Rai: The Book of the Darque #1

[Dallow Spicer1]

Dan Abnett back on Rai is a smart move from Alien. Proven track record on this character, he kicks off issue #1 with an intriguing mystery which slowly unravels.

Rai and Raijin are in a house with Momo, Fusion and a combination of Alice Klane/Ray Garrison (aka Bloodshot). The issue opens up with them all having dinner, however somethings not right. The subject of the ‘Howling Wars’ comes up, but no one can remember what it is except Momo. Plot twist, it’s not really Momo it’s a Darque agent who’s been mind wiping them!

Alice/Ray attacks Momo which allows the others to escape. Piece by piece they start to remember that there’s a war on between magic (organic) and technology (artificial). Rai’s sworn enemy Father (now Bloodfather) is the leader of the technology side, but Rai’s been getting mind wiped by the organic (magic) side. Plus, Rai is a unique blend of organic and technology so which side will he fight for?

Or will he fight against both….?

Intriguing issue from skilled vet Abnett, loads of potential here. Can we get him writing Ninjak and Bloodshot too
I probably need to re-read the last series as I can’t recall the Alice Klane character (have I been mind wiped??).

Art was serviceable and got the job done.

3.75/5 - solid first issue, looking forward to issue #2. Can’t believe this is only a 2 issue mini?! Should be 4 issues minimum

[SouthernComicGeek]

Agreed. Cover art is decent, especially this cover, but I might be a little biased.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Agreed. Cover art is decent, especially this cover, but I might be a little biased.

Great cover. Alien consistently working hard on the trade dress

[BugsySig]

This was better than the other recent Alien launches. Felt a bit rushed like those, with too much exposition in order to squeeze everything into 2 issues, but the plot was at least intriguing.

[grendeljd]

Just got this issue recently and quite enjoyed it.

I felt lost a little bit but not in a bad way. More like the feeling that I had either missed a storyline published somewhere else combined with my own poor recollection of the last RAI story from a few years back. In either case, some of the story refreshed my memory as I read along, and anything that was unfamiliar (like “the Howling War”) was actually a well written way of introducing something new that sparked my interest in finding out more about. It had me wondering if I was supposed to read “The Darques” series before this one, but I looked that up and it was published afterwards, so that brings me back to thinking of this as an interesting plot device to discuss the Howling War without seeing it yet.


I’m not quite recalling who Fusion or Alice Klane are though - time to dive back into the previous RAI storylines. And looking forward to reading #2.

Art was pretty decent overall too. Not a fan of the main cover art but interior artist is well executed.