On my first read - this didn't strike me as the masterpiece that nearly everyone else was writing and reading about. I mean, it was good.... And Harbinger of all comics probably was needing a zero issue... Just wasn't quite certain if Harada was the place to start. I think I was wrong. Not certain why I had that initial feeling - because the issue is impressive. Harada becomes this benevolent dictator - and remolding the world in his image of importance and greatness. It gives more of a heart to his hatred - and certainly he has quickly become much more of a complex character than Harada was revealed to be in his simple origins - and in the Harbinger Files comic, too. My only complaint, I think, was that I wished this zero issue could have focused more on the Pete character - or any of the other renegades, too. But this one is masterful. Uncertain why the gatefold cover included Pete - but it is pretty cool.
Reminds me of Harbinger 1
Strange. The cover reminds me a lot of Harbinger 1 - its torment by the thoughts around the boy - everything crashing into his mind. Some of this feels a bit too much like an after school special. I know, it was the eighties - and so many problems could be solved in the twenty two minutes - or pages - of a comic book. This one tackles a broad range of topics - probably too far. To make it a glass half full look - it does a few of them well. The suicide solving one was pretty good. I also liked the lines in the beginning from the narration - detailing the selfishness of the suicide act - not its bravery. I don't think it really addresses the mind reading well enough. To state simply that we solve only the problems presented to him was too simple a way to explain it, but the intent was sound. Not a bad read, at all.