Harbinger (comic book)

Harbinger

Cover art for Harbinger Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 HC.
Art by Mico Suayan.
Publication information
Publisher Valiant Comics
Schedule Monthly
Format Ongoing series
Genre
Publication date January 1992 - June 1995 (Valiant Comics)
June 2012-July 2014 (Valiant Entertainment)
Number of issues 41
Main character(s) Peter Stanchek
Creative team
Writer(s) Jim Shooter (Valiant Comics)
Joshua Dysart (Valiant Entertainment
Artist(s) David Lapham (Valiant Comics)
Khari Evans (Valiant Entertainment)
Creator(s) Jim Shooter
David Lapham
Collected editions
Harbinger: The Beginning ISBN 0979640903

Harbinger is an American comic book series published by Valiant Comics about a group of teenage super-powered outcasts known as Harbingers.

Harbinger initially featured writing and art by Jim Shooter and David Lapham. After Acclaim Entertainment purchased the rights to the Valiant catalog for $65 million in 1994, the characters were rebooted in Harbinger: Acts of God to make them more easily adaptable to video games. They continued to appear in many Valiant titles, most prominently the Unity 2000 series. Harbinger was one of the best selling Valiant titles with total sales in all languages of over five million comics.

Publication history

Harbinger debuted with Harbinger #1 in January 1992.

In 2008, Valiant released Harbinger: The Beginning, a deluxe hardcover collecting the first seven issues. Harbinger: The Beginning reached #2 on Amazon.com’s graphic novels sales charts and within the top #300 of all books sold on Amazon.

In June 2012, Valiant Entertainment relaunched the Harbinger title as a new ongoing series, written by Joshua Dysart and illustrated by Khari Evans.

Characters

Plot

Toyo Harada is the first Harbinger, and unlike subsequent Harbingers he was able to make his powers manifest at will, or activate the powers of others. Other Harbingers exhibit powers only rarely and this activation is always brought on by severe stress.

Harada is an Omega Harbinger: he commands the full spectrum of psionic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis, mind-control, and many other talents. He uses these powers to create a multinational corporation and amass a large fortune. Fearing the world is on a course to destroy itself, he plans to take it over and mold it to his specifications. To this end he creates the Harbinger Foundation, which actively searches for potential Harbingers (whose powers Harada triggers with his psionic abilities).

Pete Stanchek is a normal teenager until he develops Harbinger abilities. After seeing an advertisement he contacts the Harbinger Foundation. Harada is intrigued by Pete, who is the only other Harbinger to have triggered his own powers and who exhibits multiple abilities. Harada is no longer the only Omega Harbinger.

Harada tries to persuade Pete to join the Harbinger Foundation and become Harada's right hand man, but when Pete's best friend, who had been vocal about his distrust for Harada, is murdered by the Foundation Pete realizes the truth.

Pete, along with Kris (a high school cheerleader who Pete had first been unconsciously mentally controlling so that she would go out with him) become renegades. They decide to recruit Harbingers themselves, activate their abilities, and form an army capable of challenging Harada.

Harbinger #0

Harbinger #0 is the prequel to the Harbinger series and details how Peter Stanchek became involved with the Harbinger Foundation and came to oppose Harada. Each issue of Harbinger from #1 through #6 contained a numbered coupon. Each coupon also featured one panel of a six panel story by Jim Shooter that told the origin of Toyo Harada. A new hardcover collection (Harbinger: The Beginning) features a new story by Jim Shooter, "Origin of Harada", which presumably fleshes out the story that appeared on the coupons. When a set of coupons was collected and sent to Valiant a copy of Harbinger #0 Pink Cover Mail Away Variant could be redeemed. The book became highly sought, reaching prices as high as $300 in back issue trading. A blue cover version was eventually released to meet demand. Today, the Pink Cover Mail Away Version of Harbinger #0 is still one of the most sought after Valiant books.[1]

Awards and recognition

Nominations

Collected editions

Part of the original series has been collected into volumes:

In addition, the new series (by Joshua Dysart) is being collected into volumes as well:

Additionally, the series has begun being collected into Deluxe Edition hardcovers:

Film adaptation

In March 2008, it was announced that Paramount Pictures acquired the rights of Harbinger, enlisting Brett Ratner as director. Alexandra Milchan, Jay Stern, Dinesh Shamdasani, Valiant Entertainment's Chief Creative Officer, and Jason Kothari, Valiant Entertainment's CEO will produce. The film might be branded under Paramount's MTV Films banner. Ratner was looking for an opportunity to start a superhero franchise from scratch. The filmmakers are searching for a screenwriter, while Ratner is working on a number of projects.[12] In April 2015, Sony Pictures are developing a Harbinger movie with Original Films' Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe producing with Valiant Entertainment's Dinesh Shamdasani and Eric Heisserer writing the film, whlie Andrea Giannetti will oversee for Sony; potential directors are being kept under wraps for now. Harbinger will have a sequel and crossover movie, Harbinger Wars, with Bloodshot.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Top 100 Valiant Comics". comicspriceguide.com. 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  2. ↑ Miller, Mark (February 25, 2013). "AICN COMICS 9th Annual @$$IE AWARDS Day Two". Ain't It Cool News.
  3. ↑ Cheng, Jennifer (December 31, 2012). "CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2012". Comic Book Resources.
  4. ↑ Haaland, Aaron (1 July 2013). "A COMIC SHOW: 12 BEST OF 2012". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2013-01-20.
  5. ↑ Gallaher, Valerie (2012-11-30). "MTV Geek's Best Comic Series Of 2012". MTV.com. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
  6. ↑ Stewart, Scott (January 6, 2013). "Looking back at the year in comic books". Mind of Scott.
  7. ↑ "Simon's Best of 2013". Comic Impact.
  8. ↑ Gage, Christos (30 December 2013). "CraveOnline". Crave Online.
  9. ↑ "AICN COMICS 10th Annual @$$IE AWARDS". Ain't It Cool News. 6 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "AICN COMICS 10th Annual @$$IE AWARDS". Ain't It Cool News. 7 March 2014.
  11. ↑ Schedeen, Jesse. "THE 2014 HARVEY AWARD NOMINATIONS ARE REVEALED". IGN.
  12. ↑ Fleming, Michael (2008-03-10). "Ratner eyes Valiant's Harbinger". Variety. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  13. ↑ McMillan, Graeme (April 21, 2015). "'Bloodshot', 'Harbinger' Comics to Get Film Treatment From Sony, Valiant Entertainment (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.

References

External links

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