Valiant Entertainment is gearing up for an event the publisher aims to be it's biggest yet -- and Harbinger Wars 2 has shifted a bit in format a couple of months before release from what was revealed when the series was announced last fall at New York Comic Con.

Originally announced as a four-issue series with 48-page issues from the X-O Manowar creative team of Matt Kindt and Tomás Giorello and the Secret Weapons creative team of Eric Heisserer, Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín, Harbinger Wars 2 will now span six issues. The story starts with the 32-page Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude, scheduled for release on May 2, from Heisserer, Allén and Martín. The 32-page Harbinger Wars 2 #1 sees release later that month on May 30, with the four-issue monthly main series helmed by Kindt and Giorello. A Harbinger Wars 2: Aftermath one-shot follows in September.

The Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude is billed as a "standalone introduction to the entire Valiant Universe," and stems from plotlines started in Secret Weapons, with Livewire looking to stop the government's effort to cack down on psiots. The main series will see a story told between two coasts, with Livewire vs. Ninjak and Bloodshot on the west, and Peter Stanchek and the Renegades vs. X-O Manowar on the east.

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CBR spoke to both Kindt and Heisserer plus Valiant Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons about Harbinger Wars 2, the first event published since the company's acquisition by DMG Entertainment (though conceived before that deal was announced). Kindt and Heisserer shared their perspective on collaboration and what made Harbinger Wars 2 a unique creative opportunity for them, and Simons gave his insight on how Valiant approaches event stories differently and why this story is being positioned as such an important one for the Valiant Universe.

Harbinger Wars 2 checklist (art by Lewis LaRosa)

CBR: It's fair to say that comics, as a whole, have a complicated relationship with event stories. Anyone who loves superhero stories has affection for them, but we all know what it looks like when they're not done right. Valiant is in a unique position with event stories, and is seemingly positioned to be able to do something different with the format than other superhero publishers -- how does Valiant as a whole, and this story in particular, aim to approach the event series differently, and maybe learn some lessons from elsewhere in the comics industry?

Warren Simons: When I look back at the events that Valiant's done over the past five years, starting with the original Harbinger Wars, or 4001 A.D., or Armor Hunters, I think what we've always tried to do is not pad the thing. We're a very lean company. We don't try to push 20 or 30 books out to the marketplace well beyond our capacity. We don't need to publish a hundred books a month. The main thing that we've always focused on, above everything else, is story, story, story.

We didn't approach this from the standpoint of, "How do we move 200,000 units through this thing?" Or, "How can we tie this book into 50 different titles?" The only thing we talked about, really, was, "What's the story?" and "How do we tell the best story possible?" I think that's been one of the hallmarks and principles of the company since day one. We're going to continue to do that here.

The thing that's so exciting to me about this particular event is you get to sit back and watch the universe unfold, and it takes on an organic life on its own. You'll get to see what Eric does in Secret Weapons with Livewire, and create this all-new pocket universe; you'll get to see what Rafer [Roberts] did with Harbinger; you'll get to see what Jeff [Lemire] is doing over in Bloodshot, and how we ended Project Rising Spirit introduced a much more militaristic group in Omen; and what Matt's done in Ninjak and X-O, and how all these threads come together and lead into this story. It all feels very organic.

Eric Heisserer: Warren's dancing around what I thought was a really good progression into this, and that came out of a big publication plan that occurred last year, when some lead writers and Warren and [former Valiant Entertainment] Dinesh [Shamdasani] sat down together, and talked about, "What does the next 18 months look like?" "Where are the stories going, and what kind of stories do we want to tell to make sure it's a natural progression from the events that are currently ongoing?" In particular, Matt and I were like, "Well, is this going to get worse?" It's going to get a lot worse, because look at what's happening now, and I don't think there's going to be a way to pull out of this interesting escalation.

By the time we started talking about what each of us wanted to do with some key characters, Warren was like, "That sounds more like an event." We backed into it a little bit more.

Matt Kindt: What I love about these events with Valiant is they grow organically. We all grew up reading comics, and how many events have we read? But as grown-ups, I don't want to be writing some, big sprawling story with no real heart to it, and it's just about connecting different books and characters. I think the thing that attracted us all to this idea was the heart of the story and the characters driving it, and telling a good story with heart. Eric had a great idea with Livewire, and really makes it about these character moments. The big event just happens around it.

That's the fun of this, and I think if there's a lesson to ever be learned from event books through the history of comics, it's that. It's not as much about the event as it is about spotlighting these amazing characters, and pulling back a bit and showing how the universe is shared, and the friction that comes from the sharing of it.

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It's also said this event, especially the prelude, acts as a ground-level introduction to the Valiant Universe. That seems tricky to do simply by virtue of it being Harbinger Wars 2 -- that may intimidate some people because of the "2" in there. How important was it to find that balance of this being a natural outgrowth of ongoing stories, but also making this something that, if people wanted to jump on here, they'd be able to?

