 3
★★☆☆☆ StarCraft: Frontline, Volume 4

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Más Regular.

Un comic basado en “Starcraft”.

El juego es espectacular. Este segundo comic sigue siendo regular y olvidable. No te molestes.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[2008] [192p] [Comic] [No Recomendable]
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[Kassar Krennic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series was...very, very odd. Some of the stories are excellent, as in some of the best Starcraft stories ever written, while others were utterly, unimaginably terrible. For example, the plotline spread across the 4 volumes following Colin Phash was painfully bad, it almost physically hurt me to read them. Terrible art, terrible story and awful characters.
But stories such as Why We Fight, Creep, and Voice in the Darkness are by far some of my favourite pieces of Starcraft literature ever. They're fascinating, with interesting characters, great art and amazing stories.
Other stories are simply OK. They're not good, they're not bad, they're perfectly readable although you'll likely forget them soon after reading. Similarly, the art is, for the most part, passable but don't expect the Frontline manga to be filled with wonderful art from cover to cover. Just like the stories however, some art is amazing while some is also horrible.
What really annoys me about this series, however, is how it was advertised as telling "fringe stories that normally wouldn't be told" by Blizzard and yet, it doesn't really do that. Yes, there are a few stories set in, or involving, the Umojan Protectorate and the Kel-Morian Combine but the story never focuses on those factions and you never really get a good look into their lore, how they operate, what life is like to those living within them etc. Which is a huge shame since the Umojan Protectorate is a faction bursting with potential.
You also don't get any stories focusing on the United Earth Directorate (also known as the UED) or the Tal'darim which are, once again, two factions that are practically overflowing with story potential. The UED is by far my favourite faction in all of Starcraft, followed closely by the Tal'darim so to see neither of these factions even be mentioned at all in Frontlines is a huge shame imo.
So all in all, the Frontline series is difficult to rate. It never reaches its full potential, has its fair share of terrible stories and swings back and forth between fun to read, and agonising to read. And yet, I still recommend any true Starcraft fan read it, because the good stories are really good and you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading them.
So read Frontlines, just be prepared to love it and hate it as you do so.

[Adrian Podaru · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always loved and will love StarCraft. And thanks to Mada, I have this in my collection.

[Anastasiaadamov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just like in the first volume, I had trouble following the artwork while reading.
Violent scifi setting just does not do it for me...

[Joseph Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Also mildly painful to read; at least there is some sort of better plot (not hard to do) and better mood setting than the first volume.

I find it disappointing that there are no stories from the point of view of the zerg.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average manga but definitely creepy. =)