Months after team member Torque was murdered, the superhuman Harbinger Renegades decide to enact vengeance upon Rock, the man responsible for the killing. They locate him, but before they can attack, a bunch of Rock's allies come to his aid...
This is an ok issue of Harbinger. To its credit, it tackles the emotional fallout of Torque's death (though really only for Flamingo), and we get a bit of resolution in that the Renegades take revenge on the man who 'killed' their friend. We even get a somewhat competently handled moral dilemma, which is a first for this series!...And probably a last.
While it's appreciated that this issue actually tried, the moral dilemma is slightly messed up when Flamingo espouses to Pete at the end about their actions here not being right, even though she's the one who set Rock on fire! And this was a methodically planned attack, not a spur of the moment act of self defense. Deeming revenge to be wrong after committing a violent act in self defense, or just a heated brawl is acceptable writing, but doing so after blowing up a gas station and setting a guy on fire after dousing him in petrol is going too far, especially when they do the preaching come the end. The worst thing about the events of this issue is that they amount to nothing. They're never mentioned again, nor does it have any repercussions!
The plot here is pretty negligible. It's basically an issue-long fight scene, which ends really abruptly. There's a plot hole too, as the series seems to have totally forgotten that Weasel murdered Torque, not Rock.
All the leads save for Flamingo are pretty shafted this issue when it comes to character, especially Shatiqua, who's contributed little to the series thus far. Her only character at this point is that her boyfriend is a bit of a dick.
The art here is ok, but smudgy in places. The cover is pretty meh, lacking a real background.
While this is the best issue of Harbinger so far, that really isn't saying much...
No comments:
Post a Comment