Review: Harbinger Wars #3
Creative Team:
Writer: Joshua Dysart
Story By: Joshua Dysart & Duane Swierczynski
Artists: Clayton Henry & Pere Perez
Color Artist: Brian Reber
Cover Artists: Patrick Zircher, Trevor Hairsine & Khari Evans
How We Got Here:
Project Rising Spirit is somewhere between a government agency and a contractor. The business they get in crosses the borders of the United States, and also violates plenty of ethic standards. They are in the business of war having created creatures such as Bloodshot to be a one man wrecking crew. Bloodshot’s main objective was to hunt down and capture young psiots to bring back to Project Rising Spirit. When these Psiots were in their care they were the subjected to violent research just to activate their powers, and then sent off into war.
Bloodshot wasn’t aware of what he was doing. His brain was pumped with fantasies that led him to believe he was completing objectives that protected his country. Instead he was capturing these kids. Bloodshot was sent on a mission in the Middle East to track down a psiot, and found himself in contact with Dr. Emmanuel Kuretich. Kuretich worked to free Bloodshot from his programming and he then liberated the very kids who feared him. What initially seemed like an act of altruism towards his creation turned out to be Kuretich acting on the behalf of Toyo Harada of the Harbinger Foundation. The goal was for Harada to take the children in for his own use, and for Bloodshot to obliterate PRS. Instead Bloodshot rebelled and a deep code, called the Harada Protocol, was activated that allowed Bloodshot to almost destroy him.
On the other side is Peter Stanchek. Stanchek for years was hunted down because of the power he possessed and he always stayed one step ahead of trouble. He was a psiot who was active on his own believed by Toyo Harada to be too powerful to be so untrained. He wanted to bring him under his hand to train him. He had a conflict with Harada and rebelled leaving the Harbinger Foundation. Peter Stanchek went to seek out other psiots for an eventual battle with Harada to save others from his eggbreakers and their methods. Their discovery of psiots has led them to Las Vegas, Nevada.
With four groups all headed towards Las Vegas the kids hang in the balance with no idea who has their best intentions at heart.
The Issue: When Bloodshot came from Project Rising Spirit’s Nursery, a group of trained psiots used the opportunity to escape. Their helicopter crashed into the Bellagio where they have been holed up ever since. When Peter Stanchek and his renegades arrive they are told how Bloodshot is coming to kill them. Meanwhile Bloodshot, recovering from his fight with Harada, is told that Stanchek going to kill the kids he has in their care.
While Bloodshot and the Renegades are destined for conflict, above the city Project Rising Spirit’s response flies. The H.A.R.D. Corps is a retired strike force that has been retired since the 1990’s. They were put on the shelf thanks to the creation of Bloodshot, but now because of his actions they were called back into duty. They strike with a brand of ruthlessness that is shocking killing child psiots who attempt to protect themselves.
What I Liked: The first two issues of this mini-series seemed to merely fill in the connective tissue between the action in Harbinger and Bloodshot. This one felt more realized and able to stand on its own. A major part of that was the involvement of the H.A.R.D. Corps. I really enjoyed the characterization of them and they showed the stark contrast between the worlds of Peter Stanchek and Bloodshot. There have been deaths and Harbinger but what we saw here were the kind that make you gasp. An example of this is when Major Palmer shot and killed Shadow. I don’t remember EVER seeing a kid killed like that in a comic book, and that’s what made it powerful yet not exploitative.
Other things that were interesting that they touched on with the H.A.R.D. Corps was how the equipment was out of date, and that one of the members was shaken up from previous action. While these characters didn’t see much action, Joshua Dysart has done a great job of making them feel real and fully realized in such a short time.
A lot happened in this issue, and I’m sure we’ll get this filled in with the individual titles but this felt a lot able to stand alone than the others. That could be a little nitpicky because I feel as a whole they’ve done a better job handling this crossover than we see with other comic book crossovers.
What I Didn’t Like: I get the whole meeting with Project Rising Spirit being held accountable for their actions but it starts to feel a little like overkill. Some exposition is fine but there are places here where it spells everything out for you when it’s right on the page. But even this is a flimsy complaint because they pulled back a lot the further we’ve gone into the crossover.
Not a great issue by any means but it solidly delivered while keeping everything in place.
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.
