Harbinger Volume 1: Omega Rising (HARBINGER (VALIANT UNIVERSE) TP)

Sorry for the punny title, however that's my feelings on this tpb, as I mentioned in my Archer and Armstrong (AA) review (which I enjoyed quite a bit, btw) this book is was dethroned it from being my favorite of all of the Valiant relaunches. Again I'll start with a little backstory, my first experience with Harbinger was with the original TPB that came bagged and with a copy of Harbinger #0, so unlike AA, I came into Harbinger with fresh eyes, since I was late to the Valiant party not reading the books until somewhere in 1993-94 when Shadowman caught my attention. Co-Created by Jim Shooter and up and coming superstar writer/artist David Lapham (a realtive newcomer to comics at that time) it was a story about a young boy who develops these extra sensory powers that propel him from a normal kid to one of two people on earth with an extraordinary gift effectively making him one of the strongest (and most dangerous) people on Earth. So back to my subject line "I literally couldn't put it down" this is no lie, out of the four TPB's that have so far been released this is the one I read in one sitting, I couldn't stop reading, other than the basic premise and a few characters this book literally has nothing to do with the original Harbinger, Peter is more ruthless (as a kid on the run who's fended for himself would be) and what few friends he does have are not the best company. Unlike the original Harbinger where Peter is a normal kid with a normal life that totally changes when the Harbinger foundation comes on the scene. No this is way different, there is tons of backstory that writer Joshua Dysart has come up with for this title that grabs you, hooks you and makes you want to know what happens next, who is Harada, what is his goal, why does he keep such odd secrets behind close doors (you'll have to read it to understand by what I mean here) and will it all work out for Peter in the end. I found myself getting caught up with the story in one such scene when Peter meets fellow psiots (I like egg breakers or harbingers better) at lunch one day. As he is a telepath he can hear their thoughts, some are curious and some are disdainful of Harada's golden boy. He meets a older student but refuses to shake his hand, innocent enough, except the young man thinks an off color remark and Peter hears it, never did I once have anything but "kick his conceited @$$ Peter" going through my head at that time and I literally let out of cry of "serves you right, you little punk" when Peter did give him his come uppance. At that point I knew this was going to be a wild ride and I was ready to strap myself in. There are some questions I have about character motivation and I don't think Harada is as fleshed out as he has been n the past, but I hope that Dysart continues to flesh him out and give him more time on the page so we feel we get to know who Harada is, instead of tip-toeing around the issue, but I guess that's what will keep others like me coming back for more, to see what happens. (and maybe some of these things will be revealed in the Harbinger Wars story going on as I write this) I would remiss to not mention the art, Khari Evans does a very superb job of making the action flow quickly and making the pictures compliment the words perfectly, I couldn't imagine anyone else doing this book, here's hoping that Khari is on for the long haul here. Not too much more to add, I could sit and nitpick a few issues, but overall, this is an excellent book, their best book of the relaunched titles, if I may be so bold. As I mentioned with my AA review, my only hope is that Harbinger doesn't fall into the same trap that, that book did as the series went on. I don't foresee Dysart falling into that same trap with the explosive beginning he created and I do see nothing but great things "a harbinger of things to come" for this book. 5 out of 5 stars, no quality issues with this book (unlike the printer error on AA Vol. 1) and I can't wait for Vol. 2 to release soon so I can see what's instore for Peter and the Renegades next. Highest recommendation possible, a must read, if you like great comics.

