Harbinger: The Beginning [Hardcover]

Jim Shooter (Author), David Lapham (Author, Illustrator), Dinesh Shamdasani (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 2007

From the back cover:

In 1992, legendary writer Jim Shooter and newcomer artist David Lapham teamed up to reinvent a staple of comic book storytelling - the superhero team genre. Their darker approach more realistically portrayed superpowered teenagers. The characters behaved like real people, blurring the line between good and evil. The heroes were flawed and sometimes loathsome, while the villains were often noble and frighteningly identifiable.

Harbinger became a critical and commercial smash hit, sparking a national obsession with Valiant Comics. Harbinger's first issue was named Collectible of the Decade by Wizard Magazine, appeared on Wizard Magazine s Top Ten list for a then-record eight consecutive months, and in 2006 was named the 1990s Comic Book of the Decade by Sequart. Harbinger also became one of the most popular comic series of the 1990s, selling over 5 million comic books.

Harbingers are human beings with extraordinary powers of the mind. Throughout history, their dangerous abilities tended to lie dormant, emerging in occasional bursts that are brought on by stress. This all changes when Japanese tycoon Toyo Harada, the world's most powerful Harbinger, establishes the Harbinger Foundation. The organization s vast power and resources are dedicated to train other Harbingers and promote Harada's vision of world betterment, no matter the cost. Soon after, the Foundation discovers the existence of teenager Peter Stanchek, the only Harbinger who can rival Harada's own Godlike powers.

Collected here for the first time is the landmark story that revolutionized the superhero team genre. Harbinger: The Beginning is one of the most celebrated stories in modern comics.

- Collects the full Harbinger origin story (Harbinger issues #0-7) by comics legend Jim Shooter and Eisner Award-winner David Lapham for the first time.
- Digitally recolored under the direction of original Valiant colorists.
- Digitally remastered with the approval of Jim Shooter.
- Includes the original rare Story of Harada coupons in full color for the first time.
- Includes an all-new eight page Origin of Harada story by Jim Shooter and original Valiant creator Bob Hall (Shadowman) featuring the first appearance of a new key Valiant character.

About Valiant Entertainment

Valiant Entertainment is a character-based entertainment company that owns and manages some of the most popular comic characters ever created across all media, including feature films, television, video games, new media, publishing, and consumer products. Since their creation in 1990, Valiant characters have sold over 80 million comic books, 8 million video games, and Valiant became one of the three leading comic character-based companies globally. In addition, the Valiant characters are often called the most important characters created since the Marvel revolution of the 1960s (Sequart, 2006). VALIANT characters include X-O MANOWAR, BLOODSHOT, HARBINGER, ETERNAL WARRIOR, ARCHER & ARMSTRONG, NINJAK, SHADOWMAN, RAI, and QUANTUM & WOODY, among many others.

Visit ValiantEntertainment.com for more information.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The first storyline deserves to be uttered in the same breath as the masterpieces of the art form: Watchmen, Maus, Dark Knight Returns... --Sequential Art Research and Literacy Organization

We were getting phone calls, faxes and letters from all around the country telling us how Harbinger was the hottest thing since sliced bread. Collectible of the Decade. --Wizard Magazine

A realistic and thoroughly modern tale of teenage superheroes, complete with bad judgment and raging hormones. --Variety

About the Author

JIM SHOOTER is an industry legend. He began his professional writing career at the age of 13, a world record, crafting some of the seminal Legion of Super Heroes stories for DC Comics. At the age of 27, he became Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. During his nine-year tenure, he oversaw some of Marvel's most influential creations and storylines, such as Spider-Man's black costume and the creation of Venom, the X-Men's Dark Phoenix Saga, and Frank Miller's run on Wolverine and Daredevil. In 1990, he co-founded Valiant Comics, where he co-wrote and co-created some of the most popular and critically acclaimed characters since Marvel's heyday in the 1960s, including X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Shadowman, and Archer and Armstrong, among others.

DAVID LAPHAM is an Eisner Award-winning writer/artist (Stray Bullets). In 1992, he began his career at Valiant Comics and quickly became a star creator, co-writing and illustrating Harbinger, Rai, H.A.R.D. Corps, and Shadowman. Lapham has also taken on some of the industry s best known characters at both Marvel Comics (Daredevil Vs. Punisher: Means And Ends; Giant-sized Wolverine), and DC Comics (Batman: City of Crime; Tales of the Unexpected).

BOB HALL is a highly accomplished comic book creator. He began his career at Marvel Comics, where he took on such marquee characters as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers. He then joined Valiant Comics, where he became a fan favorite writer and illustrator for the Shadowman series, defining the character and making it one of Valiant's most popular titles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Valiant Entertainment, LLC; 1st edition (August 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979640903
• ISBN-13: 978-0979640902
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harbinger: The Beginning ... more please!, August 21, 2007

By 

G. Holland "Valiantman the Valiant fan" (Arkansas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harbinger: The Beginning (Hardcover)

Harbinger: The Beginning is a retelling of the first eight Harbinger comics from Valiant Comics in 1992 in a new format. Those eight comics tell a single story, and have never been together in a single book before, since the earlier trade paperbacks for Harbinger only included four or five of these eight. This hardcover has digital re-coloring for the original inks, giving a "modern twist" on books that had become almost instant classics at the time. Looking from page to page through the book, there are cases where I prefer the original coloring from 1992, and there are pages that seem much more vibrant with the new digital coloring. There are new corrections and consistency between panels of the story, and some new effects that were not possible before digital coloring.

