| Harbinger | |
|---|---|
Cover art for Harbinger: The Beginning hardcover. Art by Bob Hall. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Valiant Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | Superhero |
| Publication date | January 1992 - June 1995 |
| Number of issues | 41 |
| Main character(s) | Peter Stanchek |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Jim Shooter |
| Artist(s) | David Lapham |
| Creator(s) | Jim Shooter David Lapham |
| Collected editions | |
| Children of the Eighth Day | ISBN |
| Harbinger: The Beginning | ISBN 0979640903 |
Harbinger was a 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. Harbinger debuted with Harbinger #1 in January 1992.
In 2008, Valiant released a deluxe hardcover entitled Harbinger: The Beginning, collecting the first seven issues. Harbinger: The Beginning reached #2 on Amazon’s graphic novels sales charts and within the top #300 of all books sold on Amazon.
Contents |
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, he later realizes, he had 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 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. When a set of coupons was collected and sent to Valiant a copy of Harbinger #0 Pink Mail Away Variant could be redeemed. The book became highly sought after reaching prices as high as $300 dollars in back issue trading. A blue cover version was eventually released to meet demand. Today, the Pink Mail Away Version of Harbinger #0 is still one of the most sought after Valiant books.
Each issue of Harbinger from #1 through #6 contained a numbered coupon that could be collected and redeemed for a copy of Harbinger #0 Pink Mail Away Variant, the prequel to the Harbinger series. 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 entitled The Origin of Harada which presumably fleshes out the story that appeared on the coupons.
Part of the series has been collected into volumes:
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 works on a number of projects.[1]