Review: Harbinger #16
Creative Team:
Writer: Joshua Dysart
Artists: Barry Kitson, Mark Pennington, and Brian Level
Color Artists: Ian Hannin, Moose Baumann, and Brian Reber
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
The Issue:
After hearing a scream, both Faith and Charlene rush into Torque’s bedroom only to see that Kris killed him with his skateboard. As Faith cradles his dead body, she notices that his psychic projection came back. Torque’s psychic powers take over and everyone is transported to his fantasy world that he calls Torquehalla.
Faith, Charlene, Kris, and Peter venture throughout this strange world as Torque narrates everything. The Renegades not only find themselves in a strange place physically, but also find themselves unable to trust Kris. Kris spends one last night hanging with Torque before trying to find her way to the sea to understand what is calling out to here. While she escapes, Charlene watches and follows her.
As all this is happening Faith and Peter have their moment and kiss. While it is a dream come true for Faith she knows her place and figures out that something is wrong. As the issue ends it is revealed that all we’ve seen in the last two issues have been formed because the Renegades were in a forced dream state at the hands of Toyo Harada. Harada’s assistant Ingrid worries about Peter Stanchek, but Harada assures her that he is being taken care of.
What I Liked:
I really liked how the last issue left off. Kris is the only one out of the group without powers. So the idea that something was taking over her was interesting. Then this issue picks up where that left off but loses all the momentum. While Torquehalla lacked any well thought out logic but it made sense. Torque knows less than nothing about the real world and his fantasy shows that. While I feel the world wasn’t fully developed writing wise, it was neat to look into it that way.
The idea that Toyo Harada won the Harbinger Wars completely was interesting. We left off in the crossover knowing that he took control of Bloodshot, but we didn’t know that they he captured the Renegades as well.
What I Didn’t Like:
This might come across as confusion, but while I liked that Toyo Harada captured the Renegades I didn’t like how we reached the point. It felt less like a plot twist and more like lazy writing. It also makes these two issues feel wasted. They could have established everything they did here without even venturing into Torquehalla.
There’s also the problem that these characters are flat. I understand Faith coming to the realization that Peter loved Kris over her, but it felt like she came to it too easy. This was a moment she was waiting for and when it happened she was fine with letting it go. The characters came across as a little flat here as well.
So while I think this could be set up for something interesting going forward this issue didn’t do a good job of getting us there throughout the issue.
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.
