#H.A.R.D. Corps

[evilhorse]

The Valiant Era cards U5

[thecomicbookaddicts]

The H.A.R.D. Corps (July 28, 1992) This Day In Comics http://dlvr.it/TBBRH4

[thebibliomancer]

11 Days of Comics! 6/11 S.T.A.R. Corps #1 (1993) "Tarnished S.T.A.R."

Woo, halfway through!

I knew this was a 90s comic just looking at the cover.

Superman's mullet was a dead giveaway. But also, the robot dude on the cover is straight outta Image or that one recurring ad in Wizard about manganime. The one with the silly cyborg with binoculars for eyes.

I also wonder if S.T.A.R. Corp was made to poach sales from Valiant's H.A.R.D. Corps. I don't have any evidence one way or another aside from them both being A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Corps titled books. And Valiant's book starting in 1992 and DC's in 1993.

I guess it doesn't matter. Comic companies are always ripping each other off and/or homaging each other.

S.T.A.R. Corps. Spins off from S.T.A.R. Labs from Superman's stuff.

Science and Technology Advanced Research Laboratories. Science and Technology Advanced Research Corps.

So, S.T.A.R. Labs has been through some rough times. It blew up in Armageddon 2001 because of Captain Atom and Monarch having a punch-up. Having to rebuild their Metropolis branch has the company hurting financially.

For some reason, this made it make sense to almost completely turn lab operations over to a supercomputer called Mindgame.

First of all, I wouldn't trust a completely benign supercomputer if it was called Mindgame. That has a sudden yet inevitable rise of the machines vibe to it.

Second of all, this is one of those cases where things go horribly right.

Mindgame isn't trying to take over the world or exterminate humanity but it has some big ideas on how certain experiments should be handled.

Preliminary tests indicate that the biological component (aka pilot) of the Deadzone Armor will reduce efficiency? Eh, just secretly change the design so that the pilot Jay Daniels gets FUSED INTO THE ARMOR when he's put in it the first time.

Jay goes berserk from pain and panic, reasonably enough. And he busts out of the lab during S.T.A.R.'s big 'we're not a shitshow anymore, we promise!' press conference.

Humorously enough, to me anyway, Clark Kent gets buried in rubble during the chaos and has to sit fuming under all the huge slabs of cement waiting to be saved because people SAW him get buried. He can't just bust out as Superman because people are actively digging him out.

And when they dig him out he has to play injured so someone will run to get a paramedic. Ugh. This secret identity thing. Such a hassle sometimes.

When he does change into Superman, he tries talking Jay Daniels down but the guy isn't thinking much besides lashing out. So Superman punches him once and knocks him the fuck out.

And then turns him back over to S.T.A.R and asks zero follow-up questions.

Dammit, Superman!

Mindgame asks for data on how the Deadzone Armor performed. Assuming that maybe if they humor the renegade supercomputer, she'll give them control of the lab back, the S.T.A.R. scientists do give Mindgame the data she wants.

And she promptly decides to proceed with further testing. For example, hmm, lets see how Deadzone holds up against intense radiation.

So Mindgame overloads the reactor in the radiation lab. Zapping married scientists Ed and Beth Wilder while they're in the middle of experimentally blasting strawberries with radiation.

Despite two people maybe being dead, S.T.A.R. is still humoring Mindgame. She wants to test the Deadzone armor so they talk to a now much calmer Jay and ask him to go rescue the Wilders. And they kinda don't mention to Jay that he's stuck in the armor forever maybe.

Jay Deadzone is able to stomp through the security of the radiation lab without much trouble. But when he gets to the lab, he finds a strange glowing energy being!

No, not Electric Blue Raspberry Superman but the Wilders! The explosion fused them into a single energy being! Which is a weird thing for radiation to do until you remember that this is the same universe with Firestorm. So. Perfectly reasonable actually.

Other wacky science victims are introduced in the other 5 issues of this miniseries. Especially since Mindgame has control over other S.T.A.R. Labs and don't see people as people.

