The Harbinger #4 Review

 

The Harbinger #4 Cover B by Claudia Ianniciello

If you're a longtime Valiant fan, you've likely read previous volumes of Harbinger, and know Peter Stanchek's history. In The Harbinger #4, you'll catch a glimpse inside the man known as The Renegade. 

Incidentally, he also goes by another name: Peter Stanchek.

It seems he awoke one day with Peter Stanchek's powers. Along with them came Peter's pain, and the struggles Peter's powers induced. So he decided to learn about the name burned into his consciousness.

In the last three issues, we've read an ongoing psychic interplay between Peter and The Renegade. You may have wondered: is this dialogue occurring in the present? Or is it a future conversation being overlaid on past events? 

In The Harbinger #4, we may not get a definitive answer to that question. At least, after their brief meeting at the end of first issue and the beginning of the second, we get a much longer confrontation between the two men.

The two Peter Stancheks.

 

If your memories have been taken from you, who are you? Neither of the two, it seems, actually knows. Peter certainly doesn't. As for The Renegade...

In his case, I get the feeling he chose the title because it just seems to fit.

At times, I wasn't even sure as to the identity of some of the characters the two discuss, as they relive traumatic scenes from Peter Stanchek's life. This is largely because Robbi Rodriguez, while a fine penciler and inker, seems better schooled in Manga than Comics. Oddly, his characterization of The Renegade reminds me of the Doctor Tomorrow from another universe, who meets young Bart Simms in Doctor Tomorrow #1.

Or, at least, the way he looked after the big fight in Doctor Tomorrow #3.

At least we're on certain ground, when Robbi Rodriguez draws Toyo Harada and the Bleeding Monk.

 

Writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly suggest that Peter Stanchek carried a lot of guilt over mistakes he made in the past. At times this seems excessive, given how much good Peter has also done, and how he's attempted to make up his mistakes.

Sure, he's knowingly done wrong. Yet each time, he's attempted to make those situations right.

One of the reasons Rico Renzi's extravagant coloring works so well for me is because Peter is such a sensitive soul. He's no psychopath. He's completely and totally unable--on his own--to drown out all the thoughts and feelings of others. Or at least he was, until he awakened, seemingly newly born, in The Harbinger #1.

It makes sense that such a sensitive soul would see the world far more intensely than you or me.

Sadly, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly's story in The Harbinger #1 will not answer all your questions about exactly what transpired between Peter and The Renegade before this series started. But I guess that's a good thing, as it'll keep us coming back to learn more in upcoming issues.

At least Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou's lettering makes the symbiosis--or the sense of commonality that Peter and The Renegade share--perfectly clear.

The Harbinger #4 may contain more horizontal two-page layouts than I'd prefer. Sometimes the way Robbi Rodriguez draws the characters could be more clear. Yet Jackson and Lanzing's ongoing mystery intrigues me, and Robbi Rodriguez, aided by colorist Rico Renzi and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, creates evocative and captivating imagery.

 

 

Although it doesn't contain a huge amount of present-day action, I count The Harbinger #4 a winner, and look forward to future installments in this exciting and thought-provoking series.

Dragon Dave