Begun the “Harbinger Wars” have.

Written by Eric Heisserer

Illustrated by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín

Inked by Borja Pindado

Colored by Borja Pindado

Lettered by Patricia Martin Before HARBINGER WARS 2 begins, JUMP ON BOARD HERE with A STANDALONE INTRODUCTION TO THE VALIANT UNIVERSE’s most powerful forces from the master storytellers behind SECRET WEAPONS: Academy Award-nominated writer Eric Heisserer (Arrival) and Harvey Award-nominated artists Raúl Allén (SECRET WEAPONS) and Patricia Martín (BLOODSHOT REBORN)!

The Harbinger Renegades have been scattered across America… battered by the brutal MASSACRE that decimated their ranks. Behind them all, Livewire – leader of the Harbinger Foundation’s most unusual group of SECRET WEAPONS – is about to incite the coast-to-coast clash that brings them all together in an inescapable collision of power.

Pushed to the brink by the government she once served, Toyo Harada’s former star pupil is about to make an irreversible decision… and deactivate America’s power supply in a last-ditch bid to save the extraordinary individuals called “psiots” from extinction. As a nation goes dark, the paths of our world’s most powerful heroes will soon converge…and the stage will be set for the most cataclysmic confrontation in the history of the Valiant Universe! Witness the ground-zero moment for the future of the Valiant Universe with a startling, self-contained prelude to HARBINGER WARS 2 – and the perfect introduction to all of Valiant’s biggest icons from one of the most acclaimed creative teams in comics today!

A lot has changed about Valiant and their event “Harbinger Wars 2” since the initial announcement back at NYCC ’17. What was supposed to be a 4 issue, 48 page, miniseries featuring dueling creative teams has morphed into a more typical six issue mini with a single creative team. All indications are that this is the last work by “Secret Weapons” writer Eric Heisserer, who reteams with artists Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín for “Prelude,” at Valiant. There is enough negative gossip and uncertainty to make for some pause in investing (finically or emotionally) in this event. That’s before you consider this book, “Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude,” whose convoluted title makes clear that this is all prologue. This is an issue that has some extra baggage, and, yet, Heisserer, Allén, and Martín, can’t seem to make a bad comic. “Prelude” is about as good a prologue for these kinds of things as you can hope for, one that focuses on the character of Amanda McKee as she confronts current events in the Valiant U and does a bad thing for, maybe, the right reasons.

Without in-depth interviews from the creative team, it’s hard to get a read on what the collaborative process is like between writer Eric Heisserer and artists Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín. No matter how this particular sausage is made, it is quite good. The team seems more confident in using images to narrate both story and actions. Their uses of pages as a whole to make macro images or tie together a particular sequence is excellent. Take for example the beginning of Amanda’s speech to the United States. The page is four horizontal panels arranged vertically with a clear reading orientation. All four panels take place in different spaces, denoted by a little location box, across a variety of screens. It’s the kind of page that’s used to give a sense of scale and mask some exposition and plot movements. However, in sequence the paneling is configured to make an unbroken walk towards the “camera” moment Amanda, culminating in the fourth an final panel.

Another excellent bit of visual storytelling involves pages two and three, the coffee shop sequence. After an opening page the explains Amanda McKee’s existence in a single page, more on that later, she finds her moment of peace interrupted by Agent Newsome. “Harbinger Wars 2” will see Amanda at odds with the U.S. Government and that opposition is beautifully illustrated in these two mirrored pages. The first page, Amanda’s page, is bisected into triangles with the upper portion cut into square panels that show the reader the shop’s special rules and her order. The triangle structure and left to right reading orientation gives the page a pace similar to how Edgar Wright edits his films on actions. These panels eventually before land on a nice relaxing, big, image of Amanda at rest. The following page is the visual opposite using the same form in reverse. A peaceful big image is condensed down into a series of bite sized annoyances for Amanda as she is called into speak with Homeland Security about her friends. If these macro images didn’t make their opposite nature clear, look at where Amanda and Agent Newsome’s heads are placed in their respective pages.

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This issue is squarely focused on the actions of Amanda McKee, who along with her “Secret Weapons,” will form one half of the dual front motif in “Harbinger Wars 2.” The other half will be represented by the Renegades, who are not seen in this issue. These two teams are very different, but the creative team builds visual similarity between the leaders together in the first page. Peter Stanchek is beset with an overactive brain and near limitless power, the first cover of the relaunched “Harbinger” series sees him surrounded by the thoughts of all those around him. Allén and Martín pay homage in the first page by showing Amanda surrounded by all the digital world our world creates. It’s a busy but overall balanced image, one that shows in a single image why that coffee shop is “island.” It’s also the type of sequence that complicates the relative “heroism” of her actions in this issue as she turns the United States of America into Revolution. Like a Mother parenting an unruly child, she takes away the Government (and rest of societies) electronic devices. It’s an blunt, if efficient, way to hamper the government’s attempts to exterminate psiots. In the aftermath, she doesn’t try to organize resistance, like a tired parent given a few hours of quite, she takes a nap.

At the center of this latest iteration of “Harbinger Wars” is power, it’s execution and the fear of it. In this issue you have the personal power of Amanda McKee contrasted with the might of the U.S. government as they run a black op to kill McKee’s “Secret Weapons.” Both cases are somewhat capricious in nature. This is by no means meant to defend the clearly fascist state action, but to recognize that both actions sing in similar keys in terms of outcome. There is an element subconscious selfishness to Amanda’s actions, in the end she gets what she wants: peace and quiet.

This issue also features an excellent critique of the metaphor of warfare as surgery. Twice “Rook” is mentioned as a mistake, but from opposite points of view. For Amanda, the ‘Massacre’ in Rook should never of happened because innocent blood was shed. For the special operatives as they prepare to take out the “Weapons,” the mission was a mistake because they were found out and lacked “controlled” kills. This time, things will be different, they just need to be more surgical in their killing of citizens. It obviously doesn’t go that way, war is bloody no matter the metaphor. Of all the plot elements this issue sets up, setting up these ideas about power and warfare is what a spectacle like “Harbinger Wars 2” needs as things begin.

Final Verdict: 8.0 – “Harbinger Wars” begins again, and even with all the beautiful art it won’t be a pretty affair.