Vanguard: Heroes Forged

Powers are a gift—trust is a liability

On December 21, 2012, the sky didn't fall-but something in it changed. A pulse of alien energy swept the globe undetected, seeding itself in human DNA. Some carried the mark and never knew it. Others found out the hard way. 

A teenage girl in Wisconsin discovers she can wear anyone's face. A surfing instructor in Hawaii is overwhelmed by senses no human should have. A small-time con man in Cleveland vanishes from a police standoff and reappears blocks away. A college freshman puts a fist through drywall without meaning to. One by one, ordinary people are becoming something else-and the world isn't ready for what they're capable of.

The United States government isn't ready either, but it moves fast. Under the command of Colonel Leonard Thorne and the scientific guidance of Dr. Howard McCabe, a black-budget initiative called Operation: Vanguard begins hunting down the newly Awakened before they can hurt themselves, each other, or the public. Some are recruited. Some are contained. And some—like the mysterious figure calling himself the Exemplar—have plans of their own for a world on the verge of a new evolutionary age.

Out of the chaos, five strangers are pulled together into the government's first team of field-operational superhumans: a shapeshifter, a shark/human hybrid, a teleporting thief, and a woman whose strength defies her size. Backed by an android with secrets of his own and led by a soldier with a high-powered exoskeleton, they're given a name, a mission, and a mandate to keep the lid on a secret that's already starting to boil over.

But the Exemplar was never the only player on the board. Half a world away in the ashes of the Cold War, buried programs and old grudges are stirring back to life, and a new power is rising that calls itself the Red Fist. Vanguard is about to learn that saving the world is one thing-surviving the politics, the secrets, and the enemies already inside the wire is another.

Fast-paced, character-driven, and packed with twists, Vanguard: Heroes Forged kicks off a pulp superhero saga in the tradition of team-based comics and genre-bending science fiction, where the powers are only half the story-the people wielding them are the rest. If you're a fan of ensemble hero teams, government conspiracies, and origin stories with teeth, the first volume of Vanguard is your way in. From Percival Constantine, author of The Myth Hunter saga.