H.A.R.D. Corps

In response to the rise of Toyo Harada and his Harbinger Foundation, the international conglomerate known as the Omen Corporation created a paramilitary unit called the Harbinger Active Resistance Division. An assembly of candidates was begun; comatose patients, patriots with highly trained pasts, each of whom were clearly willing to die for their country. They were granted a second chance in the form of cybernetic brain implants which not only revived them, but could also mimic the psionic powers of Harbingers. Dubbed the H.A.R.D. Corps, these battle-hardened men and women have repeatedly challenged Harada's master plan to lead a superior race into the future. But now, the H.A.R.D. Corps team is slowly coming to question the motives of the very corporation which purports to back them.

Shakespeare is H.A.R.D. Corps' poet warrior, the team's heart and soul. An intellectual who justifies what he does in battle, he has both the loyalty and artisan of a samurai. He serves to boost morale on the team, though he usually seems to keep a respectable distance from the others.

Hammerhead is a firm believer in the "any means necessary" approach to accomplishing his team's goals. Foul-mouthed and hard-living, he is not above perpetrating a scam to get ahead or forward a mission. Hammerhead has an extremely high pain threshold. He has very little regard for his body, and believes that every scar he bares is beautiful and "tells a story."

With Heydrich's guidance, vast sums of money and technical resources have been pooled for the H.A.R.D. Corps project under the Omen banner. Recently, H.A.R.D. Corps was instructed by Heydrich to penetrate the Harbinger Foundation and use a device supplied them to steal the comatose Harada's brainwaves. Their mission successful, Heydrich is now in possession of the millions of subtle frequencies and modulations that form the source of Harada's Omega Harbinger power. Heydrich is now having his top scientists work day and night analyzing this data...for reasons that may not be in the best interests of either Omen or the H.A.R.D. Corps team....

Gunslinger was a fighter pilot (he can fly virtually all forms of conventional aircraft) declared MIA (missing in action), while really in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Straight as an arrow, tucked in at the edges, follows everything by the book - all describe Gunslinger. His integrity and values are built into the fiber of his character.

Sam Yoon Kim was a grocery store owner with a secret past, when he was severely injured in a Los Angeles riot. Omen revived him with a H.A.R.D. Corps implant, and promised him a reckoning with his native Korea, after he had spent a period of time with the team. Flatline is marked by a calm demeanor, and a "bends with the wind, but does not break" attitude.

The first American woman soldier to see direct combat, Eastman's expertise as one of the most efficient marksmen in the world made her a formidable opponent. Hotshot is proficient in all forms of U.S. military unarmed combat. The circumstances around her coming to the attention of Omen are conflicted and mysterious.

Omen Enterprises' first H.A.R.D. Corps field operative, Maniac's back was broken by Big Boy, one of Toyo Harada's most formidable Eggbreakers (H.A.R.D. Corps #1). Despite attempts by his comrades to revive him, Maniac's brain implant exploded as soon as he flatlined - a failsafe installed by Heydrich to keep the technology out of enemy hands. Maniac was avenged when Shakespeare slew Big Boy with a nastily applied Force Field (H.A.R.D. Corps #2).

A young hotdogger addicted to the adrenalin rush of heated combat, Superstar became the weak link in the H.A.R.D. Corps chain of command. When his invulnerability power malfunctioned during a mission to infiltrate the foundation, he was gunned down by Harada's guards (H.A.R.D. Corps #13). It was later revealed that Director Heydrich may have had something to do with this malfunction (Secrets of the Valiant Universe #1).

At Omen HQ, Softcore is seated in her high-tech control center, monitoring the activities of each member of the field unit. Because H.A.R.D. Corps brain implants can only simulate one Harbinger power at a time, Softcore must remain keenly aware of each phase of the unit's mission via high frequency radio transceiver. When a H.A.R.D. Corps member calls out a needed power, Softcore immediately alters the team member's brain implant to simulate that power. Among the more commonly used powers are: