“THE ORPHAN” ends here with an explosive finale…and a shocking new direction for New Japan’s fallen guardian!

After being exiled to Earth by Father, Rai has survived on his own, finding new friends and discovering some familiar faces. Now, fully restored and ready for battle, Rai is ready to return to New Japan and rescue the allies he left behind!

If this comic is an arc ending, I’m a monkey’s uncle.

I’m not saying that this is a bad comic, far from it, but when the solicitations (quoted above) point toward an explosive ending to an arc that has delivered beyond expectations so far it’s hard to feel a little thrown off.

Ironically enough, it isn’t that the arc didn’t end that’s the reason for my feeling somewhat off kilter, it’s that I was expecting an epic showdown that didn’t happen. The comic itself is still very good, and the art is still captivatingly beautiful, but this isn’t the finale that has been advertised or promised, but it feels unfair to let that miscommunication cloud my opinion of the issue, because it’s actually very good, it’s just not the finale.

That’ll probably come next week.

Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain have delivered another fantastic issue in this series. With Rai finally meeting up with a much older version of The Eternal Warrior, which was something I had been anticipating reading more of ever since the last page reveal in the previous issue, there’s some very interesting dialogue that happens this issue between the Earth’s immortal guardian and the soulful android.

Clayton Crain‘s artwork is, as always, fantastical, eerie and very atmospheric. His ability to convey the beauty of the supposedly barren earth, coupled with the brutality of the fight scenes is striking. That the comic is fantastic to look at is impossible to deny, and the build up to the inevitably explosive conclusion next issue is very well done. Rai #12 is a great looking comic, one of the prettiest to hit the racks this week (which is always the case with this series), but it certainly isn’t the finale that’s promised. And you know what? That’s fine by me. Yeah, I was a little thrown off after reading the comic and finding not an ending, but yet more build up. However that’s not a bad thing, especially with the hints dropped toward the end of the issue that seem to be building toward a finale that doesn’t happen.

I’m wondering if that’ll arrive next issue, but if it doesn’t, I’m content to wait.

Story: Matt Kindt Art: Clayton Crain
Story: 8.75 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.