Rai #8–Endings and Beginnings

Rai #8 features the big battle Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain have been working up to for the last seven issues. Rai and his co-conspirators have gathered a formidable army. Positrons and Raddies have actually been persuaded to work together, and Spylocke has brought an earlier Rai back from Earth to join the fray. The problem is, Father has faced rebellions before and has his own array of weaponry, both overt and more subtle.

The issue delivers a dramatic climax to all of the battle plans, schemes, and alliances that have been forming in the last seven issues. My only complaint is there are points when Rai seems to taunt his enemies in a more Spiderman-type style than he has in the past. Otherwise, the issue delivers one solid series of battles and some serious emotional wallop while leaving plenty for further issues to resolve. Relationships are developed further, and all the key figures have important roles in this new battle. Kindt’s choice of Silk for the narrator allows him to draw the suspense out while telling the story from the point of view of someone who is in a position to know everything that is happening.

Crain is, as always, providing a tour of New Japan even while he draws dynamic battles. The combat takes place on several levels, giving him the chance to introduce new places—beaches, the candy-colored “Fructose Land,” the Nineteenth-century revival—as well as showing previously-visited areas in the throes of battle. At the same time, the emotional responses of the different combatants remain key, and Crain continues to show those as well, sometimes packing an entire story in a single panel of unnamed characters.

The book ends with a magnificent double cliffhanger. The only big flaw in this book? We won’t get another issue until August.

Rai #8 is available April 8, 2015.

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
Cover Artist: Clayton Crain, David Mack, Bart Sears