Kindt: I was thinking about this in the shower this morning. World War II is a sequel in a way, but how much do people know about the first war, and how it led to the second one? I think a lot of people have more knowledge of World War II than World War II. In a way, this works in the same way. Having knowledge of the first Harbinger Wars series is great, it informs this one, but it also works on its own. I guess that's a horrible analogy. [Laughs] I think that's what's sort of exciting about it -- it's its own thing, but it's also informed by older books. But you don't need to have read those to get this one.

Simons: Accessibility is key. It's key with everything we do. These guys will tell you, it's probably one of the most basic, fundamental things that I look for in books when we're working on them. I want to be able to hand this to a new reader. I want to be able to hand everything we do to a new reader. That's one of the foundations of what will help our industry grow and increase sales, and become more robust. I think it'll help retailers, it'll help fans, it'll help everyone. When I pick up a book and I can't understand what's happening in it, I look at it as a mistake in some ways. That's not to say that getting tossed into a zany adventure isn't awesome, I'm sure we all love those comics as well, but for something like this, I think accessibility is as important as any other component in the story.

Harbinger Wars 2 interlocking variants by Juan Jose Ryp

There have been shifts in the format of Harbinger Was II, with it moving to six issues and Matt Kindt writing the main series solo. What led to those changes?

Simons: I think that above all, content dictates length. After talking with the guys and going through the format, I think this is one where we have basically six pieces in total, with the awesome prelude kicking off with Eric, and then Matt kicking in for the proper series itself. We don't have to service anything but the story. So we don't need to have 50 books tie-in. We don't need to build something which has to survive after it. We can just tell a really good story, and I think when all was said and done, six issues made sense.

Eric and Matt, the two of you are working together on this to an extent, and you're both working with artists you've worked with already. What's the creative process and collaboration been like?

Heisserer: For me, it was just, "How can I get my name on a cover next to Matt"?

Kindt: That's my line!

Heisserer: What I got very excited about was, quite often you see the separate titles, and you have insular stories that don't really allow for too much crossover. When you get a chance to tell a story that shakes hands with other characters in the world, it's a nice visual reminder of, these people are all occupying the same general space. There was just some really fun stuff that Matt and I discussed about how to introduce each character in each other's space with the artists, and seeing how each of those artists represent characters that they haven't really had a chance to draw for a while. I think that part becomes a visual feast for readers.

Kindt: I think part of the fun with working together is, Eric's been spending a lot more time in Livewire's headspace, and I've been in X-O a long time. I think it's fun to sit together and hash out ideas. It's almost like roleplaying. When I was a kid, I didn't have a lot of friends, so I was never able to [play roleplaying games]. [Laughs] But it's the grown-up version of that. The writer version. Eric has ideas for Livewire, she'll do this thing, and maybe Ninjak will do this. The idea of playing back and forth with the characters, and sort of roleplaying them in some weird way, I think is the fun of collaboration to me. When you're writing on your own, you're kind of doing that, but it's definitely more interactive when you have someone to bounce off of.

Simons: Matt, we're on our way to St. Louis, and we're going to bring Axis & Allies, and we're going to hang out for two days and we're going to exorcise those demons, buddy.

Kindt: [Laughs] I have all these special die and nowhere to use them!

Simons: Having the chance to reunite Matt and Tomas, after they launched X-O for us, which is just an absolute juggernaut of a book -- we sold over 90,000 copies of that -- and then Secret Weapons, being able to reunite Raul and Eric and Patricia, both extraordinarily critically acclaimed, to me it's a little bit like a dream team. It's like the '92 Dream Team throwing out the ball -- "You want to play?" "Sure!" They are two prestige creative teams, really at the height of their powers.

Harbinger Wars 2 #1 cover by JG Jones

You both have Valiant characters you've been focusing on -- what characters that you don't normally get to work with are you looking forward to writing in this story?

Kindt: Bloodshot is one I haven't gotten to touch much. He's going to be fun.

Heisserer For me, it was getting a chance to play more with some of the bad guys, like Charlie Palmer.

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This story is billed as having a lot of impact on the Valiant Universe. Comics fans are used to hearing that, and maybe somewhat immune to it at this point. What makes this story not only one worth telling and reading, but one that is aiming to be consequential in this universe as a whole?

Simons: I think this will be the biggest event that Valiant's ever done. I think we'll have more iconic characters interact than we've done in any books since Harbinger Wars, and huge props to Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski and Clayton Henry, who helmed that initially. I think it's going to be the biggest book that we ever do as far as our characters interacting with each other. Eric, do you want to talk a little bit about what Livewire's going to do? Should we spoil it a little bit?

Heisserer: We start off and the opposition does two things wrong. First, they underestimate Livewire. Second of all, they really piss her off. That leads to the Secret Weapons kids last at night wishing upon a shooting star, and Avi sidles up to Livewire and says, "Those aren't shooting stars, are they?" And she says, "No, those are satellites I bought down."

Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude is scheduled for release on May 2. Harbinger Wars 2 #1 is scheduled for release on May 30.

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Harbinger Wars 2 #1 cover B by Mico Suayan
Harbinger Wars 2 #1 variant cover by Felipe Massafera
Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude cover by Raul Allen
Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude cover B by Michael Cho
Harbinger Wars 2: Prelude variant cover by Felipe Massafera