The Harbinger #8

[SwiftMann]

And we wrap it up by reverting back to the absolutely unbearable, underskilled writing of issues 3-5. The navel-gazing, emo, teenage YouTube singers my 9 year old listens to have more sincere content than these two writers. Seriously, just babbling b.s.

"A swirl of pain and tragedy, blackness in the heart. The crushing depth of self-discovery. Producing a diamond of truth. Of being. Peter Stanchek, coward and liar. Who could be so many things, with just a twist of imagination. A twitch of power and he could be someone else. With less responsibility. Less fear. Less ego. Less. A husk, free of everyone. Free of everything. It's the edge of the world, Peter. Go over. Give in. It's not suicide. It's just darkness forever. And yet he could still see."

I do not know how DC readers have put up with these two doing so many titles there if this is remotely representative of what their output is. Then again, DC keeps letting Seeley write and we saw what he did to Bloodshot.

But this entire series was pointless because there was no actual story or character development here. It was a bunch of tedious, meaningless, false importance, desperately wanting to be pretentious, babbling mono and duologues for eight issues. Not a one of the new characters introduced should be remembered because they weren't characters, just shells of stereotypes.

I will have Kelly & Lanzing's names seared into my brain as writers to avoid forever.

[Ryan]

And we wrap it up by reverting back to the absolutely unbearable, underskilled writing of issues 3-5. The navel-gazing, emo, teenage YouTube singers my 9 year old listens to have more sincere content than these two writers. Seriously, just babbling b.s.

"A swirl of pain and tragedy, blackness in the heart. The crushing depth of self-discovery. Producing a diamond of truth. Of being. Peter Stanchek, coward and liar. Who could be so many things, with just a twist of imagination. A twitch of power and he could be someone else. With less responsibility. Less fear. Less ego. Less. A husk, free of everyone. Free of everything. It's the edge of the world, Peter. Go over. Give in. It's not suicide. It's just darkness forever. And yet he could still see."

I do not know how DC readers have put up with these two doing so many titles there if this is remotely representative of what their output is. Then again, DC keeps letting Seeley write and we saw what he did to Bloodshot.

But this entire series was pointless because there was no actual story or character development here. It was a bunch of tedious, meaningless, false importance, desperately wanting to be pretentious, babbling mono and duologues for eight issues. Not a one of the new characters introduced should be remembered because they weren't characters, just shells of stereotypes.

I will have Kelly & Lanzing's names seared into my brain as writers to avoid forever.

Taking one for the team I have to think a big part of this is just the state of where comics are at the moment.

It still boggles my mind that a Harbinger series with Pete Stanchek is coming out and no one here cares. But that's where we are. Still so much potential in these characters.

[greg]

Are we supposed to know (assume) that "Joe" at the end of Harbinger #8 is a "harmless" ("powerless") version of Peter?

If so, the end of the story seems to have been written during episodes of Moon Knight, and Joe is mild-mannered and unaware like Steven Grant.

[SwiftMann]

Joe is the Renegade* post psychic neutering. You can tell by the evil eye scar.

*You know, the big bad of the series they did a *SQUEE* job of explaining anything about other than evil doppleganger generalization tropes.

[grendeljd]

Yet another “series” ended within 8 issues. I didn’t hear or see one single thing about this title that compelled me to even think about checking it out the entire time that it was briefly ongoing. Some of the quotes of the writing in this thread from the final
issue are super cringe worthy.

I still consider Harbinger in general (VH1 & VEI iterations) as one of my longtime favourite VALIANT titles - it’s very sad and disappointing that we are where we are these days with most of Valiant’s output.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Are we supposed to know (assume) that "Joe" at the end of Harbinger #8 is a "harmless" ("powerless") version of Peter?

If so, the end of the story seems to have been written during episodes of Moon Knight, and Joe is mild-mannered and unaware like Steven Grant.

I got the pre order edition (on sale for £1…I still feel I was ripped off), and it has explanation notes to the effect of what you’re saying.

“As an act of radical self love, the Harbinger siphoned the Renegade’s powers away to leave a normal man in his place”. ‘An act of radical self love’ wtf

Senior editor Lisa Hawkins has to take the blame for this hot mess of a story, bamboozling dialogue, baffling panels and epileptic fit inducing colouring.

I’ll finish my thoughts with my favourite quote from this issue which I think encapsulates everything …”he saw that he did not need to be special to be special”.

1.5/5 - car crash