The series wraps as all the new misapplied science victims combine into the titular S.T.A.R. Corps and beat up Mindgame, who has foolishly taken on a non-computer body just in time to get punched in the face.

Also, Mindgame turns out to be an alien supercomputer who wants to prepare Earth to be invaded. That's less interesting than what I initially thought was going on.

The team doesn't seem to be have used for much beyond this miniseries.

Anyway. S.T.A.R. Corps seems like an interesting enough miniseries. But it also feels like... Doom Patrol lite, in some ways. Including a cyborg man.

[rgafl]

The H.A.R.D. Corps #9 Aug 93 from Valiant Comics

The H.A.R.D. Corps #9 Aug 93 from Valiant Comics. August 1993 issue of the superhero comic. Cover and internally in near mint condition. Bagged and boarded.

[marvelman901]

H.A.R.D. Corps vol 1 1 (1992) . The H.A.R.D. Way! . Written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton Penciled by David Lapman Inked by Bob Layton Colors by David Chlystek Lettered by Jade Moede Edited by Bob Layton Cover by Jim Lee and Bob Layton . See more Valiant content here: #marvelman901valiant . #valiant #hardcorps #90s #boblayton #jimlee #davidmichelinie #davidlapman https://www.instagram.com/p/Clh85ywK3IW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fuckyeah-nerdery]

I never ever expected any of Valiant Comics’ characters getting the big screen treatment, but I sure hope Bloodshot is successful enough that their other titles get a turn

X-O: Manowar, Doctor Solar, Turok, or Magnus, Robot Fighter would be good choices. I think H.A.R.D. Corps would make a good TV show.

[travisellisor]

the cover to The H.A.R.D. Corps (1992) #2 by Mike Leeke and Bob Layton

[carlocarrasco]

A Look Back at Harbinger #11 (1992)

A Look Back at Harbinger #11 (1992)

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised…

[paullovescomics]

Comic books read July 30 to August 5, 2017, part 1 of 8

Archer & Armstrong #18-19 Bloodshot & H.A.R.D. Corps #20-21 Archer #0

[evilhorse]

The Valiant Era cards FA 2

[thebibliomancer]

100 Days of Comics! 055/100: H.A.R.D. Corps #9 (1993)

Today’s selection from the recently disappointing box of mystery brings me an issue of The H.A.R.D. Corps.

Oh Valiant comics. You tried.

I mentioned feeling bad for Jim Shooter earlier. Valiant comics is a reason why. Valiant was set up to be a creator owned comic company but unlike Image, the idea was to out-write the competition instead of out bad anatomy them. It was kind of like the New Universe, done better. The world outside your window. Each comic was set concurrently with its release date, with some exceptions for multiple part stories. The origin of powers was limited to psychic powers, technology, or magic so the universe was more consistent and gave it more of a hard sci-fi feel. And the company had a big focus on training up new artists, creating a new generation of talent.

And then Jim Shooter was fired from his own company, a bunch of the people he had brought on were shown the door, and his successors quickly drove the company into the dirt.

The early 90s were a sad day for the comics industry.

Anyway, H.A.R.D. Corps. Aside from being a dumb name, it also stands for Harbinger Active Resistance Division Corps. Harbingers were like the serial-numbers-filed-off mutants of Valiant. The Corps were a bunch of comatose Vietnam vets who were revived through brain implants that also let them use Harbinger powers, one at a time. They oppose Toyo Harada, who is like if Professor X decided to take over the world for its own good while maintaining the guise of a benevolent businessman.

I had to look this up because recap technology is a forbidden art, used sparingly.

Jim Shooter has already been given the boot, apparently, because Bob Layton is listed as the Editor-in-Chief.

Anyway, again.

Mister Clean imposter Captain Peeves alias Hammerhead is out on a camping trip with his daughter Dana when his strength mode starts failing when he’s in the middle of supplexing a boulder just because he can. He manages to toss the boulder aside without being crushed. When Dana asks him what all the noise was he claims it was elk mating season because I’d like to see you make a good excuse on the spot after being almost crushed.

