Harbinger Wars 2 – Valiant Unleash Surprising Details And Art Ahead Of NYCC ’17

In the lead up to New York Comic Con this week, Valiant are making one of their biggest announcements to date in releasing some of the details and artwork from their upcoming Summer 2018 crossover event Harbinger Wars 2.

We already knew we’d see familiar names on the event, including team up from writer Matt Kindt and artist Tomas Giorello who worked on X-O Manowar together, and another team of Eric Heisserer and artist Raul Allen, who worked on Secret Weapons together.

But the big surprise is the structure of their work on the project, now revealed. Basically, each issue of Harbinger Wars 2 will contain two complete and separate comic stories by these two teams, respectively, bringing each issue to 44 pages of story. These double-sized comics will, however, only retail for $3.99.

Needless to say, this format is a first for Valiant, and the goal seems to be to present events all over the country in the storyline in different locations in each issue.
The first story to appear in each issue, by Kindt and Giorello, will chronicle X-O Manowar’s return to earth (he’s been on an alien planet recently), when he’s called in to fight against Harbinger’s Peter Stancheck, with his new army of psiots. That’s the guy who’s been leading a massacre against Generation Zero in the title Harbinger Renegade, hence the tie-ins between that title and Harbinger Wars 2 that Valiant have been hinting at for some time.

The second story, by Heisserer and Allen, will follow Livewire, who is going to lead her own rebellion to protect her team, Secret Weapons. She’ll be alienating the US government by doing so, and wait for it…she’s going to turn off power throughout the entire USA. That’s going to complicate issues for everyone during this “blackout”, including launching a mission to bring her down for this action led by Bloodshot and Ninjak.

Everyone catch all that?
And yet there are more details to reveal. Harbinger Wars 2 will be four double-sized issues and Valiant are promising that a huge number of Valiant characters are going to be making an appearance, not limited to, but including X-O Manowar, the Harbinger Renegades, Bloodshot, Faith, Ninjak, Livewire, HARD Corps, the Secret Weapons, and many more.

The first issue of Harbinger Wars 2 is going to arrive in stores on May 2nd, 2018, setting us up for summer. That’s also the Wednesday before Free Comic Book Day 2018.
Valiant are hinting that more information may come out of their New York Comic Con Panel on Friday, October 6th for Harbinger Wars 2, and the panel will include writer Eric Heisserer, artist Raul Allen, artist Patricia Martin, writer Rafer Roberts, as well as Valiant Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons, Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani, and VP of PR and Digital Hunter Gorinson.

Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani says:

The team at Valiant has set out to make HARBINGER WARS 2 the biggest and most impactful comic book event in a generation. Never before has a publisher attempted to accomplish this much within the confines of the monthly ‘event comic’ format. For one single admission price, we’re going to be giving readers twice the page count, twice the creative firepower, and twice the scale of a standard comics crossover – all while hopefully redefining expectations of what these kinds of stories can accomplish. For fans new and old, HARBINGER WARS 2 will the ultimate introduction to the Valiant Universe and its greatest characters from a truly all-star group of some of the most talented creators – Matt Kindt, Eric Heisserer, Tomás Giorello, and Raúl Allen – working anywhere in the medium today.

Here’s a little more detail on the plot for Harbinger Wars 2, straight from Valiant:
For the rare and immensely powerful subset of humanity known as psiots, their unique abilities have come with an enormous cost. Once, their existence was known only to a select few. Now, the revelation that thousands of these latent telekinetic “harbingers” secretly live among us… with the potential to become active any moment… has led the American government to a dramatic tipping point…
Armed with new extra-governmental authority, the deep-black military contractor known as OMEN as been authorized to identify, evaluate, and, if need be, eliminate all super-normal threats to the homeland. H.A.R.D. Corps units have been deployed into cities and towns across the United States to enforce their orders. 
In the east, one of the most powerful minds on Earth, Peter Stanchek, is leading his band of Renegades across the country, activating any potential psiots willing to join them, and building an insurrection force of ultra-powerful and unwieldy new powers that will soon bring war to OMEN’s doorstep… and the unstoppable force known as X-O Manowar raging back to Earth… 
In the west, Livewire – the telekinetic technopath with the ability to bend machines and computers to her will – will be forced to choose between her former allies… or her newfound team of Secret Weapons. As the situation escalates beyond human control, the United States will be plunged into darkness from coast and coast, launching Bloodshot and Ninjak into a dangerous mission to neutralize their one-time teammate – and setting the stage for the most shocking, most violent, and most consequential clash of powers ever witnessed in the history of the Valiant Universe!
HARBINGER WAR 2 #1 (of 4) will also feature covers by artist J.G. Jones (Final Crisis) and more, to be revealed in future.