New Harbinger member Chung-Cha Kwan arrives to find the team devastated by villain Black Sheep and her robot assistants. Only one member of Harbinger is still standing. Will Chung-Cha prevail where the other Harbinger members failed? The first half of Valiant Beyond: All-New Harbinger #2 breaks the usual straightforward method of telling a story by showing how the Harbinger team (as well as some civilians) were wiped out by Black Sheep in 27 seconds. Yes, 27 seconds.
The book (written by Fred Van Lente with art by Erik Tamayo and colors by Exequiel F. Roel) is very harrowing in places and you really feel like Chung-Cha is going to get annihilated at any moment as she and fellow Harbinger member Alloy (a Metamorpho-like hero who was barely able to escape the initial battle) try to figure out how to take down Black Sheep and her crew. It’s a feeling I don’t usually get reading a Marvel or DC comic these days, that the heroes are really in a desperate situation and may not win the day.
Imagine if Kitty Pryde or Jubilee, when they were both young and were on their first mission with the X-Men, got dropped into the middle of a battle with Magneto where the whole team (including Wolverine) got wiped out right before she arrives. Chung-Cha is very much like those two when they first started, optimistic, nervous and having little experience. To make matters worse, her power (being able to create salvos of hard energy discs out of thin air and fire them at an opponent) doesn’t exactly strike fear in an enemy’s heart. The story jumps back and forth between the present and past, giving flashes of scenes showing how Black Sheep dispatched each member of the team as Chung-Cha and Alloy formulate a plan to stop her.
Valiant
What makes this story different from the typical “hero vs. villain” standoff is that Black Sheep is more of a revolutionary than a villain. She’s not fighting to gain power, fortune or any other selfish motives, she’s fighting against the Foundation, the corporation that oversees Foundation City with an iron fist. Foundation City’s the type of place where people are referred to as “citizens” (as in “Stop and show your papers, citizen!”). The wealthy live in luxury while the workers are segregated into slums on the city’s outskirts.
Harbinger is sponsored by the Foundation and though most of the team genuinely want to help people, they still serve as living billboards for the Foundation, and the growing revolution, as the poor and working class of Foundation City start to fight back, has put targets on the Harbinger team’s backs. Black Sheep’s wonderfully complex and (like the best villains) is far more interesting than the heroes of the book. It’d be easy to sympathize with her if she wasn’t incredibly vicious in combat (as portrayed vividly in Erik Tamayo and Exequiel F. Roel’s gorgeous art). She’s not there to debate or talk, she’s making a statement, and if she has to disfigure or kill a few innocent citizens to get her point across she’ll do it.
The second half of the book is a blast, as Chung-Cha faces down Black Sheep solo and some of the other wounded members of the team regroup for a final assault. The book balances themes of class struggle with blazing superhero action and because of that, it’s recommended. Black Sheep is a fascinating and brutal villain and the book does a great job giving you the feeling the heroes may not be able to stop them.
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