Review – Harbinger: Omegas # 3 (of 3)

So, it’s been a few years since I last wrote any of these reviews. But for those with particularly long memories, you may recall that the last one I wrote here was for the first issue of a fledgling indy title called Harbinger. Now, here we are, many moons later, and the initial reservations I had about that first issue have long since been swept aside in a torrent of critical praise for the book. Now, trite as it may sound, we come to both the end and the beginning. Harbinger: Omegas # 3 is simultaneously the final issue of Harbinger as it was, and also the first issue of Harbinger as it will be. It’s the proverbial point of no return, as the world finally begins to take sides.

As most people know, Harbinger was originally a series in the early 90s. The original run featured many of the same characters and ideas that have garnered the new series so much praise – Peter Stanchek was still an Omega-level psiot with the potential to make or break the world if he ever reached his potential, Toyo Harada was still also an Omega-level psiot, and a megalomaniac who was convinced he knew the best way to run the world. The difference lies in how far the creators were willing to go with those ideas. In the original series, despite a few early failings, Pete was a pretty stand-up guy, with an underwear-model 6-pack, and a burning desire to save the world from Harada’s evil manipulations – and Harada was an out-and-out moustache-twirling (despite the original version’s lack of facial hair) villain. Likewise, when the time came in the 25^th issue of that 90s series for Pete and Harada to have their big showdown, it happened, they were both essentially killed, and the series just sort of ended. They tried to keep it going for a while with a new protagonist, but they completely ignored the societal implications behind what Pete and Harada both stood for.

Now, 20-something years later, the new Harbinger has also reached the climactic battle between it’s two main characters in it’s 25^th issue. But unlike the original, Josh Dysart has chosen to explore what the world means in the aftermath of such a cataclysmic event. The world’s psiots have been exposed to the public, including the politically and economically powerful Harada – who, rather than submit to any human authority, has claimed a piece of land in Somalia and decided to begin forcefully remaking the world there, while the world’s militaries wonder how to react to a fascist who can single-handedly dismantle any conventional force thrown against him. Peter, meanwhile, has decided the most heroic thing he can do is cause the world to forget about him. The world, however, has other ideas. With Harada all but declaring war on the world’s governments, even former enemies are forced to admit that with two godlike entities walking the earth, anyone who doesn’t side with one of them is fighting a losing battle – to side with Peter, though, they have to find him.