By d. emerson eddy — The past few years have been interesting for readers of Valiant's characters in the far-flung future of the 41st century. The status quo has been upset, children have turned on their parents, and the sky has literally fallen. Rai #4 from Dan Abnett, Juan Jos Ryp, Andrew Dalhouse, and Dave Sharpe continues these developments.

In Rai #4, Ryp and Dalhouse are bringing rich detail and beauty to the wastelands and the cities of this fallen world of 4002 AD. Their artwork has been phenomenal since this series began, wonderfully populating Valiant's future with intriguing technology, varied people, and plenty of sweeping vistas. Not to mention the action — Ryp particularly excels at delivering some enticing, entertaining fight sequences.

Beyond the fighting, though, there's a deeper and fairly captivating conflict that really comes to the fore in this issue. Rai and his brother Raijin have been scouring the world for the remnants of their Father's tech so that he can't grow more powerful and potentially re-enslave the world. As far as quests go, it's fairly important and we've seen the ramifications of how badly it can get in the previous Fallen World mini-series. Here, however, there's a complication in the application of that quest that's broached when we see the return of another old familiar Valiant face. We get the question of how rigid, how dogmatic, the approach to eliminating Father's tech should be, even if it's a small, insignificant portion that no longer works.

There's an interesting struggle here that Abnett is painting, through the dialogue and the characterizations, in that neither side is really wrong, they just represent different ideas and different potential consequences. One route sees more immediate hardship, the other potential devastation at the end. But because of the impasse, it gets into the aforementioned action. Likewise, a variant on that conflict comes in questioning how Rai has been treating Raijin, just to add a few more little turns of the screw. Sharpe's lettering feels a little bit larger than usual here (though that may just be me), but it's certainly effective. The bold typeface here gives some really nice punch to some of the humor and gravity throughout the dialogue.

Dalhouse's colors reinforce the divide between Rai and the rest of the world. Both he and his brother are pale and unnatural. They stand apart visually from the more natural colors of the rest of the world and the people in it. While the wastes are still bleak browns, some settlements like Hope Springs here are brighter in color. It nicely visually gives us a cue to Rai's cold calculus.

Although ultimately the question as to who's right in the conflict remains unanswered for the time being, Abnett, Ryp, Dalhouse, and Sharpe ensure that the argumentation is intriguing. 

Rai #4
Writer: Dan Abnett
Artist: Juan Jos Ryp
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: Valiant
Price: $3.99

d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.