When it comes right down to it there is only one person who can decide what the truth is and that has to be you. No one is completely honest. We may leave a bit out for self-preservation. After all humans are built for survival. When a limb goes gangrene it gets cut off to preserve the rest of the body. Similarly people don’t like being told what to do, particularly when human sacrifice is involved. It’s issue one of “4001AD Shadowman†and humans are doing what they know best – putting innocents in the line of danger by telling half-lies and withholding a considerable amount of information. Anger at having no control over their lives and being beholden to a group of outer-dimensional beings is not sitting too well with the populace of the town Gethsemane. A place on earth that is in danger of being swallowed by the darkness of New Japan looming over the planet. Here is the set-up that Jody Houser (Faith) and Rafer Roberts (Archer & Armstrong) reintroduce Shadowman back into the Valiant universe.
According to their current existence in the town known as Sanctuary, literally a wall away from Gethsemane, the Loa were protectors, able to absorb the human essence of their hosts. They slept and that worked for both towns. But what happens when certain events waken the sleepers? As a Loa life has no shades of grey. You break a law and you need to be duly punished. Still there is deception even that role. This is something that Kaia soon finds out. She seems to be the only thinking-person in this comic. Everyone else has an agenda, however Kaia would like to live.
All the while this narrative is playing out, we should not forget what’s going on above. Because of Father siphoning off New Japan and jettisoning it into space, now hundreds of years later his despotic behavior has it falling down in chunks on a dilapidated, forgotten earth. Just how soon will it be before the Eternal Warrior and Rai come looking for allies? Then there’s the reanimated version of Bloodshot. Will he be recruited to fight Father as well? Will this ragtag team form a new version of Rai and the Future Force?
One of the strengths of the lead characters living in the Valiant universe, regardless of the timeline is they ask the right questions. If you live your entire life being told a lie, it doesn’t mean you have to believe it. And as this comic moves into issue two that way of thinking is going to have major repercussions for all the schemers and nonthinkers living in 4001.
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