With those words, and the image of a teenage boy with glowing eyes floating amidst a destroyed city scape, the scope of Valiant’s Harbinger series is set. When dealing with the subject of individuals born with amazing powers, inevitable comparisons will occur with Marvel’s X-men franchise. And, yes, Harbinger is the story of people born with a variety of powers, and the “school” they attend to learn how to master those abilities, all under the watchful eye of an extremely powerful headmaster……..and that’s where the comparison with X-men needs to stop. And be turned around. Upside down. And inside out. Harbinger is the story of Peter Stanchek… young, powerful, troubled. Born “activated” with incredible abilities, Peter is on the run and using his gifts to do many desperate and unfortunate acts. Harbinger is the story of Toyo Harada… businessman, powerful, humanitarian. He has a vision for a better world, and has established the Harbinger Foundation as a means to help train those like him to better understand their gifts so that his vision can be achieved. Harbinger is the story of one man’s need for absolute control, and another’s rebellion against overwhelming authority. The ultimate “Have” vs. the ultimate “Have Not.” Crafted by Joshua Dysart and Khari Evans, this first volume details the introduction and beginning of the struggle between Peter and Harada, a struggle that ultimately erupts into full blown war in later volumes. This volume really reads like the first act of a play in what becomes an amazing ongoing story. Like all Valiant titles, this story takes place in the broader Valiant Universe, and introduces concepts that will be seen throughout the Valiant line of books. Like all Valaint titles, this is the start of something special, and absolutley worth the read!

Harbinger by Joshua Dysart is such a splendidly dark comic. I say that because it really is rather dark and people don't seem to mention it when recommending it. This book really is for mature readers. It's dark, as I said, in a very unexpected ad disarming way. You should really never judge a book by its cover, and for some reason (not knowing anything about 90's Harbinger) I thought this was going to be a simple superhero book. I soon found out that Harbinger is not for the faint of heart. Not only does our protagonist do morally reprehensible acts, but every character in this comic seems to have some sort of moral ambiguity to them. This is gritty realistic superhero stuff for the modern age and I love it! Harbinger is a fan favorite of the Valiant line and not only is it possibly their best title to date, but arguably the best comic in the industry today. What more can be said about Harbinger that fans haven't already expressed? It's got intrigue, action, super-powerful psionic beings, and lets not forget the top notch characterization that the book is known for. If you're looking for an excellent character driven series, than Harbinger is for you! This is one Valiant title I was a bit hesitant to start reading. I had heard all the rumblings from fans about Harbinger around when Harbinger Wars was solicited. When anything is hyped that much, I immediately make a mental note of that as something to be skeptical about and possibly avoid. Hype is often rarely matched in execution, but as I found out when I finally picked this up, this book really did meet the hype. Do yourselves a favor: trust the hype and buy this book. I give it a 5/5. It's that good!

More enjoyable and less confusing than some of the other Dysart Harbinger/Imperium titles. Harada comes off as more mysterious than outright easy to hate. The focus on Peter gives the audience a fairly good entry into the plotlines and universe. Good start

I'm completely new to Valiant Comics, so reading Harbinger was pretty much a gamble for me. I had some great review scores to go on and some vague sense of the plot, but that's about it. I'm so glad I decided to try this series. SO. VERY. GLAD. Harbinger starts with a concept that is intriguing, yet admittedly unoriginal: a world in which normal people have developed super powers, a la the mutants of Marvel's X-Men fame. However, the global situation, the nature of the powers themselves, and the story told in Harbinger are so different from anything I've read before that it quickly distinguishes itself as a series that is fresh and unique, rather than a rehash of what's been done before. This is a top-notch book; the story is a thrill and the art is excellent. As I've already proven, it's nearly impossible not to compare this book to X-Men, so if you're a fan of the mutants of Marvel, this is great book for you. I also encourage fans of Brian K. Vaughan's Runaways to read this book, though this is a recommendation that may not make sense at first. Honestly, though, I'll go ahead and recommend this book to anyone who's even slightly interested in comics. It's that good, and it's definitely in the running to become one of the my favorite series.