Though 192 of the 200 pages in this book have been seen in print before, I am certain that many comic collectors still have not read them. Unless you already own this book, I know that you haven't seen these pages in digital coloring. Comic collectors often believe that they already know about Valiant Comics, but unless they were collectors from the very beginning in 1991, they probably haven't had the opportunity to read the earliest stories which formed the foundation for the Valiant fan, such as Harbinger: The Beginning.

Many comic collectors like myself did not find Harbinger until around the tenth issue, and the earliest issues were priced far above my budget in the backissue market at the time. Only after re-starting my comic collecting via internet auctions did I find (and afford) backissues for the earliest Valiant books and finally sit down to read the books in the order they were released.

This hardcover makes that task much easier than searching out all the backissue comics. There is a reason that the earliest Valiant Comics were so prized when they were new, and why they still have a strong following today. I believe that Harbinger: The Beginning is a sign of good things to come. Valiant Entertainment Inc. is now guiding the Valiant universe, and this first product is very high quality. From the full-color dust jacket to the textured hardcover underneath, it doesn't appear that VEI has spared any expense. The pages themselves are very colorful, and the original story is presented in a new way, without changing the impact of the original. A new story included by Jim Shooter, "Origin of Harada", takes the characters a little further than before... and opens several possibilities for Valiant's future.

I would imagine that there will be many discussions about "what might be next" for Valiant based just upon the few pages of new story. What we do know is that VEI doesn't mind paying extra for a quality product, without passing those costs on to the customer. At $24.95 retail, this book is a bargain compared to others on the shelf, and with Amazon's discounted pricing it becomes a "must read" for any budget, especially if you've never read it before.

If you're a fan of the current story-telling in television shows such as "Heroes" or the more realistic comic-based movies being produced today, you might be surprised to find many of the same ideas and concepts in this early 1990s story. I've been a fan of Valiant since 1992, I've been a "rejuvenated fan" since the late 1990s, and I'm a supporter of Valiant's return since long before this book was even possible. It's exciting to see Valiant return, and hopefully, this is the first in a long line of quality Valiant products by VEI. Best of luck to them.

I hope you'll give Harbinger: The Beginning a try if you're wondering why anyone ever cared about Valiant Comics in the first place. Valiant was in the top three of comic companies with Marvel and D.C. for a short period of time. How could that happen so quickly? Why are Valiant fans still so passionate? This book is "The Beginning" of the answer.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice job, September 13, 2007

By 

D.H. (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harbinger: The Beginning (Hardcover)

This book re-prints 0-7 in chapter format. In this way it's different than for example Marvel's omnibus line which maintains the cover page and letters page with each separate issue. So you don't have a full-page cover for each issue in this book. Rather a shrunken version of each cover is included as they put two on a page, partially overlapping. The other thing that's in here is the story of Harada which was told on the back of each of the coupons that were included with the original issues 1-6, which you needed to clip and mail to get issue 0 at the time. In this book, those back panels have been colored and are included here together over a couple of pages. Finally, there's also a separate "origin of Harada" story". For those of you weren't reading when this came out, Harbinger took the comic book world by storm at the time, along with the other Valiant titles. The writing was a breath of fresh air.

The disintegration of Harbinger and Valiant was mainly for two reasons; first, Shooter didn't have voting control of the company to begin with and when his business partner started seeing a woman at the VC that lent the money to Valiant, he was booted from the corporation when a disagreement about direction ocurred and his business partner voted with his "new" girlfriend at the VC (a fascinating business tale that I recommend anyone research, by the way), after Shooter was booted, Valiant continued with other writers but the bottom fell out of the comics industry and that basically did Harbinger and the rest of the company's titles in.

I missed issues 1-5 back in the early 90's (and wasn't going to pay hundreds at the time to get #1, after only just months had passed since it was issued), and only have 6 and 7 from this volume, but irrespective of changes in colors, I like the format and recommend anyone purchase this, to either see it in this format, or sample Harbinger for the first time.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Product, September 5, 2007

By 

Conner Kent (Burbank, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harbinger: The Beginning (Hardcover)

I'm so disappointed that there have been some issues keeping this book out of some fans' hands. This is a well put together hardcover of one of my favorite comic book collections of the early 1990's. I still remember the day I bought Harbinger #1 and to have it all collected is a treat. Fans of TV shows like "Heroes" will be happy to see this is a very similar concept.

I was hoping big sales of this book would lead to new Harbinger comics material, but thanks to some greedy people that might not happen. I really hope it all gets ironed out so we can have more hardcover Valiant collections.