The Harbinger #2 Review: Part 2

 

The Harbinger #2 Cover A by Robbi Rodriguez

While The Harbinger #2 offers Peter Stanchek time for reflection, it also throws him into difficult situations. This plot-intensive series, following the events in recent series such as Harbinger Renegades, also arouses memories of the original 90s series. Writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly pay homage to both eras--the old and the new--while fusing the best of both into their entrancing new series.

Robbi Rodriguez enhances the authors' rapid-fire storytelling with frenetic artwork that tries, but cannot quite capture, the sheer speed and power of the psiot-enhanced action. Like stills from your favorite anime, sometimes the characters simply move too fast to be viewed with perfect clarity. The superteam known as The Warning whoosh through panels, leaving the reader breathless, and demanding a reread (or several) to fully understand all that is going on.

The stranger who stole Peter's memories shortly before the events in The Harbinger #1 regards him as a coward. Yet when his friend Cici and the people of Psiot City are threatened, Peter defends them. He may not be a born fighter like X-O Manowar, but he doesn't turn his back on those in need.

In The Harbinger #2 we also learn more about the enigmatic man who stole Peter's memories. What was he like, before sucked all of Peter Stanchek's pain, struggles, and neuroses into his psyche? At least now, he's not afraid to use his newfound powers for his own ends.

His actions suggest all that Peter Stanchek could have been, had Peter emulated Toyo Harada, and channeled his abilities into empire-building.

Some will always look at the people Peter has hurt and label him a villain. But isn't the real test of a hero that he continually questions his motives and actions?

In The Harbinger #2, writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, ably assisted by penciler and inker Robbi Rodriguez, colorist Rico Renzi, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, whisk us off to a world where the powers of the mind can be fully unleashed. Yet the issues the characters struggle with remain contemporary and all-too-real.

Dragon Dave