Harbinger #13

The Team
Writer Joshua Dysart Artist Trevor Hairsine Khari Evans

Harbinger has been a vicious title from the launch of the first issue. The story has centered around some nice people making some poor decisions. The Valiant Universe as a whole has not been afraid to pull some sharp punches leaving readers emotionally devastated on a regular basis. Nothing in these titles have been poorly written in previous issues, but sometimes the audience can get swept up in some of the darker scenes of this comic. Echoes of Breaking Bad come to my mind when talking about some of the darker content here. This title seems to take place before the third issue of the Harbinger Wars event which featured some truly shocking revelations to this series. Catching up on some of the back story to why and how the characters got where they are is interesting enough. There are an immense amount of characters introduced into the title amongst a huge event story. Keeping with the characters and events straight can be taxing here but, ultimately can prove worth it to flesh out the backstory.

In order to enjoy the Harbinger Wars story to the fullest, reading the tie-ins can prove essential to comprehend some of the motivations that the characters have. Also watching characters get set-up for battles that they are about to have in the sister titles can prove amusing. Character has been a strong focus since the start of the book. Peter Stanchek has been fleshed out as the strongest psiot on earth yet he simply wants to do the right thing. Like some of the other strong cable shows on television Stanchek is very flawed, he is unlike them because he wants to do the right thing. This comic book series started with a rape clear and simple, which makes it truly incredible that a character like this can be redeemed. This issue in particular started off with a plot thread that was not payed off in the following pages which proved slightly frustrating. The strong writing of Joshua Dysart can be forgiven in this aspect, as he is likely to pay this off later. The event has rendered this storyline with some vast potential that may be seen later.

Art in this issue is a bit of a mixed bag with Trevor Hairsine and Khari Evans both on pencils. Evans has a competent style that is fairly clean in the title. Ian Hannin is on colors here, his palette makes the comic feel a bit depressing sometimes. Even though his pastels are fairly bright specific moments can really drag the pencil style down in terms of quality. Hairsine’s work looks sloppy here, lines are jagged and curvy when they should not be. His images are also static and do not give you a clear sense of where anything should be in the title. The worst part about all of the art mentioned here is that it just simply looks dated in a drab style that does not suite the book. The hushed gray color tones in Valiant books will not stand the test of time.

While some will enjoy the darker aspects of the book, they tend to not be what I want out of comics currently. However all of the material is written very well and may indeed be what others want from a series like this. For those interested in this book a purchase is well worth your money even if you have to settle for some dated artwork.