4001 AD #2: The Rising Son

4001 AD #2: The Rising Son

Story By: Matt Kindt

Art By: Clayton Cain

Release Date: June 1st, 2016

Rai and his friends are banished to Earth. They’re only way of getting back to New Japan is via an giant ancient mech suit. The citizens of New Japan are left scrambling for their lives. The Father is dropping whole sections of the city out of orbit and onto Earth. 4001 AD #2 is ripe with action.

Writer, Matt Kindt dialed the story up to a ten real quick last issue. He keeps the pace for the entirety of issue 2. He has limited space to tell a story, apparently its only 4 comics total. I can see why the fast pace story telling is happening. Matt handles the story with grace. I only found one thing that bothered me with the story. Kindt gives us some pretty heavy handed philosophical ideas that made it hard to root for the good guys. Which didn’t turn me off to the story, it just made me appreciate it more. I’m confident that Matt is totally aware of what he’s putting in 4001 AD #2. Whenever there’s lives being lost at the expense of the greater good, you have to wonder, whose right. But even if say, the good guys are right, is it worth it? Our real world example of that is when the United States dropped the bombs on Japan. In video games the entire Metal Gear Solid series is based on that, and Mass Effect as well. 4001 AD #2 had me twisted up thinking about Rai.

So Rai gets a giant space mech to fight against the mechanized New Japan, that’s turned into a dragon. So every time Rai strikes the dragon an untold number of people die. So the Father is using the ol’ human shield trick, against our hero Rai. The Rather is in self preservation mode at the moment. Rebels have dropped a viral bomb into his system. So the only way to preserve himself is to cut off whatever extremities are infected. His methods are effective but brutal. New Japan isn’t just a city its an entire country. Rai and the rebels agree that the Father is a bad dude and want liberty, despite the fact that they live a rather comfortable lives there in New Japan. We’re not told how many rebels there are in New Japan, or how many people sympathize with them. So their case of rebellion is hard to sympathize with. Their case seems a little elitist when factoring that the rebels decided for everyone and acted despite how they might feel. I’m not sure what the Father’s case is with having humans though. He’s a one of a kind entity. No other being in the history of mankind has achieved what he has. He’s not even human, he’s a self aware creation. It might be, that its hard wired into his programming that he can’t even re-write. The Father uses cold sterile logic to achieve his protection of New Japan. I’m not sure what the Earth looks like in 4001 AD. But it seems that New Japan is the best option for humanity. That this orbiting country is the only hope for the survival humanity.

Man, Clayton Crain does a wonderful job with the art here. I have a deeper appreciation for his talent with this issue. He captured the eyes and throws all these colors around with balance and finesse. And I can’t get over how cool the Father and Rai look! Clayton killed it with the space battle, he really got the sense of scale down too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this issue. I can’t wait to see how it goes down in the next couple of comics. So if you read the first one pick this one up. If you haven’t read the first one, pick this one, you’ll be brought up to speed. I’m just one of many reviewers beating the drum of Valiant, but Valiant has a great line up on the shelves every Wednesday. I’m glad I’ll be able to look back and say I was there for their revival.