4001 A.D. is Valiant’s big summer crossover, showing a wider look at the future that’s only been glimpsed in Rai, and they’re making it just a little more special with a series of interlocking variant covers from Ryan Sook.
Longtime Valiant fans know that this is not a new concept. In the 90s, Valiant built its house on a massive crossover called Unity. Even after Valiant went under, Unity was cited as the way to do crossovers right. It had stakes, it had consequences, and it was also a legitimately good jumping-on point. Such a good jumping-on point, in fact, that it launched two brand-new titles – Archer & Armstrong and Eternal Warrior – and set the stage for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter to spin out of it.
Also noteworthy, though, were the covers. The meat of the story took place in 16 books over only two months, and each month had an eight-part panoramic cover by a superstar artist – Frank Miller the first month, and Walt Simonson the second.
From Chromium covers to borrowing the titles of even their least-successful books (looking at you, Deathmate), Valiant’s always paid homage to its past in ways that were clever, but didn’t limit the storytelling of the new publisher, and it continues to be a delight.
Speaking of throwbacks, 4001 is the year in which Magnus, Robot Fighter takes place. The prominence of the crossover and the announcement of a mystery book spinning out of 4001 made me wonder if they were somehow bringing Magnus back into the fold. (The subsequent announcement that the mystery book was for a new character called War Mother made me really glad I never wrote that bit of speculation down.)
But even if we never get Magnus (or Turok, or Solar) back home, spending time in the far-flung future of the Valiant Universe is throwback enough, and if the material coming out of it is half as riveting as what Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain are doing on Rai, it’s going to be phenomenal. Check out the full Ryan Sook covers below.
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