I'm just going to get it out of the way and say... It's X-Men. Just get over it... it's just an updated Millar/Ellis-esque version of the X-Men. After all the praise and 5/5 reviews this work achieved, imagine my disappointment at finding it to be what amounts to be a Marvel fan-fic. The art is good but not extraordinary (severally contorted in one or two places, the characters need to have more "weight" in the space they're occupying); the artist clearly worships at the altar of Brian Hitch (ALWAYS a good move) and he's to be complimented and I expect we, the audience, will probably be going places with him in the future. I wish I could be more eloquent with my assessment... It's striving to be the same style game changer seen in Marvel's Ultimates and Ellis' work with Stormwatch/Authority without having the narrative and PACING chops (oh god... the pacing or lack thereof) to make it happen. I'm sure 13yo me would have been all over this, and quite a bit of my position is based on my current age (I'm sure things I read and love NOW will induce MUCH facepalming from future me)... so perhaps I'm being unfair and overly critical - looking for something that this work REALLY ISN'T ABOUT in the first place. So your milage may very will vary. Yes... it's X-Men... but there's a place for "xmen books" on the shelves too. It was an enjoyable but PREDICTABLE Saturday afternoon flick - not terrible but not what I was looking for.

I was looking into Valiant's line of titles for I feel that both Marvel and DC have forgotten what it takes to make great comics: tight storytelling with compelling characters wrapped up in dynamic art. With the this modern update of their classic title Harbinger, Valiant scores another hit. Dysart does an outstanding job in this title with both characterization and pacing. He introduces us to Peter Stanchek, a powerful telepath/telekinetic, a troubled youth looking to disappear in life. But hidden forces are aligning to train him and use him in a vast struggle for the future of the world. Peter learns some harsh lessons along the way, that this new world he has entered against his will is filled with morally grey shadows. Khari Evans delivers some amazing art, detailing the pain and despair of Peter's struggle. The action scenes are intense and brutal. Just as evocative are his portrayals of Peter's pain and loss as his friends suffer the consequences of Peter's powers and new life. The world of Harbinger will draw you in and leave you captivated for more. If you like well-thought stories, strong characterization, and terrific art, look no further than Harbinger.

Lets look at the actual book first it has 125 pages,Each cover marks an new issue, so its easy to tell the progression of the story. They have also added the voice Variant at the very front. They use the orginal first cover as the Main cover of this trade. Its a pretty cool cover ! The credits are the in front, so you know who wrote and drew every issue. Now on to the CONTENT! The first issue covers Peter and the blood Monk It also shows a young Toyo Harda. Lets just say the soldiers he runs into don't stand a chance! The second issue covers Peter being recruited by Toyo! The third issue hes in Harada camp! The Fourth issue He breaks out of the camp!! And the final issue major battles happen!!! Overall i would give this 5/5 A+ Awesome characterization and awesome story~

