Harbinger Wars 2 written by Eric Heisserer is full of intrigue and suspense. Featuring psiots, or people born with unbelievable powers, this comic opens up with Amanda McKee, otherwise known as Livewire, who is a psiot who has the ability to connect telepathically with technology. It shows her in a crowd of people, and her ability to know every conversation on every cell phone without her having to be physically reading any of them. This is only a demonstration of part of her power. As you could imagine, listening to all those conversations could get tiring, so she goes into a coffee shop that has a ‘no cell phone signal allowed’ rule. Unfortunately, she meets a man who doesn’t follow that rule. Using his cell phone, Amanda figured out that his name is Agent Blake Newsome and he works with Homeland Security. He takes Amanda to the Homeland Security offices where she gets questioned about the young psiots she’s protecting. Even though she never told them where she was hiding them, as she was being questioned she used her powers to discover there was a team after the young psiots and about to close in on their safe house. It was at this point she decided to fight back and came up with a sinister plot to keep the young psiots safe. But the young psiots had some tricks up their sleeves of their own. What will they do when war breaks out?
The psiot characters in this comic are all fun and interesting, however, in this comic, the young psiot girls captivated me the most. It is important to note that the young psiots are still trying to understand their abilities, so they are novices. Nicole has the ability to talk to birds and have them do what she wants, but sometimes she’s too vague on how she says things so the birds don’t give her exactly what she had in mind. Lucia has the ability to make things explode, but she’s still trying to control her talent, which means she can be sporadic with her skill, making the other psiots who are in the safe house with her a little uneasy. I enjoy their dynamic and how realistic their conversations are.
I enjoyed the art by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín. The expressions on the characters faces were very animated and you could really tell what they were thinking even if there were no words being said. I also love the cool hues that are used throughout the comic. The action scenes keep you engaged and draw you deeper into the story. The ending is excellent and it captured the tone of the comic quite well. If you enjoy comics with super powers, drama, and a captivating story, you will enjoy this comic. Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude #1 is available for purchase May 2, 2018.
-Amy Walker-LaFollette