H.A.R.D. Corps
| H.A.R.D. Corps | |
|---|---|
| Group publication information | |
| Publisher | Valiant Comics |
| First appearance | Harbinger #10 (October 1992) |
| Created by | Jim Shooter and David Lapham |
| In-story information | |
| Type of organization | Team |
| H.A.R.D. Corps | |
| Series publication information | |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | December 1992 – June 1995 |
| Number of issues | 30 |
| Main character(s) | Gunslinger Shakespeare Flatline Hammerhead Hotshot |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | David Michelinie, Bob Layton, Jorge Gonzalez, Maurice Fontenot, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, John F. Kelly, Mike Baron |
| Penciller(s) | David Lapham, Mike Leeke, Bernard Chang, Andrew Wendel, Ted Halstead, Yves Guichet, Rik Levins, Jordi Ensign, Steve Ellis, John Calimee |
| Inker(s) | Bob Layton, Katherine Bollinger, Tom Ryder, Paul Autio, Rodney Ramos, John Dixon, Frank McLaughlin, Jennifer Marrus, Richard Space, Rudy Nebres, Mike DeCarlo |
| Creator(s) | Jim Shooter and David Lapham |
H.A.R.D. Corps was a Valiant Comics title which ran from 1992-1995. The acronym stands for Harbinger Active Resistance Division. The title's focus was a corporate strike team (representing Omen Enterprises) dealing with Toyo Harada, a character from the Harbinger title, and his goal of controlling all Harbingers. The characters were normal humans who were comatose and revived with an experimental brain implant that also enabled them to access an assortment of artificial Harbinger super-abilities via an operator named "Softcore." Capture or death caused the implants to explode, killing the Corps member if he or she was still alive.
H.A.R.D. Corps first appeared in Harbinger #10 (Oct. 1992), and were created by Jim Shooter and David Lapham.
Bob Layton explained the style of the series: "When David [Michelinie] and I set out to do H.A.R.D.Corps it was because ... We like light-hearted, hard hitting, bash 'em in the face, sock 'em guys."
The cover of the first issue was pencilled by Jim Lee over a layout by Bob Layton. Lee had initially declined to take on the cover because he was too busy, but eventually did it in return for Valiant president Steven Massarsky getting him two U2 tickets.
The original team was composed of former fighter pilots and went by call signs in the field, starting a Corps tradition of using codenames.
The original team were all Vietnam War veterans who served together in the same unit.
Towards the end of the series, other recruits were drafted to form a second Corps team with Perp, Grasshopper, and Wipeout. These included:
The operators who maintain contact with field agents and manage their powers.
Each member of the H.A.R.D. Corps could utilize one Harbinger power at a time. To switch powers, an operative had to radio Softcore and request she make the switch while at headquarters. They are often seen using a defensive power and firearms for offense, but switching powers is a quick enough process to be accomplished in combat. Needing to communicate to switch their powers sometimes becomes a weakness: Corps operatives who lose their headset cannot switch powers, and sometimes their opponents will jam or disrupt communications with their base, knowing that "microbeams" are used to alter the mimicked powers. In new continuity powers are supplied to operatives via Lifeline through their reverse engineered Harada Tech neural implants developed by Project Rising Spirit. Agents can only utilize one power at a time due to the human biology being unaccustomed to hardwired harbinger ability usage, special command sequences for chaining different powers in tandem through the bio-configuration process can be initiated such as; sequence 2, 4, 6, sequence epsilon, etc. The Implants are also wired to explode and can be detonated automatically either upon capture or death of perative and remotely from PRS home base.
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