The Harbinger from Valiant Entertainment serves as the return and development of Peter Stanchek. This once aimless anti-hero has a lot on his plate; a city feeling hostile towards him, mercenaries oppressing people like him, and he’s now two people. At the center of this avant-garde saga is a person at odds with himself.
Who Is Peter Stanchek?
Peter Stanchek is one of the Valiant Universe’s most powerful psiots; think X-Men mutants but limited to psychic powers. But because his great power often lead to traumatic events, Stanchek often went to drugs or isolation. Eventually crossing paths with Toyo Harada, the other Omega psiot, Stancheck finds himself in a battle for survival. Harada is a well intentioned extremist out to conquer the world economically through his Harbinger Foundation. But the way Harada tries to control psiots under him through subterfuge doesn’t sit right with Stanchek. He and a few other psiots including Faith Herbert/Zephyr and his “norm” crush Kris form the Renegades in opposition.
But despite the Renegades halting much of Harada’s more subtle moves for control, he just balloons his threats. Not only that but the Renegades actions reveal every potential psiot to the world. This allows black market dealers and Foundation remnants to take advantage of impressionable psiots. The Renegades have to come back together to try and make sure psiots have the means to fight back. Unfortunately, the rushing numbers of psiots push the government to go on the offensive. It was after this Harbinger Wars II that the Renegades (save for Faith) go off the grid. Stanchek gets the most scorn for his great power and reckless behavior, going into hiding again.
The Harbinger: A Fresh Start
As you might’ve guessed by now, Stanchek was a reactionary anti-hero. He and the Renegades were survivors trying to avoid exploitation by Harada or government officials. But their best efforts to try and help other psiots just seemed to make things worse. Probably because other there aren’t enough positive representatives; Faith can’t do it alone. Stanchek in particular was usually too troubled to help anyone unless somebody pushed him.
This is where Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing come in. With Stanchek seemingly dead, he reappears as a blank slate. It’s a pretty clever way to introduce new and old readers to a character. On one hand, they get the feeling of experiences the great and sublime power he has without all of the baggage. On the other, the readers connect with him as to the mystery of his lost memories.
The Warning a.k.a. The Red Herrings
The villains of this series are pretty good reflections of Peter’s character and influence. Stanchek’s past actions led to a number of traumatic events for some people. Under a former foundation member Futurist, victims of psiot crimes form The Warning. With them kidnapping and wiping the memories of Psiots before they gain influence, they hold the Chicago borough Psiot City hostage. And it’s only a matter of time before Futurist does the same to all of Chicago; with the frightened people practically handing it to him on a silver platter.
You gotta give Kelly and Lanzing credit for making The Warning a convincing red herring; they have the motive and resources to have stolen Peter’s mind. Then there’s their characterizations, they aren’t really evil so much as trauma victims taken advantage of by Futurist. Similar to Stanchek, they tried to escape their troubles instead of finding real help. Which brings us to the real villain of the series; no it’s not Futurist, he left the series.
The Renegade: Baggage Personified
At the climax of the first arc, Peter is revealed to have actually split into two people. The Harbinger represents all of Stanchek’s empathy, optimism, and heroic drive. Then there’s The Renegade, embodying all of Stanchek’s trauma, narcissism, and self-loathing. It was all part of Stanchek’s plan to “be better” as a familiar phrase repeats. But why? Well, Peter Stanchek was not a very mentally healthy person, he felt that he couldn’t “be better” with all of his baggage. Stanchek tried to wipe out his vices by giving himself amnesia. But this self-inflicted trauma only forced the baggage into a new body, the Renegade.
Unlike the Harbinger, the Renegade was vulnerable to people’s projections of Stanchek. This triggered the traumas he was burdened with. Without the Harbinger to balance him out, The Renegade is left with a void he vainly tries to fill. How? By triggering premature Psiots to goad his other self into accepting him.
The Harbinger and Art Therapy
One appeal of The Harbinger is the surreal and absurd art of Robbi Rodriguez. It’s probably the most avant-garde way to showcase Peter’s mind. Some scenes bring up similarities with sublime landscape paintings for how well they capture Peter’s emotions. A two-page spread features probably the most thought-provoking look into Peter and the Renegade. They share memories but they way they look at them is different. The renegade feels the weight of his shortcomings in panels that feel more intense with its coloring; meanwhile The Harbinger struggles to make light of the situations in panels that look more withdrawn.
Rico Renzi’s coloring and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering perfectly show off Peter’s psychic powers. The yellow aura that the Harbinger gives off feels like an energetic spotlight. He wants to be seen as a force for good as these lights help readers direct their gaze at him. Not to mention the warped effects of some word balloons perfectly display Peter’s telepathy. Can’t forget about the red miasma the Renegade gives off in juxtaposition. The way it slowly seeps out of cracks in the panels greatly presents the threat with suffocating visuals. Or how his corrupted word balloons seem to spread to the people he influences.
Any Catches?
There’s a lot going into The Harbinger in its first arc with its mystery and witnessing Peter’s rise to heroism. So much so that the second arc feels slower because it spends so much time bringing Faith into the mix. But it still features another piece of Peter’s character; Pete might not have his baggage, but he still compartmentalizes his concerns instead of talking them out. Having Faith show up is sort of a wake-up call for Pete to get his act together; she’s got the strongest moral compass in the Valiant Universe.
At the very least the finale features Peter Stanchek’s complete redemption. Without going into spoilers, it involves the abstract introduction of Joe Stinger. Besides seeing Peter’s development inspires Psiot City to fight for their rights and they’ve got heroes to back them up.
Overall The Harbinger gets 8.5/10 for a great jumping on point, an introduction firing on all cylinders, artwork that will never be forgotten, and great characterizations. But the pace slowing down in the second arc is best read in trade form.