Nice artwork, far future dystopia, might be a little hard to get into if you haven't read some of the previous stuff in this storyline (I haven't), but you'll catch up eventually. The mix of future tech and feudal Japan is fun, and the action stays pretty consistent.

#FallenWorld #NetGalley

So far, I've loved Valiant's 4001 A.D. series. Fallen World takes place in this futuristic setting. Jumping into this book without reading Rai and the 4001 A.D. event miniseries would be confusing because a lot of what happens in this book follows on those ones. Earth is in shambles and everyone is trying to pull themselves back together.

This is another book from Valiant that feels more transitionary. It takes the time to recognize what has come before, build on it to some degree, and then set things up for future stories. Some of the more recent books, this one included, have done more to make me excited about what is going to come next rather than what I'm currently reading. Fallen World is not a bad book by any means. Anyone that is familiar with the preceding Rai stories should get some enjoyment out of this story. I for one liked seeing the different characters from the previous series' coming together to battle it out with Bloodfather.

'Fallen World' by Dan Abnett with art by Adam Pollina is a graphic novel set in the Valiant 4001 AD universe. There are other volumes before this, so you may want to start with those.

It is 4002 AD. New Japan was a floating city in the sky run by a crazed A.I., but that city has fallen. A cyborg named Rai will face the A.I. in battle, but not without quite a bit of help, including a familiar eternal warrior and an army of evolved animals (led by an elephant with a dirty mouth).
Does it all make sense? I didn't read the previous two volumes, so I started out a bit lost, but I caught on. One thing I seem to notice with Valiant is a nice level of art and I did like much of Adam Pollina's art here. It's a nice epic story, and it makes a bit more sense than a couple others I've read by other publishers.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Valiant Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This was a pretty fun graphic novel to read. It took place far in the future to a world in ruins. When a drastic move was made, it changed so many lives forever. There was a reason this was done, and it looks like it didn’t achieve the necessary goal. To defeat them once and for all won’t be easy, and new allies will be made along the way. If you are looking for something different, then you will want to check this graphic novel out.

This takes place in Valiant's 4001 A.D. world after the events of Rai, 4001 A.D. and War Mother. Enough is explained in this book that you don't need to have read those previous series, but if you want to read the entire 4001 A.D. story that's what you need to know.

New Japan has broken apart and fallen in pieces across the earth. Father has returned and Rai is forced to try and stop him. That's about all you need to know about the plot. 4001 A.D. is Valiant's dystopian far future. I thought this was just OK. It's not bad. It's just that Valiant has set an extremely high bar for itself. I haven't seen Adam Pollina draw a book since the 90's on X-Force. It is less stylized now, but it was also very busy with little sense of depth. It made the battle scenes a little hard to take in.

Fallen World follows 4001 A.D. and the Rai stories that preceded it. In 4001 A.D., the New Japan satellite broke apart and crashed to Earth. ome parts of New japan crashed softly, so the Japanese have returned to their home world, although not to their original islands. Rai, who rebelled against his creator, the ruling AI called Father, is either reviled or worshiped by different groups, sort of like Donald Trump. A good many people appreciate the security offered by seemingly benevolent despots, and those folk have a collective bug up their bums about Rai. Just why they think Father is benevolent, given that he crashed New Japan, is unclear, but clear thinking is foreign to despot worshipers. Small minds always value security over freedom.

Sadly for Rai, after all the work he did to bring down Father, Father ain’t dead. Father activates another artificial son (one who hasn’t betrayed him yet), bringing him out of hibernation on Earth, presumably to act as a chip off the old AI despot. This son is named Raijin. Father wants to kill Rai but, in the meantime, he needs to collect and assemble 12 offspring to become his old self.

Meanwhile, the Eternal Warrior is roaming around on the planet protecting the Geomancer, who protects the Earth. She didn’t count on satellite segments smacking into her planet. That crossover is apparently tossed into the mix because readers love crossovers.

Crossover madness continues with Bloodshot, who can hear Japanese survivors pleading for help. The voices are driving him buggy, not that sanity is part of his character under the best of circumstances, so he runs around slaying dinosaurs and generally helping out when he can. But then he’s tricked into releasing one of those monsters with multiple tentacles. You know that anything with tentacles is a problem. This one makes Bloodshot do the vile bidding of Father until he sort of fades out of the plot.

And that’s just the first two issues. Before the volume ends, Rai encounters talking animals who would tear Dr. Doolittle into shreds, Geomancer encounters the Grove in a subplot that owes a debt to Swamp Thing and Poison Ivy, mechanical spiders go to war, and son takes on father in the greatest battle since the last time a son took on a father (a standard plot since Oedipus, with the addition here of a trendy Japanese backdrop). Of course this one has a couple of sons, who will either battle each other or join forces to battle Father (no spoilers here), so I guess that’s double the fun. When the crossover heroes come back in the last issue, battle scenes get really crowded, although not as bad as the Avengers movies.

The art is solid if a bit gruesome. The story is wordy and some of the words (“Total control is about to be mine!”) are the stuff of cheesy melodrama. Dan Abnett has never been a fan of subtle storytelling and you won’t find any on display here. Nothing is really resolved in this story. The miniseries does advance the overall storyline a bit, but only to set up another entry for readers who want to bear with it.

"Fallen World" is a really cool graphic novel. Great art work andstylized story telling. There is a lot to love in this one.

When I look at what's come before in Valiant Entertainment, I begin to understand what this series is about. Rai is trying to teach people a new way of life without the safeties and violence of his last adventures. Unfortunately Rai and Valiant as a whole doesn't have that option. Valiant was once a truly independent company up until it is acquired by a Chinese media company. While many employees see this as a means to secure their funding as well as an easier chance to compete with the Big Two; a number of titles lose what made Valiant so great.

Nowadays Valiant starts relying on repeats from older successes like the Harbinger War or celebrity guest appearances. Fortunately, most series manage to keep their integrity and not release tons of material like Marvel and DC do. That can't be said for one of their flagship characters; Bloodshot is now just a cash cow the company uses with his upcoming movie that is more or less driven by celebrity. It's little wonder that the main villain, Father, takes over Bloodshot in his attempt to regain his former power and his lost dominion. The human citizens of New Japan are willing to live with their needs covered instead of work for it. The positronics meanwhile are now free and happy to be rid of him.

Then there are the zealot groups who feel very close to home in their methods. Rather than see what the world is; like most religious military groups, they twist and dement events of their true meaning to satisfy their delusional faith. But for all of their labor, there is a lack of satisfaction. At the end they become what Father envisions the Rai to be, human minds melded with machines to serve his bidding.

The world of the Forty-First century is both beautiful and mesmerizing. Looking closely, the world is trying to recover its losses from before and after New Japan's crashing. While there is some tribal conflicts that fans of Game of Thrones won't find as great, that doesn't underscore the value of the scope. The natural forces set up for a great showdown in the following years to come. While nature vs. civilization is nothing new; the task of choosing (or lack thereof) to build an army around it is a pivotal aspect that drives characters to action.

Regardless the actions behind all of this bring up a sense of dread behind it all. Father has become the very weapon he wished to put onto his son which makes him more human and more dangerous. As such Valiant itself could be fighting a losing battle to secure their creative rights. Regardless a fight to secure rights is one to always root for. I just hope the resolutions are both emotional and practical.