This is normally where I’d hit you with some Sepinwall-esque witticism to lead you into the review. Instead I must inform you all of a GIGANTIC ALL ENCOMPASSING SPOILER WARNING! This is a review for “Harbinger Renegade” #5 ‘Massacre Part 1’ aka the issue where person or persons DIE. Seriously, they’re selling this with a little warning flap on top of the cover. If you don’t want to know what happens and what it all means, save this, go read the comic, and come back to us. It’s a solid book with no major artistic flaws or narrative dissonance. If you don’t care, keep on reading.

Written by Rafer Roberts

Illustrated by Darick Robertson

Inked by Richard Clark

Colored by Diego Rodriguez

Lettered by Simon Bowland Harvey Award-nominated writer Rafer Roberts (Plastic Farm) and superstar artist Darick Robertson (The Boys, Transmetropolitan) begin THE ROAD TO HARBINGER WARS 2 – Valiant’s seismic 2018 event – right here with a bang that will reverberate throughout the entire Valiant Universe…and claim the life of a major hero! Toyo Harada’s former protege – Alexander Solomon, a “psiot” with the ability to predict and analyze potential futures – has been waiting for this moment. With the Harbinger Renegades – Peter Stanchek, Faith, Kris Hathaway, and Torque – now reunited as a result of his covert manipulations, his ultimate gambit can now begin. But he’s not the only one who has been watching. Major Charlie Palmer has just re-assigned a new division of the militarized psiot hunters codenamed H.A.R.D. Corps to active duty…and they’re about to bring a torrent of blood and calamity roaring into the streets of a major American metropolis for an all-out firefight. The Harbinger Renegades. Livewire. Alexander Solomon. Generation Zero. Toyo Harada. Secret Weapons. Imperium. None of them are safe…and, when the smoke clears, a pivotal Valiant hero will become the first sacrifice of the massive Harbinger War that is to come.

Valiant should be commended for working the gimmick and keeping kayfabe for this issue ahead of release. For months, they have been teasing and slowly dripping out (censored) previews and other promotional material for ‘Massacre.’ And surprisingly, no big USA Today article that gives the gimmick away in an odd attempt to juice sales. While Valliant’s marketing persona is a bit nouveau riche at times, there is a sincere tone to their carnival barking that exposes the hollow proclamations of other companies. While the “everybody dies” issue is an old trope, it’s one that Valiant hasn’t played with (or annualized) at this point. Valiant promised death, inferred destruction, and that—of course—nothing would ever be the same again. And on those accounts, they’ve delivered

HARD Corps have come to Rook, Michigan and they have Generation Zero in their sights.

It’s Generation Zero, they’re the ones at the center of the titular massacre. Honestly, it’s a relief that it doesn’t involve the Harbinger Renegades. (This review would be very different if something had happened to Kris.) When you consider that definitions for ‘massacre’ generally agree upon the need for a massive (perhaps wanton) exercise of destruction, they are the group that fits the bill. While as enjoyable (and different) the short-lived Fred Van Lente “Generation Zero” comic was, Gen Zero is the most thematically potent ground to pave the road to Harbinger War II with. They were the catalyst/victims of the first crossover in this new Valiant universe and now they are made victim again by HARD Corps and Project Rising Spirit.

“Harbinger Renegade” #5 is an exercise in shock and awe storytelling. Gruesome deaths abound as people go up in the explosion of a crashing airplane. A head is torn asunder by a sniper’s bullet. Darick Robertson’s art is all about showing that moment of destress, and then inker Richard Clark and colorist Diego Rodriguez come in and do their part as well. That monotone emotional concept, surprisingly doesn’t turn this book into a numbing affair. It creates the best art this series has had. Upon further reflection, my aversion to the art in this book previously was due to Clark’s heavy line weights, it sealed everything up. Which created for cartoon mannequin like expressions which didn’t work for telling an emotional journey over time. In this issue that sealed, static, quality is to the books benefit as readers are asked to hang on the bifurcated face of Cronus. That’s the best he’s going to look going forward.

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Bloody ends aren’t setup to act as the end of a crescendo in a sequence, they are violent staccato beats. Granite’s death is a blink and you’ll miss it 4 panels. The beats of those panels are sequential, but what we don’t see is as important as what we do see: Animalia’s handy work with a knife. It’s all a flash until you just hang on Animalia disappearing off panel while blood freely bursts from its fleshy confines.

The books most confusing death is because it breaks this pattern. As Telic pulls a “Dark Knight Returns” Joker and breaks her own neck in a violent rage. The whole sequence is a smushed together micro melodrama that crams as many panels as it can into half a page. If it were given a bit more space it would’ve landed with better impact and been easier to read.

In many regards the resurgence of HARD Corps and Project Rising Spirit, now working under the name Omen, feels like a revision to the early days of this half decade old story universe. Prior to the “Armor Wars” event one of the operational themes that tied the books together was the military industrial complex and the cannibalistic logic of capitalism that powered it. Out of which these, nominally, heroes were all born. Things have, understandably, gone in a weirder direction since.

“We are not in the world domination business, major Palmer,” a military dressed Omen board member declares, “we are humble security contractors in the making $#@&loads of money business.” The events in Rook won’t negatively affect this new “brand identity” of theirs because it was sanctioned by the U.S. government. Rafer Roberts penchant for writing cartoony bad guy dialog is given an extra dose of absurd realism with the inclusion of an amazingly perfect in universe, and presidential, Donald Trump tweet responding the events in Rook. This book emphatically reasserts PRS as the truly villainous lot of Valiant’s universe. Master Darque has nothing on these guys (of course they’re all guys).

While any shared universe will inherently operate in the realm of the weird, this book operates with a kind of absurd realism that recent terrestrial Valiant titles haven’t. Cronus and Major Palmer verbally spar as they physically spar, the old war veteran disparages his opponent as a “punk.” That’s not too far off, for as much of a high school The Live Van Lente’s “Generation Zero” was he never shied from portraying the group as revolutionary anarchists. PRS is a cartoonish vision of private security contractors, but Blackwater (or whatever they’re called now) exists. ‘Massacre’ is an amped up version the Wounded Knee incident (1973).

The bell doesn’t toll for all of Gen Zero, the Zygos Twins are captured, Keisha is left holding the bag with her brother live streaming the attack. The story goes on, how this event primes things for Harbinger Wars II or what sort of emotional story this arc is trying to tell are yet unknown. This issue wasn’t going to gesture towards those ideas anyway, this was an exercise in shock and awe. The emotional fallout comes next.

Final Verdict: 7.5 – ‘Massacre’ lives up to its name.