Toyo Harada is not a man to be trifled with.  Most people already know this but after the end of the Harbinger Wars and his being exposed for the monster he is, Toyo is done controlling things from behind the scenes.  He has had enough of those he considers beneath him, of those who should when to follow and know who their betters are.  Now Toyo will carve his kingdom from the face of the Earth and woe to them that dare stand against him.

Joshua Dysart paints the next step of Toyo Harada’s life and it sees the man emerging from the shadows so to speak, for better or worse.  Now that the cat is out of the bag, there is nothing to hold Toyo back now and as such, he starts to make his presence felt across the Earth. The man does make one caveat saying he will attack no nation unless they attack him first and it is something that no nation can resist in doing much to their regret.  Where Harada was a bold man before, Dysart has let the man’s ego loose much to the rest of the world’s dismay but there are moments when you can see a little weakness in the man.  There are a few times when doubt starts to creep in on him, wondering if what he has set out to do will work, if he has the power to make it stick.  Just as soon as you see those moments, they are gone just as quick as that ego and confidence return.  Yet Harada is not a complete monster, showing that at times he can be humble, perhaps remembering his roots and where he came from.

Omegas is also about Peter Stanchek, former leader of The Renegades, a man broken in mind and body.  After the devastating battle with Harada, Peter now lives in a world of his own.  It is a very different take on the hero we have all come to know and love and Dysart has taken Peter into a corner of himself that is much darker than anywhere he has ever been before.  His days are spent in a drug-fueled fantasy world where Charlene is still alive and none of his mistakes exist.  As for the other members of the team, Faith and Torque are elsewhere at the moment as chronicled in Armor Hunters and Unity, and Kris finds herself arrested as a terrorist and thrown in prison.  Peter does end up visiting her, but she wants nothing to do with him while he is in the state he is in.  She knows that Peter can come back from this, that somewhere, deep down inside, part of the man that he was still exists and that if he can come back, he might be able to save the world, not to mention himself.

The new status quo that Omegas sets up for the Harbinger kids and Toyo Harada is an interesting one and an exciting one.  Toyo is now a world leader, Peter could come back to his senses and the future is wide open and is looking as bright as it could be.  The book ends with a tale of the mysterious Bleeding Monk – who he is, who he was and how he came to meet Toyo Harada.  If there is one thing Valiant can be proud of, it is that Omegas might be one of their strongest and best stories yet.

5 out of 5