On the heels of Book of Death, Valiant Entertainment has announced that 4001 A.D. will be the crossover event of 2016.
“The year 4001 has always been a vital component of the Valiant Universe but, now, for the first time, we’ll finally be pulling back to reveal the true scale of this world and the wildly diverse cast of heroes that inhabit it,” said Valiant Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons. “Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain have pushed themselves to design a story that is positively brimming with crazy-mad energy, continent-sized ideas and unthinkable potential. From cosmic beings and sentient cities to post-apocalyptic warrior kings and cybernetic samurai, 4001 A.D. will see the Valiant heroes pushed beyond the threshold and into territory far beyond anything we have ever attempted before.”
The event will give us a glimpse at the creation of RAI by the Father AI, and discover the dark truth behind its origin.
One hundred years from today, Father – the benevolent artificial intelligence that governs the island nation of Japan – will gain sentience. To defend its borders, Father will take drastic action by launching Japan into space…where its people can thrive in isolation, away from the overpopulated and resource-deprived planet below. Over the centuries, as New Japan orbits our increasingly unstable world, it will become a model society – one built on peace, prosperity…and Father’s control.
A thousand years from today, Father will create the first Rai, founding a lineage of technologically enhanced heroes engineered to defend New Japan and sworn to protect it from all enemies. For hundreds of years into the future, the Rai will single-handedly enforce New Japan’s justice well…and serve Father without question.
Now, at the dawn of 4001 A.D., the latest Rai is about to inherit the dark truth behind the origin of his kind…and discover the sinister secret at the heart of Father’s existence. For New Japan to live, Earth must die…and as Rai challenges his former master for the first time in more than a millennium, the lone guardian of New Japan will be cast out of his own Father’s kingdom…
Exiled from the only realm he’s ever known, Rai now walks the ravaged world of 4001 A.D. in search of forgotten heroes like himself…on a mission to collect the last surviving legends of a broken planet…and to forge a rebellion with the power to bring the most advanced civilization in history crashing back down to Earth.
Earth must rise. Father must fall. Rai! Eternal Warrior! X-O Manowar! Bloodshot! Geomancer! Armstrong! And more! The war for the ultimate fate of humanity begins in 4001 A.D.!
The first installment of 4001 A.D. arrives on Free Comic Book Day, with issue #1 coming later in May.