Monday, January 26, 2015

Harbinger #29 (Classic Valiant)

Superpowered Harbingers Stronghold and Livewire have been kidnapped by the Harbinger Foundation, a malevolent corporation, and they have to try and escape before it's too late...

This issue is fucking despicable! As my look at last issue will attest to, I will give this series credit when it deserves it, but when it pulls crap like this, then it earns nothing but my burning contempt!

I really like the characters of Stronghold and Livewire, more on a level of the potential they had as characters moreso than the quality of the material they were given, which was mediocre at best, insultingly bad at worst. Their own series, Secret Weapons, shafted them majorly, constantly upstaging them with guest stars, who'd often leave the two superfluous in their own story! Then their lowest moment came, when they were booted out of the series, which led into Harbinger, and the most mean-spirited and pointless conclusion for these characters possible!

Putting all that aside, this issue isn't very good. The pacing is mediocre, and the story focuses on the wrong characters! It should have been about Stronghold and Livewire, but they're more ancillary characters, while we focus entirely on the main cast, who are largely superfluous from the story. Even when they do eventually get involved, the story's already happened behind the scenes, and after they get quickly apprehended, the issue abruptly comes to an end.

The art here is decent, while the cover would be too, if not for how miserable it is, in part due to the issue's contents.

All I have left to say is that I am so glad that Livewire is getting a much better shake of things in New Valiant, where she's the leader of superhero team Unity! Here, the writers hated her, giving her a lobotomy, and brainwashing her to become a murderer. In New Valiant, the writers made Livewire the tough gal that even wild cards like Gilad the Eternal Warrior, Colin 'Ninjak' King, XO Man-O-War, and Bloodshot respect and obey!...

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