He calls into his woman in the chair, Lifeline, but she doesn’t see any anomalies in their equipment. Hammerhead asks to be switched to invulnerability in the meantime so he doesn’t have to worry as much about being killed.

Although if you think about it, if your invulnerability cuts out when you’re relying on it, that’s going to be just as bad.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Flatline and Superstar. Now Flatline was not a Vietnam vet, I don’t think. He took a bullet that put him in a coma during the LA Riots. And now that the Corps are giving him a little more slack on his leash, he has returned to his family business to reunite with his wife.

And Superstar was a super star before he joined the Corps so he has to be in disguise in public. He’s either a cowboy or an orthodox jew. I can’t tell.

Anyway, Flatline learns that his wife thought he was dead and because of the damage from the riots, she has decided to return to Korea. She left for the airport not two hours ago.

Back in Colorado, Peeves and Dana are stopping at a gas station for some camping essentials (beer) when a young punk tries to shoplift some spaghetti. A big buff native american stops him and Peeves is casually racist calling the guy ‘one tough redskin’, justifying it because that’s what John Wayne would say.

That’s what you get when you uncoma people from about twenty years earlier.

His daughter is less than thrilled by the casual racism, as she’s been less than thrilled with the whole camping trip so far, I think.

Back in LA. Flatline tries to get his power switched to flight but harbinger powers can’t be authorized in populated areas except for an extreme emergency. So he has to get a cab.

But they run into gridlock because some terrorists have taken over not-Disney Land Ditsyland (starring Ditsy Duck). They’ve taken the Japanese ambassador hostage and have threatened to kill him if Congress doesn’t pass an immediate ban on Japanese imports.

Rather than sit in gridlock, Flatline and Superstar use ghost mode to sneak in and take down some of the terrorists. But the terrorists have already started a timer on a case of C4 so Flatline flies the hostages out of the Ditsy castle while Superstar switches to invulnerability and lays on top of the bomb.

And invulnerability is good stuff because he survives the explosion and being launched out of the castle. And actually if they ever need to do this again, he calls dibs. It was a hell of an adrenaline rush.

Unfortunately, after all that, Flatline arrives at the airport too late. His wife’s flight left twenty minutes ago.

Meanwhile, camping. Now that Dana is asleep, Peeves calls the other mission control person (mission control has shifts like anyone else) Softcore. She reports that the diagnostic on the equipment came up with no problems. So Peeves figures the interference is on his end. Radioactive mineral deposit or something.

He has his power switched to flight and flies around to investigate. But when he gets close to an abandoned miners cabin, his flight cuts out, painfully dropping him to the ground.

And he discovers that he’s landed in a Turok crossover when a dinosaur shows up and tells him he’s made a big mistake coming here.

Dinosaurs always make comics better. Fact. Probably.

Also. There’s a Deathmate ad in this book. It’s like a premonition of death. Like a grim or a skull just laughing from the middle of this book.

Deathmate was a big crossover between Image and Valiant, kind of like Amalgam in that the IP merged briefly but also the Image side of things specifically Rob Liefeld released their part of the crossover late (Rob’s was over a year late and Bob Layton had to come sit in his apartment and refuse to leave until Rob did his damn job). The failure of Deathmate not only did heavy damage to Valiant but helped spur on the near destruction of the comic industry and definitely the downfall of many brick and mortar shops.

So its weird seeing an ad for what was then an ongoing event, knowing what would come of it.

Anyway. H.A.R.D. Corps. I like the concept of it. And I peeked. There’s another issue tomorrow but in true box fashion, its an earlier issue. Features something on the cover that looks designed to sell toys.

[radroller]

Stephen Reads Valiant: Part 5

So here we are, more fun to be had! Let’s get into it!

Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps Vol 4: more Bloodshot! I’d be lying if i said i wasnt more happy to be stretching my legs in some other series this go-round, but Bloodshot continues to kick ass. His journey continues, gripping with fallout from Harbinger Wars and finding himself back working for Project Rising Spirit (which deserves a yikes even with the new management). But that’s only the half of it, the rest of the book is devoted to the eponymous H.A.R.D. Corps which i mentioned last post. They’re a lot like the Suicide Squad except that they privately owned and cut out the middle-man of recruiting criminals by simply dangling money over vulnerable and desperate peoples’ heads. Leader Charlie Palmer’s attempts to turn the team into something good for the sake of the innocent new recruits lines up well with Bloodshot’s own personal journey, no doubt why they decided to make a book out’ve both of them. All in all a solid new direction for the comic, i both look forward to seeing where it goes and am happy to set Bloodshot aside for the moment to read other things. Speaking of which!

Eternal Warrior Vol 1: I’ve been looking forward to reading this one (even before i learned it was written by Grek Pak) mostly because Gilad Anni-Padda is a pretty important character who’s been popping in and out around the Valiant Universe. He’s Armstrong’s little brother, he was Aric of Dacia’s friend in Visigoth times, cool immortal guy stuff. And i LOVE immortal characters/plots in general, but even with that in mind Gilad is incredibly cool. A badass master of all forms of combat with an undying thirst for battle tempered by a heroes heart and respect for the sanctity of human life? Fucking ACES man! X-O Manowar remains my favorite comic of the bunch, but Gilad is a contender for my favorite character. That said Eternal Warrior is pretty damn good, building off some of the lore introduced in other books like the various houses and the geomancers while also telling a great personal story about Gilad getting back into the swing of things after decades in seclusion. An awesome time and i look forward to more!

Archer & Armstrong Vol 2: Finally back with these bozos again! The end of last arc led to the inadvertent death of a geomancer, putting Archer and Armstrong in the crosshairs of….the Eternal Warrior!!! This reading order i looked up is by no means essential but it comes in handy sometimes. I’m assuming Gilad’s series takes place a good deal prior to this adventure because A) he is fully back in his brutal defender of the Earth mode and B) im fairly certain the geomancer who died is his friend Buck. But enough about that, the important thing is they need to find the next geomancer so that Gilad doesn’t super murder Archer, all while combating and evading a cult dedicated to reducing the world to pure nothingness. Among all of these things, the big win for me personally is the new geomancer character Kay McHenry who is a real joy in spite of her origins. Another great volume, it’s great to be back with these fools!

Overall: This section is becoming redundant but what the heck: i loved these comics. Real solid stuff. But i’m even more excited for next time, because i’ve got not only more Archer & Armstrong but the first two volumes of Quantum & Woody too!!!

[omniversalobservations]

Deathmate Prologue (September 1993)

The '90s was the era for independent comic book publishers to make it big, and there were no bigger names than Image and Valiant. Both companies were comprised mainly of creators who had already been in the industry, with Image being founded by hot young artists and Valiant being the brainchild of comic book stalwarts like Jim Shooter.

Despite their near-simultaneous rises to prominence, they had very different approaches to publishing. Founded on the idea of letting creators own their work, Image didn't own the creators' over-the-top characters, and the Image Universe was built more on loose connections that tight continuity. On the other hand, Valiant completely owned its original characters and teamed them up with licensed heroes like Solar, Man of the Atom and Turok the Dinosaur Hunter in more down-to-Earth stories that followed a more tightly knit continuity. In 1993 and 1994, these two worlds collided in Deathmate, an infamous event that heralded the end of the collecting boom of the early '90s.

Deathmate occurred due to the chance interdimensional encounter between Valiant's Solar, Man of the Atom and Void of the WildC.A.T.s from Image Comics. From this, the two would fall in love, but their being together threatened to destroy the fabric of space and time in both of comic book universes. The chaotic collision of properties would include several other characters and series' from both publishers, such as Turok, Cyberforce, Bloodshot, Harbinger and Youngblood.

