4001 A.D #4

4001 A.D #4 (of 4)
Written by: Matt Kindt
Art by: Clayton Crain

Published by Valiant Comics
This is the final issue of the 4001 A.D mini series, this years "Summer of Valiant" event. The issue starts with the final fight between Father and Rai in the quickly falling to Earth New Japan. I really enjoyed the mini series as a whole, but I did find the finale here kind of anti-climatic. It does give us an ending that we've been heading towards since Rai issue 1 and has been followed for about 20 issues or so. I am satisfied with the ending, but just was hoping for a bit more. I was hoping for more fighting, which is weird since the issue mostly was just the battle between Rai and Father's robot form. We get a good sense of the next step for Rai volume 2, with those of our characters that survived the fall of New Japan to Earth, whichever ones they might be.
Once again Clayton Crain's art is just that. A work of Art. Every panel is beautifully well done. The painted style looks so good. The very last panel of the book is brilliantly done, and I hope it's implying the return of the 90's Future Force. That last panel I won't go into to much detail about it as it would spoil the ending, but it was amazing and I hope I can get a print of it some time because I would hang that on any wall in my house. Just beautiful art.
Matt Kindt did a marvelous job with this story. All of the pieces came together so well. It was a great epic story. It is a bit confusing why this was made into a separate series instead of just going with the Rai series itself. Either way every thing was so well done and planned out. The only thing I felt was weak at all was the way it ended, but other then that I loved every issue. Now Rai goes back on hiatus again, which is sad but with the art style of Clayton Crain, and the way in which Valiant publishes (no more then 10 titles) it's hard to put out a monthly book.

The issue on it's own was pretty good. I really love the future timeline in the Valiant Universe, so having not one but two series set there plus 4 one shots, has all lead to an enjoyable story for me. It's been a great summer for Valiant, and hopefully that continues on into the fall. The issue was good, the series was great overall a win.