Peter Stanchek is back. Something has made him forget everything. He just sees people's reaction to him when they realize who he is. He's fled to a section of Chicago called Psiot City that has become a refuge to the mutants of the Valiant universe. He's pursued by some generic villains called The Warning. It's OK. It feels overwritten. There's too much inner dialogue. In fact, that's almost the entire book, Pete's inner monologue.

The art's pretty good except for the covers (which are awful). There are way too many effects on the page. It's a common problem I've had before with Rodriguez and Renzi. But all in all solid stuff.

'The Harbinger Book 1' by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly with art by Robbi Rodriguez is another reboot of a character in the Valiant universe.

Peter Stanchek is a telepath with no memory. What he begins to learn about himself is that he is Public Enemy number one and may not be the good guy he presumes to be and he has a whole pack of superpowered folks after him.

The book does a good job of keeping the reader up to speed, until it falters in the 4th and last issue in this collection. The art is good, and I liked this newer take on a character I haven't particularly cared for before.

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Minds, Madness & Power
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Easy
𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Graphic Novel (GN)
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Super hero
3.8/𝟱

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Great artwork & page structuring
~ Morally grey MC
~ Found family

Peter Stancheck wakes up with memories missing & the power of hundreds of atom bombs circulating in his system. After taking them for a spin, he finds out that the world fears him, although he has no idea why. He launches into a search for his missing memories that sees him battling the voices in his head, evil amped up humans moonlighting as heroes & others like him seeking a leader. As he becomes the Harbinger, learning the ins & outs of body & mind he becomes a symbol of possibilities.

Overall, I enjoyed this GN. The story is told from the perspectives of fractured minds, adding a dimension of questioning reality, which makes it unique. There were some missed references & the authors allude to things that aren’t fully seen in the story, which threw me off a bit. A good story for lovers of GNs.

✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

🌱THE MEH
~ Story seems a tad convoluted 🤔


♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)

The Harbinger Book 1 is the first in a new series from Valiant Entertainment and also happens to be one that I've been looking forward to! Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robbi Rodriguez are the minds behind this project.

If you could wish for any superpower, what would you choose? Peter Stanchek didn't have much choice in his powers, but he could still make the most of them. As a telepath, his potential is endless, even if he can't remember everything about his past.

The Harbinger Book 1 had a lot of potential; I knew that much going into it. I want to see superhero stories come out from other publishing houses because I think there's an untapped opportunity there.

Overall I would have to say that while this introduction was interesting, it did fall a bit flat for me. The character is perhaps a little too powerful, especially right out of the gate. It makes readers focus more on his abilities and less on his character development, which is something I'm not usually a fan of.

Like many superhero stories, the best characters in The Harbinger Book 1 were the villains. To me, a series is made or broken by the villains that fill the pages. For this reason, I still have a ton of hope for this franchise, as these characters were a delight. Though perhaps delight isn't the correct term, considering we're talking about the bad guys...

The artwork helped support this story, taking it a few steps further than the story on its own would have. I'm particularly a fan of the color palette, but I am generally drawn to those specific details.

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

This story is set in a sort of alternate world where people have super powers. And there's an organisation taking these super humans for personal gain to harm them.

I enjoyed the plot of this book and the art style. But at a point I couldn't follow up with the dialogue. It got confusing as the main character was having his own thoughts, and there was another pov who turned out to be his other self.
And another pov which was an omnipotent narrator.

It felt all confusing if I'm being honest. But I liked the villains and how the main character cake to accept his powers and take on the role to protect the people and go after the organisation kidnapping super humans.

Lanzing and Kelly have some decent writing chops as the Kang mini-series shows but I was completely put off by Robbi Rodriguez's art on this one.so I didnt get more than halfway on it. very disappointing.

Harbinger means someone who brings forth or starts something. Many times harbinger is tagged with evil as in someone who brings the evil. And that would fit with this book. A man wakes up and has no idea who he is but there’s two people talking. It’s almost as if one is in his mind and one is himself. He is known as the harbinger, he is a superhero, but also a super villain, depending on which side of the coin you look at. With no memories all he knows is he wants to be better and make the world a safe place even if it’s him people need to be saved from. The story was a bit slow and it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on. Is this two people or is this a case of DID. Overall I liked this story but I don’t care if I come read the sequel

Honestly, this was a very dull and generic superhero graphic novel that's very derivative of others in the genre. Kinda bland, won't be continuing the series tbh. The art style was really good but again, nothing new, exciting or unique

Thank you to NetGalley and Valiant Entertainment for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn in by the premise and art, but The Harbinger Book 1 didn't hold my attention. It was a little wordy and dense for me, but I'm sure that others would enjoy it.

This was an enjoyable graphic novel following our MC, Peter Stanchek, who wakes up without any memories or understanding of his powers. This was a good read and though it had a lot of text to try and keep track of everything happening, the different colours helped you keep track of the different characters talking. The art is great and the colouring stunning.

I have to admit I was lost about what was happening at times, but I am now aware this takes place in a broader universe which may explain this difficulty. Overall this was a good story, I think reading more of the books in the universe may help me place it and I may do that in future.

<i>I received a copy of this graphic novel via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

Great story loved the characters and the art everything looked beautiful together and I just adored this.

