This is probably not the best issue of this series to introduce you, dear reader, to Harbinger: Renegade. But I have been reading this much-hyped series from Valiant off the back of numerous recommendations, and couldn't wait any longer to talk about it. Because, spoiler alert, it's very very good indeed.
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| "Um, how long have you guys been here?" |
You may not be familiar with Valiant's comic universe, but I would strongly urge you to change that, and for the most part, this book has been a great way to do so. It folows a group of Psiots (Valiant's equivalent of Mutants/Inhumans/Metahumans etc.) reforming the team they had previously, as one of them has foreseen a need for them to fight a great evil. And this issue is the first glimpse we get of that: the Alpha, a kind of Evil Psiot Jesus, is rising again. Most of this book is set in the 11th century, and gives us the backstory of the Alpha, one-time warlord feared the world over. We see how it came to be that he needs to rise again, in a well-structured story which feels like a one-shot in its telling and how it fits into the bigger picture.
If you had no interest in this series and just wanted a decent read, you could pick this up, read it and enjoy it with no need to go into it any further. However the series thus far has been great, and checking out the previous issues will add a lot to your reading of this book. Juan Jose Ryp's artwork makes the story easy to follow which is essential to an issue of this type, I think anything more adventurous would have made this comic extremely hard work. Being a flashback consisting mostly of characters we have not met before and most likely won't see again, writer Rafer Roberts had a lot of heavy lifting to do with setting the scene and explaining the characters' motivation to the reader. Fortunately he manages this very well, and needs only 2 pages to immerse you in the world and explain what Sir Gerald, our protagonist, needs to do before getting into the story proper. I always praise comics that respect the readers' intelligence and don't spell out every detail, and this is certainly one of those issues.
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| My wife and I have this very conversation every morning... |
I think this is more an issue for people that have already been following this run rather than a jumping-on point, if you started here you would be HUGELY confused by the following instalment. That said it is well-written, well-drawn and holds together as a story in its own right, so as a follower of Renegade, I'm very glad it happened.
3.5 / 5
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