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Kareem Ali 3

Armor Hunters: Harbinger #1

 

  • The good

    Character interactions are intriguing and can have an impact even outside of Armor Hunters event. Excellent artwork, which captures the devastation of Mexico City

  • The bad

    Adds nothing to Armor Hunters event except potentially with the last panels. Attack by masked gunmen is unnecessary, makes no sense, and felt offensive to me

  • The ugly

    • Armor Hunters: Harbinger #1 follows the exploits of a team of young psiots as they become involved in the armor hunters’ invasion due to their proximity to the explosion in Mexico City. It opens up with them driving through Mexico until Kalea has a seizure and flips over the jeep she’s driving. This is due to her sensing the millions of deaths caused by the explosion in Mexico City, and she’s overloaded until Cronus heals her.  So they locate the explosion site and see utter devastation, and despite Cronus not wanting to get involved due to his hatred for the rest of humanity, he believes in his team and cares about them so they plan a course of action to help those in need. Meanwhile the world at large doesn’t understand what happened in Mexico City or who’s responsible for the blast but none are reeling like Mexico because the only thing that’s confirmed is the death of the Mexican president along with most of congress. Can these young psiots truly make a difference in Mexico City or will they be overwhelmed by the sheer devastation and aftermath in their fragile state?

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    I’ve been meaning to start reading Harbinger for some time but decided to wait until I had my copy of this issue because I figured it’ll be a better place to start. I’ve been reading comic books practically my entire life so jumping in a series at a random point is easy for me to do and still get a good idea about it, and I also know where to look if there are some things I don’t understand because of what occurred in previous issues. In this case I just jumped in, and with Valiant’s “The Story So Far…” section always being so informative I figured I would be very prepared. I’m stating this because the issue started off very well and did in excellent job in showing why the psiots would get involved despite all they just went through recently. And in terms of the Armor Hunters event, the situation from Mexico’s viewpoint was finally shown as the government rushed to locate and protect the man who would have to be the acting President. And a few survivors in Mexico City were also shown, and this captured the desperation of the situation and it really hit home. And then it happened. I don’t know the angle in which the Harbinger series usually addresses issues but what occurred next didn’t sit quite right with me. In every other issue in the Armor Hunters event the people are shown as victims worthy of protection during this invasion. Here victims of the most catastrophic event in the series are shown on one page and then masked gunmen in vans attack everyone. Why? To kidnap people to hold for ransom and to kill anyone who tries to run away. Yes, after an unprecendented explosion killed millions of people, there were those who immediately decided to round up the gang and go into this devastation to kidnap for ransom even though all communications have been destroyed as well. So it’s not only incredibly savage but incredibly stupid on the part of those doing it. And I felt it was offensive in ways because apparently there were no family members to be concerned about, not one heroic act was shown in the aftermath of the blast, and only those from the outside actually cared about the people. Again, I don’t know if this sequence is indicative of the series in terms of the psiots always dealing with the worst of humanity as their backstory would suggest but it just didn’t sit right with me. Aside from this the individual characters were appealing to me and I can see myself enjoying their stories outside of this even as they’re in a dynamic situation. In terms of the Armor Hunter event, other than just physically being in Mexico City nothing is offered in this issue for that story line.

     

    SUMMARY

    Armor Hunters: Harbinger #1 brings very little to the Armor Hunters event as the team doesn’t encounter any of them, and only contend with an ill-timed, and offensive, assault by masked gunmen. In fact, the assault left a bad taste in my mouth and was a distraction from the catastrophic event at hand. However the individual characters came off very well so I am intrigued by the Harbinger series in general, and with a unique development at the end of this issue I’m actually hopeful for the next issue to see what unfolds.

     

    Release Date: 7/30/14

    Writer: Joshua Dysart

    Artist: Robert Gill

  • Rating ( 6 )
  • Total score 6.0

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