Harbinger Renegade #1 Review: Beautiful Broken Pieces

Harbinger returns to Valiant, preparing for Harbinger Wars 2. Rafer Roberts and Darick Robertson know how the jagged edges make the pieces fit just right!

Harbinger Renegade #1
Written by Rafer Roberts
Art by Darick Robertson with Juan Jose Ryp and Raul Allen
Published by Valiant Entertainment

Harbinger helped launch the modern Valiant comics, an edgy team book unafraid of grit like drug abuse and rape culture. The superteam was Valiant’s answer to the X-Men but brought a paranoid thriller to the stands. In its run, Harbinger gave a handful of gifted teens to novice Peter Stanchek, and he used them to expose the manipulations of billionaire Toyo Harada.

Harada went on to found his own country in Imperium, a book we’ve loved at Bam Smack Pow. Former teammate Faith is headlining her own book, and it’s one of our favorites. And the rest of the characters have gotten time to themselves. But war is coming.

In the broader scheme of Valiant’s publishing plan, this issue starts the march to Harbinger Wars 2, and readers who buy each of the first four issues of Harbinger Renegade can redeem proofs of purchase for an exclusive Harbinger Wars 2 zero issue before the 2018 event. This week’s book introduces Alexander Solomon, the adversary of that event, and begins stitching the team back together.

But this is a team of broken soldiers, and Rafer Roberts’s appreciation of this makes it his best issue at Valiant to date. Resident hacker @X wants to help new psiots before they hurt themselves, and eternal optimist Faith leaps right in. But tough-on-the-outside Torque isn’t ready to return, and team strategist Kris just wants to stay home with her girlfriend and avoid a second turn in prison. And Peter? He’s hiding out just past Saturn. So it might be a while.

This is an episode without blind hope. Robertson clearly shows the danger these new psiot kids are getting into, and Roberts knows this team isn’t ready to save them. But this book isn’t that kind of superhero story. This is a story about doing the best thing you can right now instead of waiting to feel ready. And it’s about helping despite your scars, and because of your scars, and giving up the fantasy in favor of the good your broken body can do.

We need this book right now. And if this is what Harbinger Wars 2 has in store, it could be Valiant’s best event yet.

Harbinger Renegade #1 goes on sale Wednesday, November 16, from Valiant Entertainment.