In the synapse-shattering world of the future, witness the dawn of the dead’s greatest hero and the fate of a young girl who may be humanity’s only hope! As Rai leads a revolutionary insurrection against the forces of New Japan, the legendary hero called Shadowman returns to fight another day in the year 4001 A.D.!

Whenever one is presented with a comic that ties in to a major event, in this case Valiant‘s 4001 A.D., the question that one should always ask is “how is my enjoyment of the main event going to be affected if I don’t read this comic?” The answer, with 4001 A.D.: Shadowman #1, is that it won’t be. This is a tie-in comic with at best a tenuous link to the main event.

Personally I’ve yet to read much Shadowman, so I won’t be able to give fair judgement on whether the comic ties up any loose ends, plot threads and such.

Once you get past the fact that this tie-in has a tenuous link to the main comic (in that there seems to be very little – if anything – in this issue that will impact the main 4001 A.D. story line), you’re left with a very interesting comic. Written by Jody Houser and Rafer Roberts, 4001 A.D.: Shadowman #1 is a very interesting comic that while it appears as a one-shot, there’s every reason to believe that Valiant will return to this set of characters in the not so distant future – and I hope that’ll be the case.

But, I hear you ask, do you have to be a fan of Shadowman to get anything out of this comic? While I’m sure it’d help, even with my lack of familiarity with the character, I really enjoyed this comic. At it’s most basic idea, it’s a familiar tale of people being sacrificed to serve the greater good, but just because it’s a familiar trope doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad thing; 4001 A.D.: Shadowman is a comic about questioning what you’ve been told, and whether following blindly is as good an idea as you’d typically expect.

Houser and Roberts have come together to co-write a comic that introduces some pretty interesting new characters to the Valiant Universe, and I hope that we see more of them going forward; and depending on the reception to this comic, I think that could be likely in the coming months and years.

Story: Jody Houser and Rafer Roberts
Art: Robert Gill Colourist: Micheal Spicer
Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Read

Valiant provided Graphic Policy a FREE copy for review.