The art in this book is hit and miss. Every now and then, they nail it, but a lot of the time it's kinda jarring how off it is. I don't know if that was the art direction, or if they were trying something new, but for the most part, Peter looks like some random guy, and it's not until they start drawing his hair dark, that he actually looks like himself at all. The story in this one is pretty much essential reading. This gives you the backstory for Peter, a bit of Toyo, and Darpan. Peter's backstory is about as predictable as possible, though it does give you some pathos; Peter can read minds, but he can't control it by himself. He's been institutionalized for most of his life, except a relatively short time that he's been on the run. He has a friend named Joey from his runaway period, and memories of a girl he knew before he was captured. Brief plot summary: Mercenaries are trying to track down and capture Peter Stanchek, he is on the run with his friend Joey Irons, and they steal money and prescription drugs to try and keep their conditions under control. Peter also tries to talk to his former friend Kris, but it goes poorly. Spoiler, but she hates everyone and everything, all the time, it's not endearing, she's literally the worst character. Frustrated that he can barely get her to listen, he mind controls Kris to love him, and they spend the night together. During the night, Peter gets contacted by Toyo Harada, the world's other most powerful psiot, telepath, rich guy, and future super villian. He makes Peter an offer of tutelage, but is interrupted. Joey comes back to the house they are squatting in, seemingly let go of the interrogation. He doesn't realize that he's let the mercenaries follow him straight to Peter. They are using crude anti-psiot technology to disrupt his powers, but Toyo tells Peter to unleash his powers if he wants to survive this. He does. He crushes the soldiers weapons, deflects their bullets, mind wipes the guy ordering them, and crashes their helicopter into the empty house they were squatting in. He accepts Toyo's offer, getting in a van, while he releases Kris from his mind control (where she immediately goes back to screaming at him and flipping out) and Joey says that he's afraid of Peter because of what he's done. He tries to set up conditions for their care, but it's done hastily before they drive off. Toyo is the head of Harada Global Conglomerates, a bunch of different businesses, he has a search engine named after him, etc. But it's mostly a front for the Harbinger program, an X-Men style school, designed to find and train psiots with their powers, while essentially training them to be loyal to Harada and becoming his own private army. He gets assigned to a handler, who's powers suppress other psiot's abilities, and is sent to their psychologist. She has Darpan use his powers so they will relive Peter's past traumas, she's doing this to help him, but also to spy for Harada. Peter can activate latent psiot powers. That is a big deal, as that's a power unique to him. Harada's best technology only has at best, a 75% success ratio, with 25% dying painfully, and most of the ones activated only having some of their latent abilities. After therapy, Peter wants to self medicate and sleep off the experience, but he's forced to meet other students. It doesn't go well. He can hear their thoughts again, and it's obvious he isn't wanted there. He finds out that Hidden Moon had been suppressing Peter's powers, but now that he can hear everyone, he realizes that most of the room wants to fight him. Ion, a psiot who controls electricity, tries to teach Peter his place, but it backfires. Peter launches him across the room, before all of the other psiots confront him. The story cuts to Faith, who's a girl that wants to fly and be popular. It's the usual gist, overweight girl gets made fun of everyone because the plot needs her to be looked down on. Typical introduction, typical stereotypes that don't hold up. She gets invited on a date by someone from the Harbinger program. Harada deals with the fallout of Peter's first day. Hidden Moon knows Peter won't join them, but the psychologist says he's been too hasty. That a different type of olive branch would work better. Toyo tries showing Peter behind the curtain, how their activation process works, and what happens when it doesn't. He asks Peter to activate Faith's powers, because Peter can probably do it without risking killing her. He tries, though it looks like Faith is dead, or at least injured. Peter leaves, asking Toyo to not make him do that again. At night, Livewire, Toyo's second in command, helps Peter escape. She tells him that they would be better off without him. After he leaves, he tracks down Joey. It takes hours, but he finds Joey in an abandoned flop house. He travels inside, past junkies to find Joey dead with a needle in his arm. The psychologist lady shows up, and tries to bring Peter back to Harbinger, but Peter realizes a setup, Joey hates needles. So, when Peter scans the minds of the junkies, he realizes they are all mind wiped and empty. The work of a psiot like Toyo. Peter lashes out, and forcibly reads the psychologist's mind. It was Toyo's plan to kill Joey, so that Peter would have nothing else left but the Harbinger program. Hidden Moon shows up again, taking away Peter's powers, and beating the crap out of him. Eventually throwing him down next to Joey's dead body. Peter grabs the needle from Joey, and stabs Hidden Moon in the neck with it, before beating him with a rusty pipe. The moment he gets his powers back, Peter flees to confront Toyo. Peter crashes into Toyo's penthouse office, where Toyo, Livewire, Ion and Stronghold all confront him. Stronghold blasts him, but Peter crashes the roof of the building onto him. Ion tries to kill him, Toyo stops him, takes him out into the night sky, and tries to tell Peter that he's either going to be useful, or Toyo will kill him. Livewire betrays Toyo, using the security drones to attack him. Peter falls back onto the Harbinger building. Stronghold was buried by the roof too, and he absorbed too much power while escaping, so he blasts off his energy into the sky, knocking Peter off the roof in the process. Peter thinks he's going to die, but Faith swoops in, she can fly now, and keeps him from dying from the fall, though they are both hurt in the landing. Toyo tacitly forgives Livewire, and continues his search for Peter, the book ends. ------ It's a good book, but there are a lot of moving parts. The thing that I found most interesting is Kris's story, though it still doesn't fully explain her. See, in ALL of the books, she's a yelling, screaming, nutjob, who is frankly a liability on a good day. This gives her at least SOME reason for that, but she is literally shown to be that way BEFORE Peter does anything. I don't know who likes this character, or why, but yeah. It's at least something, I guess, I still don't like her. She was actually more interesting under mind control, because that made it clear that her anger is entirely by choice; that she actively choses to flip out at everyone, all the time.

