H.A.R.D. Corps  H.A.R.D. Corps is a fictional superhero team appearing in books published by the American publisher Valiant Comics. The acronym stands for "Harbinger Active Resistance Division". The title's focus was a corporate strike team (representing Omen Enterprises) dealing with Toyo Harada, a character from the "Harbinger" title, and his goal of controlling all Harbingers. The characters were normal humans who were comatose and revived with an experimental brain implant that also enabled them to access an assortment of artificial Harbinger super-abilities via an operator named "Softcore." Capture or death caused the implants to explode, killing the Corps member if he or she was still alive. H.A.R.D. Corps first appeared in "Harbinger" #10 (Oct. 1992), and were created by Jim Shooter and David Lapham. Bob Layton explained the style of the series: "When David [Michelinie] and I set out to do "H.A.R.D.Corps" it was because ... We like light-hearted, hard hitting, bash 'em in the face, sock 'em guys." The cover of the first issue was pencilled by Jim Lee over a layout by Bob Layton. Lee had initially declined to take on the cover because he was too busy, but eventually did it in return for Valiant president Steven Massarsky getting him two U2 tickets. The original team was composed of former fighter pilots and went by call signs in the field, starting a Corps tradition of using codenames. The original team were all Vietnam War veterans who served together in the same unit. Towards the end of the series, other recruits were drafted to form a second Corps team with Perp, Grasshopper, and Wipeout. These included:   The operators who maintain contact with field agents and manage their powers. Each member of the H.A.R.D. Corps could utilize one Harbinger power at a time. To switch powers, an operative had to radio Softcore and request she make the switch while at headquarters. They are often seen using a defensive power and firearms for offense, but switching powers is a quick enough process to be accomplished in combat. Needing to communicate to switch their powers sometimes becomes a weakness: Corps operatives who lose their headset cannot switch powers, and sometimes their opponents will jam or disrupt communications with their base, knowing that "microbeams" are used to alter the mimicked powers.