Harbinger Wars #3

THE TEAM
Writer Joshua Dysart Art Clayton Henry Pere Perez

Valiant has been juggling a large amount of characters with their Harbinger Wars event. In issue #3 they bring yet another team of people in the mix with the Hard Corps. This brings the total number of teams fighting against each other to four. In a typical Marvel or DC event there are simply two sides duking it out to see who is stronger. Another thing that series has going for it, is that most events do not contain the organic nature of the title. The conflict between all of these separate factions have been building in their own individual titles. Here all of these people have come to a massive crossroads which involve many of them fighting. The action here mostly takes place in Nevada. Having telekinetic forces battle unstoppable war machines could have the potential to get silly. Thankfully the surroundings of Las Vegas makes this story feel more real in general. In the opening page there is a map showing exactly where some of the action took place. One thing that may turn off some fans looking to jump right into a new event, is that this story is not accessible. Without a base understanding of who exactly these characters are readers may feel lost.

The past two issues of this series have been building to a huge conflict. Here some of the action begins to present itself but, Bloodshot and Toyo Harada are still licking their wounds from their previous battle. The introduction of the Corps. is tackled okay but simply seems more like an editorial decision than an organic story one. The reason being that it just makes this event seem even more chaotic. At the base of the story it makes sense simply because Rising Spirit is at the last leg and have their hands tied by the U.S. government. Talking about the story and some of the more intricate details may turn readers off who are looking for some straight superhero fair. The psiot kids that have been building throughout this story are very hard to get invested in, simply because there are so many of them. A few even drop dead within this issue. What makes it even more complicated is that there are two divisions of these characters. Readers interested in reading this even would be well suited to read the tie-ins to the event. Bloodshot and Harbinger are going to be essential reads in this story at least. Peter Stanchek and company have taken a backseat in this event even though it is called Harbinger Wars.

As complicated as this story is, it never becomes uninteresting. One issue may not be enough to wrap up all of the threads within this story in a satisfying manner. Hopefully the threads will simply be picked up in all of the different titles surrounding this universe. A periodical can never truly be done. The Valiant Universe has been a changing beast ever since it’s inception last year. Stick around to watch the building blocks of the coming years in Valiant.