Instead of being published as a traditional linear narrative, the issues of Deathmate were coded by colors, and they could theoretically be read in any order and still be understood as long as readers read the Prologue and Epilogue issues before and after.

Featuring work from an all-star roster of creators including Jim Lee, Barry Windsor-Smith, Rob Liefeld, Bob Layton, Marc Silvestri and many more, the storyline meshed the universes together as if they had always been one, with Bloodshot fittingly being a member of Youngblood. Likewise, Valiant's H.A.R.D. Corps and Image's WildC.A.T.s were combined into H.A.R.D.C.A.T.s. The issues themselves constantly focus on this admittedly interesting element, with more of a focus on the novelty of these combinations than a central narrative,

The main connective tissue throughout all of this miasma of action is Geoff, the young Geomancer from Valiant, being found by Image's Prophet. Prophet remembers the universes being separate, and he works with the Geomancer to find Solar and restore things to the way that they were. The ultimate catalyst behind this is revealed to Valiant's Master Darque, who wanted the universes to merge to turn himself into a supremely powerful being. When the future Solar realizes this, he quickly undoes it all in a rather rushed wrap-up.

Despite having the hype of two popular comic book companies behind it, Deathmate was not a resounding success, to say the least. As was common in that era of Image Comics, some individual issues of the series were released long after they were originally solicited. and Deathmate Red wasn't released until months after Deathmate: Epilogue. With fan and consumer interest quickly dwindling, stores were left with large amounts of unsold copies at a time when casual collectors were drifting away from comics.

Production delays weren't the only thing that the title had in common with Image's books at the time. Despite essentially being the Image/Valiant equivalent to DC vs. Marvel, the differences between Image's flashy action and Valiant's tight continuity became abundantly clear as characters were cast in roles they weren't usually cast in. The crossover also lacked some of Image's most famous heroes, including Spawn and Savage Dragon.

Though both publishers are clearly seeing better days, perhaps neither will ever live down one of the most infamous events of the '90s. Eventually, Image would largely abandon its attempt at a shared superhero universe, and it's currently much more of a haven for indie books of all genres. After being purchased by the video game publisher Acclaim, Valiant ceased publication around the turn of the millennium, but the new Valiant Entertainment gave the Valiant heroes a second life in 2012 with a well-received reboot of its classic characters.

Source: Comic Book Resources

(image via Comic Art Fans)

[travisellisor]

variant cover to Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps #22 by Riley Rossmo

[goingfullnerd]

Valiant Solicitations for JUNE 2018 – HARBINGER WARS 2 #2 (of 4) | X-O MANOWAR (2017) #16 | NINJA-K #8 | AND MORE!

Valiant Solicitations for JUNE 2018 – HARBINGER WARS 2 #2 (of 4) | X-O MANOWAR (2017) #16 | NINJA-K #8 | AND MORE!

    HARBINGER WARS 2 #2 (of 4) Written by MATT KINDT Art by TOMÁS GIORELLO Cover A by J.G. JONES Cover B by MICO SUAYAN­­ Interlocking Variant by JUAN JOSÉ RYP HW2 Icon Variant by FELIPE MASSAFERA

And so…the unstoppable X-O Manowar enters the fray!

From East to West, the nation has been cleaved down the middle as Livewire’s defensive attack on the U.S. power grid envelops America in darkness and…

[comic-watch]

Valiant's Exclusive Harbinger Wars 2 Prelude Has Arrived - Pleasing Eager Fans Worldwide!

Excited about Harbinger Wars 2? Its impact on the Valiant Universe? #iamawatcher #Comicwatch

Valiant is proud to announce that copies of Harbinger Wars 2 #0, a limited-edition prelude to the seismic 2018 crossover event, Harbinger Wars 2, have now shipped directly from Valiant’s NYC headquarters and will soon be arriving in thousands of households worldwide!  The title also features a explosive surprise from the Secret Weapons’ creative team! Available exclusively to fans that redeemed a…