One of the crown jewels of the Valiant re-launch has been Harbinger. Writer Joshua Dysart and artist Khari Evans have done a great job of capturing the core elements of the original series and modernizing them so the book doesn’t feel dated. Every month this book gets better and better with a focus on building a strong cast of characters that slowly reveal themselves to the reader. “Harbinger” is everything that the X-Men could be if Marvel weren’t concerned with bottom lines and killing characters every quarter for quick sales bumps.

The series has been building to a showdown between Peter Stanchek and Toyo Harada’s Harbinger Foundation as Peter struggles to process the company’s motives. In this issue everything comes to a head as Peter discovers the company have been conducting experiments on humans in an attempt to unlock their latent super human abilities with disastrous consequences. The revelation leads Peter to dig deeper and he quickly finds the Harbinger Foundation will stop at nothing to serve their own agenda, including destroying anyone that stands in their way.

On art, Evans is turning out some of the best work of his career. With the story carrying such emotional weight, Evans perfectly captures the wide range of emotions that the characters go through from horror to shame. The is a brilliant panel in the beginning of this issue where an overweight Faith Herbert tries on a unflattering dress in the mirror and her facial expression perfectly shows what she is going through internally. Evans is completely in sync here with Dysart’s script.

In today’s comic marketplace, where companies are more concerned with the gimmicks of crossovers and reboots, “Harbinger” is proudly waving the flag for strong storytelling and artwork. Joshua Dysart and Khari Evans are knocking this book out of the park month after month.