H.A.R.D. Corps is a team of Valiant superheroes who are akin to the G.I. Joes but with a little Suicide Squad edge. The team was created by Jim Shooter and David Lapham, who introduced them in Harbinger #10 (October 1992) then they went on to star in their own The H.A.R.D. Corps series that ran from December 1992 until June 1995.

The “H.A.R.D.” in the team’s name is an acronym for Harbinger Active Resistance Division. They are a strike team backed by the Omen Enterprises corporation who are tasked with stopping the rich, influential businessman Toyo Harada and his Harbinger Foundation. Harada is a power-hungry man who wants to gather and control superpowered people known as Harbingers (also called psiots).

The team is composed of soldiers and pilots (originally Vietnam War veterans) who had all suffered injuries that had left them comatose. While they were unconscious, Omen Enterprises implanted neural devices in their brains that gives them the ability to use superpowers. The various powers are activated and managed by an operator that oversees their missions, and if they are captured, that operator can execute them to protect Omen’s plans.

The original team was led by Charlie Palmer, aka Gunslinger, who was a Major in the military before his injury. Aaron Brillstein, aka Shakespeare, is the team’s strategist who likes to quote literature. Virgil Peeves, aka Hammerhead, is team muscle and loves to fight. Rick Silver, aka Superstar, is a former movie star who gets a big thrill out of taking risks.

Early in the comic, the team expanded to include Sam Yoom Kim, aka Flatline, a former cop who looks after the team, but questions some of the missions. Christine Eastman, aka Hotshot, is the first woman on the team and the former leader of the Corps’ reserve squad.

The team’s neural implants cover a wide range of powers. They can fly, become invulnerable, gain superhuman strength, invisibility, disrupt their opponent’s electronic communication, and produce jolts of adrenaline for energy boosts. They can create grenades, throw spikes, produce shields and forcefields, generate a blinding strobe effect, project electrical energy, and create illusions.

The H.A.R.D. Corp team returned in 2012 with a slightly different continuity. That incarnation worked for Project Rising Spirit and were sent on a mission to get Bloodshot out of the Harbinger Foundation.