Review: Harbinger Wars #2
Published by Valiant Entertainment
Written by Joshua Dysart (story assistance by Duane Swierczynski)
Art by Clayton Henry with Pere Perez
Coloured by Brian Reber
The Plot
A guy from Dubai is getting jiggy with a bunch of women in Las Vegas until a P.R.S. (Project Rising Spirit) helicopter crashes into the hotel. The psiots are loose in the hotel and they quickly deal with everyone there. Meanwhile Bloodshot and another group of psiots are engaged by Toyo Harada and some of his people. Bloodshot is overridden by a different protocol and goes all out on Harada. The battle is vicious with some nice surprises. Harada’s people are dealing with the psiots until that confrontation spirals out of control. During the confusion, Bloodshot and the psiots are able to escape. James and Maggie, psiots who are in each group are having a troubling conversation with one another in their minds. Over in Nunavut, Canada, a man named Charlie Palmer is approached by P.R.S., which means that the H.A.R.D. Corps are back in action in order to deal with the psiots. In Las Vegas, the psiots are readying for an approach by Peter Stanchek and the Renegades.
The Breakdown
This was a very good comic. There is a lot of action and the battle between Harada and Bloodshot was not anticlimactic by any means. I enjoyed the fact that it launches into the action because it signifies that something is happening and immediately dispels any fears of being a typical decompressed event. More players are introduced and everything is set for a major collision course. The screen time is appropriately used for the characters included in this issue. The Renegades get one panel as other characters get the majority of the screen time. This resulted in some very good pacing overall and this story is moving along at a nice rate. With the introduction of the psiots into his life, I am enjoying the Bloodshot character much more and he is getting a bit more depth. I like the power sets of the psiots and how they are utilized in this story…it makes everything feel more unique and not just another basic run of the mill event. There’s a very ominous feeling with this story and I’m anxious to see what goes down. I’ve been reading Bloodshot, Harbinger, and Harbinger Wars and I really like how the other titles simply complement the event. They are not absolutely necessary to understanding the entire story, which also shows Valiant’s intent on creating a great story and not attempting a cash grab. Harada is one vicious S.O.B. I’m curious about the introduction of the H.A.R.D. Corps and I want to see what Peter does next issue. The art team brought it this month as well and it was great seeing Henry’s pencils again. I’m really enjoying this story so far.
BUT…
Being an event and all, I wouldn’t have minded seeing the book expanding to 24 pages.
Buy It, Borrow It, Shelf Read It, or Ignore It?
Buy It. This has been a refreshing story. I admit to being so jaded when it comes to events these days. However, Harbinger Wars has been successful at helping me believe in the concept of comic events once again. I hope that this story continues to maintain its quality because it will make my holiday and birthday shopping much easier this year. There are A LOT of characters in this storyline and this could be a disaster under a different creative team…however, it’s far from that. The creative team has done a great job of making an event worthy of the title “event.”
