EDITOR’S NOTE; Are you reading the current RAI mini-series from Valiant? I’m really enjoying it. Story and art are exceptional. I liked it enough to go back and re-read the titles that serve as a prelude/background to this new series . . . . .
4001 A.D. written by Matt Kindt, with art by Clayton Crain. (Valiant Entertainment, October 2016) Trade paperback, 128 pages. Collects 4001 A.D. #1-4. ISBN # 1682151433 / 9781682141433
Summary from the Goodreads website. .. .
One hundred years from today, Father – the benevolent artificial intelligence that governs the island nation of Japan – will gain sentience. To defend its borders, Father will take drastic action by launching Japan into space…where its people can thrive in isolation, away from the overpopulated and resource-deprived planet below. Over the centuries, as New Japan orbits our increasingly unstable world, it will become a model society – one built on peace, prosperity…and Father’s control.
A thousand years from today, Father will create the first Rai, founding a lineage of technologically enhanced heroes engineered to defend New Japan and sworn to protect it from all enemies. For hundreds of years into the future, the Rai will single-handedly enforce New Japan’s justice well…and serve Father without question.
Now, at the dawn of 4001 A.D., the latest Rai is about to inherit the dark truth behind the origin of his kind…and discover the sinister secret at the heart of Father’s existence. For New Japan to live, Earth must die…and as Rai challenges his former master for the first time in more than a millennium, the lone guardian of New Japan will be cast out of his own Father’s kingdom…
Exiled from the only realm he’s ever known, Rai now walks the ravaged world of 4001 A.D. in search of forgotten heroes like himself…on a mission to collect the last surviving legends of a broken planet…and to forge a rebellion with the power to bring the most advanced civilization in history crashing back down to Earth.
Earth must rise. Father must fall.
My short four-star review on the Goodreads website . . .
There are some crazy and highly imaginative concepts at play here in this epic tale of the final days of New Japan, the outer space nation divorced from a corrupt future Earth and controlled by an artificial intelligence that has become corrupted by its own power.
There's a lot going on in this series. A highly enjoyable saga.
RAI, VOLUME 4: 4001 A.D. (Valiant Entertainment, November 2016) Written by Matt Kindt with art by Cafu. Trade paperback, 128 pages. ISBN: 1682151476 / 9781682151471
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .
Rocketing out of the pages of 4001 A.D...the origin of Rai revealed!
For the first time ever, witness the violent foundation of Father's space-born utopia of New Japan...and, with it, the shocking genesis of the line of guardians that bear the name Rai! Born and bred by Father to enforce peace at any cost, follow the first Rai and his successors across two millennia as they chronicle the history of 4001 A.D. – from the launch of New Japan into orbit to the latest Rai's crusade to bring it crashing back down to Earth!
Valiant mastermind Matt Kindt (4001 A.D.) and visionary artist CAFU (UNITY) uncover the never-before-told story of New Japan's rise to power...and reveal just how the Valiant Universe of today became the 4001 A.D. of tomorrow!
My four-star review on the Goodreads website . . . .
As a companion piece to the 4001 AD epic, this is non-essential but reading it provides a nice overview of how Valiant's writing staff managed to blend all the different characters and stories together to create this magical saga.
Each issue focuses on a different iteration of Rai, until we come to the current 4001 AD version - - the Rai who must destroy New Japan and Father in order to save what remains of humanity.
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