Review: Harbinger #14
Creative Team
Writer: Joshua Dysart
Artists: Khari Evans, and Trevor Hairsine
Inkers: Stefano Guadino
Color Artist: Ian Hannin
Cover Artists: Clayton Crain, and Patrick Zircher
The Issue: The Harbinger Wars comes to a conclusion in this issue of Harbinger. As like all of the other issues it continues to show the war between Harbinger Foundation and Project Rising Spirit over the decades. This is a very old war dating back to 1969 when a deal to work together fell through because of a clash between Toyo Harada and PRS when Harada refused to hand over his psiot activating technology.
Harada and his trusted aides Hunter and Griffon decided to take on PRS directly and dismantle them. Believing they had the advantage due to their powers only to discover that Carter, head of PRS, was also a psiot that was activated using the brutal torture techniques to bring the powers out. What initially seemed like a battle that was heavily in the favor of Harada ends up in a battle where he lost everything.
In modern day it picks up on the battle between Bloodshot and the Renegades. This issue goes deeper into the battle shown in the last issue of the Harbinger Wars. As the two sides damage each other, Toyo Harada arrives to capture all of the psiot children to take them into his care. Peter Stanchek and the Renegades are safe but in bad shape as they escape Las Vegas.
The issue ends by showing what happened to Harada after his battle with PRS in 1969. He became a recluse hiding in his own subconscious as Harbinger Foundation was dismantled. There is a parallel between Harada now, and then, that shows how he wins despite being counted out. That he’s playing the long game and wins.
What I Liked: These last few issues have brought more out about Toyo Harada. While I don’t usually like delving into the backstory of every character here it works. It gives an added understanding of what motivates him and how far he has come. We know that you can’t completely trust him but there’s a part of him that believes what he’s doing right. By seeing how he when he was younger gives excellent contrast to Peter Stanchek. They both had great power without someone else to guide them. So you can understand why he sought to control Peter.
There is a scene where Zephyr sees a missile heading right for the Bellagio and she risks her life to guide it away. While I don’t completely buy the other characters seeing each other as a family I buy it with her. These are the closest things she’s had to friends, and it is powerful to see she learns more about herself while risking her life to save a friend.
What I Didn’t Like: It was confusing near the end of the book where they switched from the Renegades hiding to the aftermath of the PRS and Harbinger battle in 1969. There was no mention of time changed. Instead they showed Harbinger dismantling itself after PRS’ takeover. It could have been a powerful moment had it not been muddied. There were context clues talking about Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon, but it wasn’t enough.
This is more of a complaint about the whole crossover and not just this issue: but with all of psiot children afraid of being captured by the Renegades they mostly stay out of the action? It’s not easy to handle so many characters but they just stood there waiting for things to end.
Grade:
Coatesvillain
Just a guy who was into this nerd stuff before it's popular. Now that is I'm just happy I have people to talk about it with.
