Father is a loaded word. For Rai and his older brother Raijin their parent makes for a complex relationship. After the ‘Rai’ miniseries Rai defeated Father, but only temporarily. An entity who has no intention of ever dying has created a series of fail-safes to ensure his immortality. And now the brothers are on a road trip to eliminate any chance of their father’s regeneration. Still issue one of ‘Rai’ brings about quite a few important questions, one being why does Rai get to live a life after they’ve succeeded and his traveling companion doesn’t?
The setting of North America in the 41st century is reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic world. Groups have joined together to survive. And barely one page into this comic book you realize that you’re in for an existential western with a lot of action and great dialogue. Nearly every line Raijin says is quotable. His questioning of Rai’s evolving humanity and his lack of it has the reader already falling in love with the inexperienced yet older brother. Through Raijin writer Dan Abnett is voicing what we all are, not just about Rai’s privilege to choose for both himself and Raijin what their fates will be, but what about Rai himself? The dreams he has of this female figure who’s leading him to where exactly? What if Rai is the biggest threat, yet the human instinct to survive is keeping him from seeing that? There’s much to consider in this story especially since the setup is that Raijin has to be killed. Perhaps that isn’t true, after all we’re dealing with an AI who is extremely self-aware. What would happen if Raijin on this journey to rid the world of Father causes him to be human? It may be why Rai is irritatingly vague or he’s just keeping it to himself – being the petulant younger brother. You hope that the latter is the case because Raijin is just too cool to get rid of.
Equally contributing to dynamic narrative is the awesome artwork. Juan Jose Ryp, the letterers and colorists create a feel of a merging of old world desperation and reaching into the unknown. Those fight scenes with several characters and a dinosaur are everything. One moment in particular where Rai and Raijin are at a rest stop will have you ping pong from excitement to contemplation.
The best bits of this first issue of ‘Rai’ are those scenes between brothers. If Rai were to destroy every connection to Father what does that do to him? That happy ending he believes he’s headed towards might be nonexistent. More importantly Rai could be getting rid of the most significant aspect of being human – family. From his inception Rai has had allies, men, women, artificial intelligence who’ve joined him for a common cause, but he’s never had someone real to fight for. Raijin is real, the woman in his dreams may be a planted figment of his imagination or a trap. One thing is for certain, you’ll have no idea what’s going to happen next. Makes for an exciting ride.
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