Harbinger #1 Review
“Omega Rising: Part 1”
Harbinger #1 is another title that hit store shelves this month from the newly revived Valiant comic book publisher. Harbinger focuses on a young man by the name of Peter Stancher who’s having trouble “finding” himself and dealing with certain exceptional powers that are barely containable inside of him. His escape with a friend from a mental institution two months earlier have left him wandering the streets and robbing pharmacies in an attempt to quiet other people’s thoughts that intrude their way into his mind. Of course robbery and unstable friends are always a recipe to get caught and Peter soon finds himself on the run once again. At the last viable moment to escape Peter is contacted telepathically by Toyo Harada, a Psiot just like Peter, just much more powerful. Toyo informs Peter that he can control his powers and expand his mind to even greater possibilities like telekinesis, levitation, spacial atomic distortion, electro-psychokinesis (whatever that is), and so much more. Peter in his obvious predicament will most likely oblige.
Toyo Harada and the Psiots are really the only similarities this book has to it’s 1992 Valiant book of the same name. It’s unsure what Toyo’s plans are with Peter Stancher, but chances are they aren’t to make him a super hero. Harbinger #1 is a pretty good book, Jeff Parker manages to give this series a facelift and is heading it in what looks to be a good direction. I like the fact that you don’t know if Peter is going to be good, bad, or just a pawn that Toyo plans to exploit in future issues leaving this book with endless opportunities. The art by Khari Evans is clean and underwhelming. It doesn’t give or take away from the book, it’s just there. Harbinger #1 in my opinion is a much stronger Valient title than X-O Manowar from a few weeks past, and I’m very curious to see how the rest of the upcoming Valient titles fair since I would like to see them do well.
While you’re at Cosmic Comics! picking up all the hot new titles this week, and hopefully Harbinger #1, they have Bleeding Cool’s new monthly magazine. Bleeding Cool is a blogsite that is sort of like the gossip column for comic books, and their monthly magazine is that site in print. The magazine itself really impressed me, for the small price of $1.49 you get a Walking Dead price guide, summer movie preview, a whole section dedicated to the return of Valient Comics, under the radar books, and a preview of the upcoming “Before Watchmen” titles. I was really impressed with the print and will be reading it from cover to cover. So get down to Cosmic Comics! today and #getyourfix.
You can read more from Burke over at nerdfarmblog.com.
[…] Valiant in their, well, valiant effort, have brought back one of their most popular books in hopes of taking back the attention of their old audience, and capturing a new audience in the process. Bloodshot has some hype coming out of the gate, but can it’s revamped first issue put it back in the spotlight? […]