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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Peter Stanchek's assembly of a team of Renegade Psiots getting ready to battle Toyo Harada and the Harbinger Foundation kicks things into high gear. This volume definitely grabbed my interest better than the first though much of that probably has to do with more Faith. She's awesome.
Now THIS is what I'm talking about. A badass showdown? Character development? Plot progression in a timely manner? Yes, yes, and YES. The only real negative is some of the characters are a bit too over the top at parts but overall, this is a much better volume than the first. Especially adding in the showdown having weight instead of feeling like a add in.
I think the title really started to catch its stride in this volume. It's still not my favorite book out there, but I definitely see some potential. If nothing else, I like the premise. Wide variety of powers, teaming up for good and bad, all that jazz. There's also some really nice lines that are just witty enough. On the flip side, there's a lot of lines that feel forced and fake.
Overall I have realized I like the supporting cast much more than the leads. Peter and Kris and Harada don't do anything for me. Flamingo was awesome from the get-go and you can't help but love Zephyr. Even Torque has a cool story and his Torquehalla thing is a nice hook. They're just more believable than the others. Even on the side of the bad guys. I mean one of the main villains is Dull Tull and what makes him special is that he's completely devoid of emotion. Really? I get the implication with all the mind wipes and whatever but come on.
That said, I really did enjoy this volume. Watching the team come together felt pretty organic, but there probably could have been a bit more exposition. The Renegades just start showing up places. There's no indication of their methods or anything. I get it but some sort of explanation would have been nice.
There are some interesting things going on, despite my grievances. Kris still loving Peter on some strange level because of the manipulation is a nice touch, but then again why couldn't he have totally wiped that part of her mind? That's the problem with building characters a bit too powerfully - it sets you up for way more loopholes and questions in the long run.
I also get the feeling that this will be a pretty limited run. I mean what are they going to all do after Harada? Oh well. The bottom line is that I'll stick around to find out.
Oh, and the art definitely improved this time. There's less of that hyper shiny and stylized stuff. There's actually an attempt at doing some artwork here and it's nice.
Last note - does anyone else totally imagine Faith talking like Quagmire's girlfriend Stephanie from the Family Guy episode "And Then There Were Fewer"?
Overall I have realized I like the supporting cast much more than the leads. Peter and Kris and Harada don't do anything for me. Flamingo was awesome from the get-go and you can't help but love Zephyr. Even Torque has a cool story and his Torquehalla thing is a nice hook. They're just more believable than the others. Even on the side of the bad guys. I mean one of the main villains is Dull Tull and what makes him special is that he's completely devoid of emotion. Really? I get the implication with all the mind wipes and whatever but come on.
That said, I really did enjoy this volume. Watching the team come together felt pretty organic, but there probably could have been a bit more exposition. The Renegades just start showing up places. There's no indication of their methods or anything. I get it but some sort of explanation would have been nice.
There are some interesting things going on, despite my grievances. Kris still loving Peter on some strange level because of the manipulation is a nice touch, but then again why couldn't he have totally wiped that part of her mind? That's the problem with building characters a bit too powerfully - it sets you up for way more loopholes and questions in the long run.
I also get the feeling that this will be a pretty limited run. I mean what are they going to all do after Harada? Oh well. The bottom line is that I'll stick around to find out.
Oh, and the art definitely improved this time. There's less of that hyper shiny and stylized stuff. There's actually an attempt at doing some artwork here and it's nice.
Last note - does anyone else totally imagine Faith talking like Quagmire's girlfriend Stephanie from the Family Guy episode "And Then There Were Fewer"?
Yet again the art stops me from giving this a higher rating and it's even more frustrating this time because I really love the new characters and some of the issues had fairly decent art. BUT. The artists change each issue and the style drawn by each varies drastically enough that I thought I was losing my mind (since I didn't really pay attention to see if the same artist drew each issue). The art goes from, again, fairly decent to straight up ugly and I hate the changing. I'd have been more happy if they stuck with the less pretty art for the whole volume but it is what it is.
Story-wise, I'm super happy with this. I like the team that's been pulled together and other than the strong man character I'm pretty on-board with all of them. I liked seeing the new powers and how the team dynamics developed. I don't love the blind devotion Peter has for Kris (though she is very snarky cool) and I imagine I won't love any romantic directions the characters head down, but for now it's fine.
Fingers crossed the art is less up and down next volume.
Story-wise, I'm super happy with this. I like the team that's been pulled together and other than the strong man character I'm pretty on-board with all of them. I liked seeing the new powers and how the team dynamics developed. I don't love the blind devotion Peter has for Kris (though she is very snarky cool) and I imagine I won't love any romantic directions the characters head down, but for now it's fine.
Fingers crossed the art is less up and down next volume.
If we could change Faith's personality from these issues, it would easily be a higher score. She is the most unlikeable character I've come across in ages.
Harbinger volume 2 goes full speed ahead with introducing new characters and ratcheting up the action. I like that many of these characters do not fit the typical mold when you think of superheroes. Could they be handled with a little more grace at times? Sure, but it is still refreshing to see. The way Dysart sets up this story to run into the bigger narrative of the Harbinger Wars is handled well. Often crossover content in comic universes can feel messy, overstuffed, or superfluous. None of that is true here. This retains its own identity and has weight to its story. The art continues to be strong and easy to read, complementing the story and the growing cast of characters. This series is delivering on all fronts.
I understand that first volumes have a lot of foundation to build, but this is nonetheless a quantum leap forward for the series. These ragtag psiots already mean about as much to me as X-Men fans claim mutants do to them.
The second volume gets a little better from story perspective, but mostly because Pete Stancheck goes from awful to boring and Kris, his roped-in victim, takes center stage more throughout the story. The art is still all over the place, as it seems there's a different artist each issue and few of them are all that great except for Barry Kitson, and he's always just kind of passably there as opposed to good.
Met two new characters and find myself enveloped in the projected conflict. Faith is, by far, still my ultimate favorite!
