Review: Harbinger #6
Published by Valiant Entertainment
Written by Joshua Dysart
Art by Phil Briones
Coloured by Ian Hannin
The Plot
The issue begins with Kris Hathaway who hasn’t been seen since Peter left to join the Toyo Harada. Kris has been visiting Joe for the past month and is now concerned about his whereabouts after the building that he was staying in got demolished in the previous issue. She talks about her experiences with being mind-controlled and also reveals that she knows that she has had extra company for the past month. Her home life is unstable and then Faith (a.k.a. Zephyr) makes an appearance with a special instrument in tow. Faith takes her to meet Peter who makes a strange request of her. Peter still feels guilty about mind-controlling her and therefore, agrees to helping her unethically solve her family’s problems. Kris then sees Harada on the t.v. and he looks much older then he really is. She seemingly pulls a double cross on Peter, but tries to insure her parent’s safety instead. The Resistance now consists of Peter, Faith, and Kris and they are going to find more members now.
The Breakdown
Faith is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. She has this excitement and exuberance for the mission and her newly gained powers. In fact, without her help I have doubts that Kris would’ve gotten involved at all. Kris is a cool, calculating character. I’m unfamiliar with the old Harbinger series and wasn’t aware that Kris would be coming back to play such a large role. Whether or not she gains any powers, it looks like she’s going to be the brains of the operation (especially after seeing her plan with Harada). Dysart displays some great writing skills in this issue because I went from not caring about the character at all to her being either my second or third favorite character in the series. I hope that her connection with Joe is shown later on with the use of flashbacks or something. I also enjoyed the realistic take with Faith carrying Kris during flight. She has to take breaks and doesn’t have the strength to carry Kris. On that note, Kris’ ordeal after being mind-controlled by Peter was also portrayed in an interesting manner. Faith’s idea to conceal them from Harada made me laugh out loud. Peter was secondary in this issue as he was recovering from the beating he took, which gave the other characters some serious screen time. I have no idea who the next members of the resistance will be and I’m really looking forward to seeing who they are. Overall, this issue has a good look to it as Briones is able to tell a lot of story in some of the pages without them having a cluttered look to them. I am still learning how powerful Harada is and his ability to conceal his appearance was a very cool touch. I’m very curious as to what happened with Harada and co. at the Hathaway household. This was another very good issue.
BUT…
I didn’t care for Peter’s appearance in some of the pages. He looked old rather than being beaten up. I’m enjoying Briones’ art overall, but I hope that Evans returns sometime in the future for an arc. Other than that I didn’t have any other gripes with this issue.
Buy It, Borrow It, Shelf Read It, or Ignore It?
Buy It. Then Buy one for your friend. This has been perhaps the greatest surprise for me this year in terms of comics. I picked it up because I enjoyed X-O Manowar so much. I anticipate this week every month because both of these titles come out. I love this book so much that I want to go and shout it from the rooftops…okay, a bit of overkill, but I do strongly recommend this title.
