4001 A.D. collects four issues of the comic of the same name, but not the crossover volumes in the same series that featured Bloodshot, Shadowman, War Mother, X-O Manowar, and probably some other beasts. It is set in a universe that was created for Valiant Comics and rebooted by Valiant Entertainment.

The satellite known as New Japan is ruled by an Artificial Intelligence called Father. Its son, Rai, one of a long line of dudes named Rai, is New Japan’s spiritual guardian. The son rebels against the father and the son’s follower, Lula Lee, drops a viral bomb into the father’s heart to aid the rebellion. In a desperate attempt to save itself, Father drops sectors of the satellite and its human inhabitants back to Earth. Some sectors are able to land safely and others crash. So it goes.

The art is stylish, but it doesn’t always clearly depict whatever is supposed to be happening. The story makes a modicum of sense, although after the first issue, the story mostly consists of stylish battle scenes. The fourth issue contains a lengthy recap of the third issue, which comes across as filler.

I like the concept more than the execution. A good bit of the story is just dull. I got the impression that Matt Kindt was handed a Big Idea and didn’t know what to do with it, so he fell back on the writer’s crutch of swordplay, because all futuristic battles are fought using swords. Star Wars got away with it, but enough is enough. If you aren’t already a fan of the series, this isn’t the place to start. If you are a fan, reading this proves you are a completist.

If this were Amazon, I would give 4001 A.D. 3 stars, but here it gets 2 stars. In both systems, the rating is "It's ok" which means I'm pretty much indifferent to it.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was beautifully written an wonderfully drawn. The story was fantastic and deep and keep me entertained. I would love to read more by this author.

This was a fantastic continuation of the Rai saga that is a must read for any fan of Rai, Valiant, or Matt Kindt. With interesting technological battles, character development, and story, this mini-series is a great expansion of the already phenomenal Valiant Universe.

As an avid reader of Valiant since the release of X-O Manowar #1, I have been fascinated by their ability to continually go to new places and merge their most loved characters in unique ways. 4001 A.D. is another example of how you can take characters from all over the Valiant Universe, push them to an entirely new setting (2000 years into the future), and still have them exemplify their personality. I look forward to future unique collaborative stories.