I received a copy of this graphic novel through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I got the impression it’s part of a bigger superhero world and I know absolutely nothing about it. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad and I got the gist of things relatively fast. It’s a story about a superhuman character Peter who doesn’t remember much about himself or his place in the world. He gets his bearing and has to face himself and his darker side.🙂
I liked the art and the story got decently interesting in the end. The cover is ugly though and the story could use a bit more easing into the unknown superhero world.🤔

While the art was decent the story just left me a little flat and I never really engaged with it---
There was plenty of action but perhaps no history with the franchise kept me from enjoying it as much as someone else might.

This isn't bad at all. It still has the Valiant tendency to cater to overpowered characters, but at least this one isn't having a good time. The book does an okay job of getting someone like me, how knows almost nothing about the Valiant universe, up to speed - it's disappointing then that the last chapter lost me, feeling like it's built on previous knowledge.

There is a lot of text, constant narration and dialogue. It feels overwritten, bordering on the faux-poetic. Using fewer words to say the same will only make the work stronger.

I especially enjoyed the group of supervillains, The Warning - to be honest I was actually more interested in them than in the main character.

The art is pretty good, except for the cover, which is plain bad.

Well paint an 'H' on me and use me for a helipad, Valiant have actually included a bit of back-story in one of their books. It's only taken, what, five years of me reviewing them, for them to realise that some readers may need to be brought up to speed with the shenanigans of all the individuals and teams and sides in their titles' combined universe. Don't get me wrong, mind, this is only because the title protagonist wakes up sans memory – it's not for our sake. I guess that's what "psionic napalm" does, anyway – and this feels like that at times, with a convoluted load of characters wanting to kill off, wipe the mind of, go to bed with, and just yack with in multicoloured off-screen speech bubbles, our main guy.

Peter Stanchek is public enemy numero uno, but wakes up wanting to use his powers for good, and just about manages to get away with that – until what we feared (ie got told at the end of issue one) is confirmed (ie repeated at the end of issue three), that he's actually yacking to Bad Peter Stanchek, the Renegade, and the more evil, guilty and unwanted aspects of him.

Call this a Jekyll and Hyde story, or call it a Renegade Wars sequel, or call it The Harbinger (the definitive article is new, btw) – heck, call it X-O Manowar Book 2 as one of the credit pages did in my digital copy – this isn't actually too bad. It's certainly not brilliant, and not for the first time with the typical house demand of being four issues long, the arc gets up to running speed, only to end. Stupid decisions can abound, from blacking out the swear words to having a character called Young Ago, to having a baddy with Leningrad Cowboy hair. Nobody has ever been afraid of the Leningrad Cowboys (well, the male ones at least).

That aside's aside aside, this is a return to the routine Valiant, which never manages to ace anything, but at least isn't the "must outdo Vertigo" wankery they gave us on the way out of lockdown. It can just about manage to be a proper stepping-stone to full Valiant Universe disclosure, but as I say is hindered by rules that mean it can only be a short story we'll probably all forget before these threads and characters next come our way. Valiant has a LOT of memory loss, and that's just in the readership, which will forever, it seems, be their problem. But this, before I forget about it, is three and a half stars – and with the good news that at last Faith is coming back to kick ass, might just be Valiant building up the steam we really want them to have.

A telepath with no memory. A city of superpowered teenagers suppressed. Redemption. Destruction. Rebirth. Peter Stanchek's path from the most feared man in the world to one of its greatest protectors begins here.

If you are into the X-men or the recent versions of Spiderman, you will love this series. The art is amazing and the fight scenes are what you have come to expect from today's comics. Everything from the colors, the language, and the attitude fit today's comics and today's attitudes.

I had a hard time getting very attached to Peter Stanchek. I get his memory was washed but is he a bad guy turning good guy, or a good guy who was bad cus he knew nothing else? Lost me there a bit.

The world-building, while amazing, is a lot to take in with little back story to buffer it up. But it left room for more and that's a good thing.

Thanks to @Netgalley, Diamond Book Distributors, Valiant Entertainment, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robbi Rodriguez for the opportunity to read this eArc iin exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I saw that Robbi Rodriguez had a new coming out, I knew that I had to read it right away! The Harbinger Book 1 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robbi Rodriguez is an action-packed graphic novel with amazing visuals. The story revolves around Peter Stanchek, a superpowered human and how he becomes one of the world's protectors. Will he become the next Superman or the next Magneto?

Overall, The Harbinger Book 1 is an exciting graphic novel that will appeal to fans of Spider-Man or X-Men. One highlight of this book is the gorgeous artwork. I've been a fan of Robbi Rodriguez's art since I first encountered it while reading Spider-Gwen. Honestly, the artwork was what made Spider-Gwen worth it. Similarly, the artwork is what made me keep reading this graphic novel. I took off 1 star, because I didn't really relate to Peter. I'm sure many readers will though. If you're intrigued by the description, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in May!

I liked the premise, and the book had some awesome images. The only thing that bugged me was the lack of answers. Aesthetically this was beautiful, story was interesting.

The Harbinger is full of action, mystery and the birth of a new band of superheroes who are out for revenge! I thought the art was fun and I loved the bright neon colours...definitely suited the plot and all the superhero fight scenes. There was a lot of world building to take in, and it took me until Issue 3 to really get into it. There is still a lot of mystery about the main character which I like, and this has piqued my interest for the next book.