Harbinger Wars 2 #1
Valiant Comics
Written by Matt Kindt
Art by Tomás Giorello
For the rare and immensely powerful subset of humanity known as psiots, their unique abilities have come with an enormous cost. Once, their existence was known only to a select few. Now, the revelation that thousands of these latent telekinetic “harbingers” secretly live among us…with the potential to be activated at any moment…has led the American government to a dramatic tipping point…
The issue marks the start of an huge crossover event which sees members of the Valiant Universe come face-to-face fighting for what they believe is right.
There are numerous threads to follow here that are sure to lead to a shocking and violent clash before the event is over. There’s a powerful Psiot (think powered humans) whose currently activating other psiots while keeping one step ahead of the government agencies tracking him. A psiot who controls technology, called Livewire, who is protecting a group of psiot children, as well as a group called The Renegades, a group who protect others like themselves. Then there’s those on the other side, those who are working for the government agencies and countries, such a Ninjak and X-O Manowar who see themselves was upholding the law of the land and protecting their own people.
The book contains possibly one of my favourite sequence of panels to come from Valiant in a long time, where Ninjak tracks down Livewire and also finds her working with a Valiant favourite of mine, Bloodshot, whose gone through quite a few changes in his own arc, but is still overly powerful and occasionally unpredictable. It also contains X-O Manowars long awaited return to Earth after his own arc as emperor of a distant planet came to an end.
The art style is gorgeous throughout, particularly the scenes depicting the satellites coming crashing down to Earth. The scenes are drawn to great effect throughout and suit each characters own style, from Ninjaks shadowy entrance, to Bloodshots dynamic call to arms.
I cannot wait to see what else Kindt and others bring to this event and where it takes the characters of the Valiant Universe next.