The lines between right and wrong are about to get much murkier in Valiant Entertainment’s newest title, Imperium. Out today, the series puts Valiant Universe villain Toyo Harada in the driver’s seat as he takes his campaign against the modern world to an aggressive new level. Written by Harbinger’s Joshua Dysart, Imperium continues Harada’s story in the ongoing Harbinger saga. Now that the world has seen Harada’s true, malicious colors, the once-respected public figure has decided that it’s time to be a true super villain. If he can’t win tomorrow through persuasion and manipulation, then war it is.
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A villain in a starring role is only one of Dysart’s several trope-twists in Imperium, which is full of surprises and unexpected turns. To help navigate readers through Harada’s bold mission, the writer hopped on the phone with ComicBook.com for some exclusive commentary on the first issue’s themes and events. Read on below as Dysart peels back the details behind Imperium #1’s biggest moments and explains how they’ll shape the series moving forward.
On framing Imperium’s Opening Conflict Through Darpan.
Darpan is one of our longest, recurring characters in Harbinger, as far as the foundation and Harada’s people go. There was this real desire with the first issue to show the past and present, and the actions and reality of their reactions. We were trying to incorporate all these layers with what’s real and what isn’t, and putting it through the eyes of a child, even when he’s elderly, I thought was really interesting. It’s a nice callback to readers who were already clued in, and it was perfect for us to revert from an old man back to a child again. It was a reallyy interesting moment.
Secondly, I like that Harada is using this child in dangerous, complex and ambitious situations. And he does that to train the child, because he’s aware that his future lies in this handful of psiots around him. Everyone has a role, right? And as someone who’s always been fascinated with children who are forced into combat roles, Darpan becomes a very interesting character to me. I’ve spent some time with child soldiers. It’s such a bizarre phenomenon burdening a little boy with so much responsibility, and forcing him into dangerous and adult situations.
On opening the series with a supposed future where Harada Wins.
I think it’s important to show what Harada’s fighting for, why he’s taking these chances, and what he believes in. I can’t comment on how much of that is a genuine and achievable future, and how much is a dream of Harada’s, or how much of it is utter manipulation of these people.
That’s really something for the reader to decide, and something that’s to be revealed over time.
But I do think that starting with Harada’s vision is absolutely imperative. Otherwise, for lack of a better term, there’s no foundation for the series. You don’t really know what his ultimate vision is and what he hopes to achieve without seeing these things.
On Mech Major, the Foundation’s surprisingly human robot.
I thought it was really interesting to make the robot the most human things on the battlefield, and to also make him the most relatable character in the whole book. We’re playing with tropes. So in the way that we played with tropes in Harbinger, where we had this pretty typical team, like the bad boy and and the hot chick, and then we tried to invert those characters from their tropes. So we’re essentially doing the same thing with the villains here.
We even draw him to look as inhuman as possible. He’s kind of bipedal, but also moves on all four at times. He has this really bulky body. He’s really not this super cool looking robot. He has no human features whatsoever. To me, that’s really fascinating.
But the story has a reason for that. He’s basically a descendant of these med bots. Thrpughout Harbinger, and these other books in the Valiant Universe, he stems from this invention that Toyo won the Nobel Peace Prize for. They crawl up onto a battlefield or help the wounded and hungry. He’s a descendent of those, so his humanism comes from an inbred program designed to help, not to hurt. But Harada has converted him into a machine of war, so he’s in a really complicated situation.
On Harada’sย comfort with civilianย casualties.
I think that Toyo Harada is haunted by everything he does. But I also think that he feels that he does what he has to do. People often ask, “Why is Toyo perceived as a villain?” And this is one of the reasons why he is. I think that he does what he has to do, and he ultimately believes in his judgement is the best judgement. He operates from a place of tremendous hubris and ego. His main objective is to prevent mega death, and to prevent ultimate, species-wide, suicide. But, in doing so, he takes lives all the time. That’s his inherent contradiction. How he sleeps at night is by just assuming that his vision and purpose is the only true one. He thinks, “Why would I be given so much power if I wasn’t supposed to fulfill this purpose?” That’s how he explains away the murder of a young Kurdistani National fighting for her freedom.
On The Harbinger Renegades’ Absence.
The end of Harbinger really evolves into the winners losing. The Renegades won their war against Harada, by dismantling his global and financial machine of manipulation and ending his era of unaccounted activities. But in doing so, they split up in the aftermath of it. They lost a good friend, Chris is in jail, and everyone’s been blown to the wind.
Harada, however, has only entrenched himself in his ideology. He’s only gotten bigger and badder, and decided, F*** it, if I can’t do it form the shadows, then we make it happen now. He just grabbed all the craziest crap and cannoned up for war.
We have this situation where the winners as lost, and the loser has become more empowered. The Renegades are out there and they’re all living they’re own lives separately from each other. That’s a different story. They’re disempowered now. This is a story about a loser who became stronger through his defeat. If the Renegades appear, it’s not going to be any time soon. The future is wide open, but this is Toyo’s story.
Imperiumย #1 is on sale now.ย
