Rai

Valiant Comics has been on a roll with itsevent comics since returning to publishing several years ago, with hits like Harbinger Wars, Armor Hunters, and Book of Death, which manage to stay controlled and contained while bringing all of your favorite Valiant characters together for the summer. This year, Valiant goes back to the future, all the way to the year 4001 A.D., to see what the future holds for the heroes of the Valiant Universe. One character with very specific ties to 4001 A.D. is Rai, who serves as the spirit guardian of New Japan, a mechanical metropolis that orbits the Earth. In a brand new story arc beginning in Rai #13, Matt Kindt and Cafu promise to reveal the never-before-told story of how New Japan rose to power, and the creation of the first Rai, and we’ve got preview pages from the issue to show off.

Rai #12, by Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain, brings an end to current storyline "The Orphan," and promises to send the cyborg Rai off into the next chapter of his adventures. While robots rampage on the giant space station that is New Japan, Rai is hanging out on Earth with Gilad the Eternal Warrior, who in Rai's time has come to look a lot like Gandalf.

Futuristic Japanese hero Rai is at the center of Valiant Comics' big 2016 crossover, 4001 A.D. The story launches with a Free Comic Book Day special, and continues into a four-issue event series by Ninjak writer Matt Kindt and Rai artist Clayton Crain. The story is set to involve other Valiant heroes as well, but whether time travel is involved or it's just that a bunch of them are immortal is unclear at this time.

This summer, Valiant Comics is releasing a whole bunch of new number-one issues in their Valiant First initiative, but dig down into it and you'll see that quite a few of those books all tie into the same crossover: Armor Hunters. The first issue of the Armor Hunters series by Robert Venditti and Doug Braithwaite hits stands in June, and it'll have big ramifications for the Valiant universe. To th

Wednesday's links await, after the jump.

Two classic Valiant Comics characters, Rai and Doctor Mirage, are set to make a splash in the new Valiant universe later this year, with the publisher introducing a slew of new titles in its Valiant First initiative all the while. There's a new team-up, a major crossover event, and a few spinoffs in the mix. Valiant is planning to release seven new #1 issues between May and September. Creators inc