Rai (comics)

Rai
Cover to Rai #1 (2014). Art by Clayton Crain.
Publication information
Publisher	Valiant Comics
First appearance	Magnus Robot Fighter #5 (November 1991)
Created by	Jim Shooter
In-story information
Abilities	Enhanced speed, strength, agility, reflexes, durability and endurance Healing Factor Mastery of martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and armed combat Technopathy, Computer Interaction, Weapon Creation, Psychometry, Teleportation Formerly: X-O Mecha Class Armor Enhanced Strength, Speed, Durability, Reflexes Missiles Energy Manipulaion Constructs Flight Sensory Arrays Anatomical Automatism/Body Part Separation Parasitic Worm Bombs

Formerly: X-O Mecha Class Armor

Rai (霊, rei^?, "spirit") is a fictional superhero that appeared in books published by Valiant Comics. Rai was the first original hero created by Valiant and had its beginning as a flipbook back-up feature in Magnus Robot Fighter issues #5–8. The popularity of the flipbook back-up story later led to an ongoing series. Valiant Entertainment is the current owner of Rai and the rest of the original Valiant Comics characters.

In his original incarnation, Rai is the spirit guardian that protects the nation of Japan in the 41st century. It is a mantle passed down from father to son through the generations. As such, the series chronicled a number of protagonists.

A new Rai ongoing series was launched in April 2014 by the creative team of writer Matt Kindt and artist Clayton Crain, selling out of its initial print run.

Rai ran nine issues, concluding in November 1992 with Rai #0. It was relaunched six months later as Rai and the Future Force, a new series which continued the numbering from Rai. The initial creative team on Rai and the Future Force was Bob Layton (writer), Sean Chen (penciller), and Kathryn Bolinger (inker).

By the year 4001, industrialization in Japan had begun to consume every square inch of free space within the island nation's borders. To house and feed its growing population, the country had built upon its own infrastructure centuries before, turning the whole of Japan into a towering pillar, hundreds of miles wide. Eventually, the nation detached from Earth entirely, and now orbits the planet.

Governed by a mysterious yet benevolent artificial intelligence named Father, the Japan of 4001 is divided into various sectors, with names derived from the time of founding, and generally separated among the lines of economic status and social class. Where a citizens's sector falls in the literal hierarchy of Japan's many sectors also directly affirms their social ranking; the closer you are to the Earth, the less essential you are.