Review: Harbinger Wars II

Harbinger Wars II by Matt Kindt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free ecopy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Harbinger Wars II is not a sequel to Valiant's first event back in 2013. It does share some characters and concepts though. Central to this story is Livewire, a psiot with the ability to control technology. After a government affiliated assault team goes after the group of kids that she has taken under her wing (see Secret Weapons for more information on them), she goes off the rails a little bit.

I can understand where she is coming from and that portion of the story is pretty good. The struggle between Livewire and the government worked. But this is labelled as a war and it just didn't feel like their was much of a war going on. It pulls in a lot of the mainstay Valiant characters and forces them to choose sides. The struggle feels minimal and could have been fleshed out a lot more (maybe more in line with the Armor Hunter series that Valiant put out).

There are some cool moments though. I like some of the stuff involving Pete. And the way Livewire manipulates Bloodshot. The art was pretty good. I recall a few moments, maybe all involving Faith, where the drawing felt weak. I think people that have read more of the current Valiant stuff will get something out of this book. It might end up being more of a transition story for Livewire than anything else. As on the fence as I feel about this book, I want to see what happens with her next.

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