Harbinger #17 Discussion

[lorddunlow]

solid issue, though i wish the story could move forward a bit faster, feels kind of decompressed right now. i bet it will read great in a trade, though.
4/5

It seems like almost every book from every publisher reads better in trade. Its an unfortunate side-effect of the industry today. Personally, I hate it, but at least Harbinger is good enough that I want to read it every month. Sometimes I feel I'd enjoy a book like XO more if I only read it in trade form.

Ive considered going to trades myself for this reason. I dont know if I could stand the wait though. Also I would have to avoid the internet all together.

Harbinger 17 was a fantastic issue though. I feel like it had everything you could want in a superhero comic. The characterization has become really stellar, and none of the twists feel cheap. The art was also pretty good, although I'm curious why they didn't keep Barry Kitson on the book. I was really hoping he and Josh would be a long term creative team. Has anyone heard rumblings about him doing more work at Valiant?

It doesn't seem like we'll ever get a long term creative team at Valiant, by biggest complaint with the company. They can't even have four issues straight with a single artist for the most part.

I can't figure out why this is the case. I see NO other books that have multiple artists on multiple issues. Why does VEI do this?

[solidsteeze]

solid issue, though i wish the story could move forward a bit faster, feels kind of decompressed right now. i bet it will read great in a trade, though.
4/5

It seems like almost every book from every publisher reads better in trade. Its an unfortunate side-effect of the industry today. Personally, I hate it, but at least Harbinger is good enough that I want to read it every month. Sometimes I feel I'd enjoy a book like XO more if I only read it in trade form.

Ive considered going to trades myself for this reason. I dont know if I could stand the wait though. Also I would have to avoid the internet all together.

Harbinger 17 was a fantastic issue though. I feel like it had everything you could want in a superhero comic. The characterization has become really stellar, and none of the twists feel cheap. The art was also pretty good, although I'm curious why they didn't keep Barry Kitson on the book. I was really hoping he and Josh would be a long term creative team. Has anyone heard rumblings about him doing more work at Valiant?

It doesn't seem like we'll ever get a long term creative team at Valiant, by biggest complaint with the company. They can't even have four issues straight with a single artist for the most part.

I can't figure out why this is the case. I see NO other books that have multiple artists on multiple issues. Why does VEI do this?

It happens with other publishers as well, but they definitely dont keep consistency. I dont mind rotating teams like XO has done. Great art takes time, and I'd rather not have half of each issue look like crap. However the lack of consistency is getting to be a bit much.

[BugsySig]

solid issue, though i wish the story could move forward a bit faster, feels kind of decompressed right now. i bet it will read great in a trade, though.
4/5

It seems like almost every book from every publisher reads better in trade. Its an unfortunate side-effect of the industry today. Personally, I hate it, but at least Harbinger is good enough that I want to read it every month. Sometimes I feel I'd enjoy a book like XO more if I only read it in trade form.

Ive considered going to trades myself for this reason. I dont know if I could stand the wait though. Also I would have to avoid the internet all together.

Harbinger 17 was a fantastic issue though. I feel like it had everything you could want in a superhero comic. The characterization has become really stellar, and none of the twists feel cheap. The art was also pretty good, although I'm curious why they didn't keep Barry Kitson on the book. I was really hoping he and Josh would be a long term creative team. Has anyone heard rumblings about him doing more work at Valiant?

It doesn't seem like we'll ever get a long term creative team at Valiant, by biggest complaint with the company. They can't even have four issues straight with a single artist for the most part.

I can't figure out why this is the case. I see NO other books that have multiple artists on multiple issues. Why does VEI do this?

I'm pretty sure the initial strategy was to alternate artists on each arc to allow time for artists to get ahead and not risk delays. But other than creator-owned properties, how long do artists stay on any one book anyway? It's not like Marvel and DC don't use fill-in artists and rotate art duties from one book to another.

If you look at the VALIANT stable of artists, they haven't used that many. There was obviously an issue when Zircher left Shadowman that required some last minute fill-ins. A similar situation happened on the second Harbinger arc, but I thought those issues turned out pretty well. Garbett left for Marvel and Doyle was brought in on Q&W.

Here it may have been a chance for Kitson to get ahead while Henry revisited the Harbinger Wars, which he was the primary artist on any way. I'm pretty sure Kitson was solicited to draw the last two issues of the arc before Henry comes on the book for the "Resistance" arc. That could have changed, of course. S#!t happens sometimes.

But are people really complaining about Clayton Crain and Khari Evans rotating on different VALIANT books? There could be much worse things to complain about. Other than those Shadowman issues the art, regardless of artist, has not been bad IMHO on any book.

[leonmallett]

A month behind in my reading right now, but for me this was the strongest issue of the series except #0.

I had been a little 'meh' about Perfect Day so far, and the Torquehala sequence had just felt too corny for my tastes (even if intentionally so), but this issue in terms of pulling plot threads together, exposing a weakness for Harada, fleshing out Animalia and moving the story forwards did a lot for me. To be honest this issue packed in so much more than the last one for my reading that it was a pleasing step forward. Obviously #18 is out now, so I am interested to see where things go next.