What starts out as an interesting idea devolves pretty quickly when the protagonist, who we're meant to be rooting for, uses his telepathic powers to basically date rape his high school crush. It's unforgiveable for the character, wildly off-putting for the story, and a massive miscalculation from the writer.

First I would like to say ~ I am not a team book reader. Which may seam strange as previously in the 1990's this was a team book, as it is now. But the way they intergrate the charactors and develop the story shows how much care and attention the creative team have put into this book. I orginally purchased this book as part of the relaunch of valiant ~ was not a huge fan of the original series ~ but thought I would give it a go. Money well spent. My first team book I love, and can see I am going to enjoy it for a long time. Just because the great story telling at the start leads well into the intergration of new team members ( rather than just throwing them all togther in the first issue). Reprints isssues 1~5 and as a trade is EPIC. Amazing story, cannot wait for the second trade and more idividual issues from the comic shop. A must read

Give this book a go it is lacking in some arias but by the end of the book I wanted to read the second volume. I would also recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the film "Chronicle", Harbinger was a good read even though it does not feel as fresh and new in this world of superhero fiction overload we live in. I admit that I never read the old Harbinger but this is the perfect beginners and I think it has the possibility to get better so for that alone I recommend picking it up and giving it a blast.

Ce trade paperback est le résultat d'une histoire capitalistique compliquée qui - selon une consultation de wikipedia à l'instant - a pour origine l'entreprise étatsunienne "Voyager Communications" (création en 1989, avec un certain nombre d'anciens de chez Marvel Comics), reprise et devenue "Acclaim Comics" (1996), avant d'aboutir à "Valiant Entertainment" (2005) et finalement à l'événement "L'Eté de Valiant 2012", qui a vu en mai 2012 le lancement successif de quatre comic books : 'X-O Manowar', 'Harbinger', 'Bloodshot' and 'Archer & Armstrong', à raison d'un par mois. Dans ce TPB, les 5 premiers comic books de la nouvelle série "Harbinger" ("signe avant-coureur", "symptôme", selon le premier dictionnaire qui est tombé sous ma souris) sont repris (1). Dans cette série, nous sommes en présence de Peter Stancek, un jeune américain du nord à la fin de l'adolescence, vagabond en rupture avec la société et même pré-délinquant, du fait de ses pouvoirs d'ordre mental, puissants (du genre de ceux des X-men Jean Grey, Emma Frost ou Pr. Charles Xavier) mais non maîtrisés. Il est repéré (tardivement ?) par un certain Toyo Harada, un quadragénaire qui dispose de pouvoirs comparables et pourrait devenir son mentor. Mais Harada introduit Stancek dans un monde secret, très organisé et plutôt inquiétant, même pour qui n'a pas beaucoup de repères philosophiques ou autres et aucun avenir. Cette relance a apparemment été saluée outre-atlantique tant par la critique que par le lectorat. Preuve en est que sur Amazon.com, ce TPB obtient ce jour la bagatelle de 44 commentaires avec une note moyenne de 4.9 étoiles. De fait, ces 5 chapitres sont plutôt bien écrits, avec un pitch et une histoire flippants et ambigus juste ce qu'il faut : qui est dans le vrai ? Peter et ses minables embrouilles ou bien Toyo et sa puissante entreprise ? Les dessins (ne pas se fier aux couvertures. Khari Evans est un Jim Cheung qui aurait oublié son talent et sa technique) et les couleurs sont hélas - en tout cas à mes yeux - bien moins bluffants. Au point qu'il est peu probable, si le dessinateur est le même, que j'achète la suite, même si elle est aussi bon marché qu'aujourd'hui ce TPB... (1) Valiant a aussi entrepris la réédition en TPB d'épisodes plus anciens de ses personnages sauvés des catalogues des strates entrepreneuriales précédentes...