Harbinger Wars 2 #3 is out and… I’m so underwhelmed by this “event.” Valiant ramped up the anticipation for it, especially in the pages of Harbinger Renegades and it’s not playing out in any way like the anticipation set forth. It’s more or less Valiant Civil War at this point but without any crossover books to help it out (except for an issue of Quantum & Woody! that is, the funny book).
The other books… X-O Manowar is taking place before this event. X-O is off daydreaming about his past for issues on end. Shadowman is dead and traveling through time to witness various iterations of himself… or more specifically: flashbacks. Ninja-K has events taking place before this “event,” though the Ninja-K stuff is way more interesting than this “event.”
So what do we get with issue #3? We get some awesome art by Tomás Giorello, a quick flip of sides for one character, and 2 beloved characters MURDERING soldiers doing their jobs. Wait… what? If I were the editor, I would have made the writer, Matt Kindt, stop hard and take a look at the actions that go down in this issue concerning Livewire and Bloodshot because unless their actions are seriously dealt with, it changes their characterizations in ways in which you just can’t come back from.
Soldier Joes were just doing their job protecting The Love Boat and they were slaughtered. Not taken out, not knocked out, not TKO’ed, but slaughtered by 2 supposed heroes. Honestly… this is worse than Robin killing thugs in the alleyway of the Titans trailer. At least those were bad guys, not “Joe, I go to work to protect my country, soldier.” Calling it “war” doesn’t excuse these actions either.
Wrap Up
The next issue concludes Harbinger Wars 2 and I hope it comes and goes quickly. There really is no saving this “event.” I’m not sure how you open an ongoing Livewire book now that she and Bloodshot literally just murdered people left and right.
