Note: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The story is so expository that it runs itself into the ground with what might have been a decent premise if paced out better. The characters are uninteresting in that their motivations make no sense. The artwork is technically good, but doesn't express anything other than what moves forward the plot.

This book is full of action but at the same time nothing seems to happen. Over a 6 issues series the are way too many repetitive arguments between the UN security and the Japanese scientists they are guarding; too many scenes were the titular Visitor sneaks into someplace impregnable, showcases a new (and unexplained) power, has a fight, and dramatically escapes; and too many predictable twists. Even the stakes felt off because <spoiler>the creation of New Japan and it's authoritarian AI overlord is deep in the mythos of the Valiant universe. Given that it seems very unlikely that the hero will be able to stop it, making the events of this book seem especially pointless.</spoiler> The art was western superhero style competent, but didn't do much to take away form the problems in pacing, character development, and general plot direction.

Paul Levitz has written a lot of great comics over the last few decades. This is not one of them. It's about a secret project Japanese scientists are conducting in New York and someone who is trying to kill them. Levitz gets in this repetitive rut where he just does the same thing over and over again. The scientists beat around the bush about why this project must remain secret, while the woman in charge of their security says she needs to know what they are working on in order to protect them. That happens over and over and over again for five issues before we more or less find out who The Visitor is. The way it's revealed though has no impact. If you haven't been reading Valiant comics for a long time and don't know about New Japan or Rai this will all be meaningless to you. If you do know about those things, then you knew where this comic was headed as soon as I said Japanese scientists. The art by MJ Kim and Soo Lee is very pedestrian.

In The Visitor, the United Nations is holding its annual meeting in New York City. When an explosion occurs at the Japanese consultant, Talia Dauber with the U.N. Security Service is on the job. It seems the Japanese are working on a secret project. So secret that their American hosts have no clue what is going on. But one man appears to be behind the attacks on the Japanese scientists. Who is he? And what does he want?

I enjoyed this exciting but ultimately thoughtful book. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why without significant spoilers. But I can heartily recommend The Visitor to science fiction fans. The entire story is within the book, which is a nice change. The artwork is beautiful too. 4 stars!

Thanks to Valiant, Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting story. The concept feels very inspired by the Terminator franchise, but its set in a world of super heroes. I really loved the art style a lot. The pacing of the story was good. The part that kind of confuses me is the feeling that I don't have enough information. I realize that is a common issue when reading a single story in a comic book world. I would be interested in reading more in the universe, but I felt a little lost when the writing assumes the reader has more information than a brand new reader would have. I enjoyed the story the action is well drawn and enthralling. I just wish I had a little more context for some of the story.

I’ve read quite a few Valiant Comics. From the early days with Archer & Armstrong, X-O Manowar, Hard Corps, Turok, Magnus Robot Fighter and Shadowman to name a few.
I miss those days and those characters. The Valiant of today seems to be a lesser version of itself. Introducing new characters is essential for growth, but I’ll admit to being lost on the appeal of The Visitor.
In this book a group of Japanese scientists were conducting an experiment and a mysterious Man in Black was trying to stop them.
There was too much emphasis on the secrecy of the project. A couple of times in each issue, one character would ask to be told what the project is and was always told that they can’t reveal the nature of it. It got tiresome to me after the first couple of issues.
I know we weren’t supposed to know anything about The Visitor until the end, but I really didn’t care about his motivations when we did find out. Maybe dropping in some more interesting clues from time to time might have helped.
I probably won’t be interested in The Visitor vol 2.

The Visitor started off strong with an interesting idea and opportunity for great depth which would create powerful storytelling; however, towards the end The Visitor lost my attention. Opening with a disaster in Manhattan and cutting to a news broadcast shortly after said disaster happens is a cliché I was willing to overlook, but the more I read it became evident very little concepts in The Visitor are not already mainstream. Although, I will say the illustrations are well done and the color palette suits the tone of the story.

The Visitor was a difficult story to get into or stay engaged with, even once it does start to pique your interest.
It feels like it would make an excellent action movie, where the action helps keep the viewer engaged with the story between story beats.

This flow doesn't work as well in the comic format that is presented in this work.

While the ending left me a ton of WTF questions, I wouldn't find myself picking up another volume of this.

Ouff this is going to be a tough one to review. It saddens me to say that I really did not enjoy this and I was confused a lot.

The synopsys says: "Who is the Visitor? Why are the leaders of the world terrified of him? And will they live long enough to find out?" but after having finished this collection of comics, I still don't know why the leaders of the world are terrified of him and only know a little bit about who the Visitor is. It is barely mentioned and very poorly explained. I feel like this could have been a wonderful story and the idea could have been an interesting one, but its execution wasn't very read-worthy.

The story picks up towards the end, when some of the unclear things and the story become a bit more understandable based on the reader's own imagination, but before that it was just pure chaos. I wished this would have been a better read, but alas, it is what it is.

The Visitor is a fast-paced and entertaining comic. Its action-packed plot has a bit of a summer blockbuster movie feeling, which heightens the sense of good old-fashioned comic book fun.

In places the pacing moves so quickly that the story gets a little lost between panels, though it never reaches a point of great confusion. The comic's lowest point is its slightly questionable portrayal of Japanese characters and culture; the intent may be a retrofuturistic/vintage comic-book feeling, which much of the story succeeds in bringing off, but readers may occasionally wonder what precisely the book's message is supposed to be.

Overall, I enjoyed this comic. The art is quite good, the science fiction themes intriguing, and at least some of the characters interesting and/or sympathetic. A solid choice for a quick summer afternoon read.

I received a free e-ARC of this comic via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to read more western comics and I thought this looked interesting. The art is nice though I'm not really a fan of the color palette. Is just me or is it kinda unattractive? Like the colors were too bright and saturated. I do like a good sci-fi mystery and I liked the characters. Especially Talia.

I absolutely loved this book. I'm just now starting to get into reading comic books after not reading them for years. This one felt like a great place to start. I love both the visitor and Talia. I thought they were fantastic characters, and even though a short story, it kept me guessing. The colors and illustrations were very well-done and kept me engaged the entire time!