Rai #0: The Rejected Version

UPDATE - Full write through.


Rai #0 is one of the most important, most talked about, most exciting Valiant books.

It is the "Bridge to the Future" of the Valiant Universe, depicting major events from the present through to the creation of the last Rai in the 42nd century. It showed us the ultimate fates of a number of key characters such as Toyo Harada, Aric of Dacia and Obadiah Archer. It was named one of the Most Important Comic Books of the 1990s and one of the 20 Coolest Comic Covers. There has been controversy over it's famous cover being a swipe and potential lost pages and expanded editions.

Now, I've got a new twist to present and this one is a revelation. It turns out that the original illustrator for Rai #0 was not David Lapham but instead Rai series illustrator Joe St. Pierre, and that he and Jim Shooter completed a cover and seven pages of interiors in June of 1992 (Rai #0 was eventually published in November of 1992) for a vastly different version. Jim Shooter than rewrote the script from scratch which Joe St. Pierre did at least one page of pencils for before the book was assigned to David Lapham. Very few knew this tale and even fewer had seen the unfinished pencil pages, until they turned up on eBay today thanks to the authorized dealer for Joe St. Pierre art. Below you can see the original cover, pages 1 through 7 with accompanying story notes from the eBay auctions, and page 1 of the rewritten and published script by Joe St. Pierre.

Cover

Page 1

Page depicts a scene from the near future, when the HARBINGER WARS are in full swing. The daughter of FLAMINGO and ARCHER (from Archer and Armstrong) is being attacked by the enemy!

Page 2

Page depicts a scene from the near future, when the HARBINGER WARS are in full swing. The daughter of FLAMINGO and ARCHER (from Archer and Armstrong) uses her flame/heat powers to destroy an enemy tank. That's the Geomancer, now a dying wizard, in the last panel.

Page 3

Page depicts a scene from a near future, when the HARBINGER WARS are in full swing. The daughter of FLAMINGO and ARCHER (from Archer and Armstrong) meets secretly with the GEOMANCER. Thruout history. the Geomancer was protected by a Harbinger like Gilad the ETERNAL WARRIOR. This alternate future, an apocalyptic hell on earth, is so dangerous that now the Geomancer him/herself must be gifted with Harbinger abilities in order to survive.

Page 4

Page depicts a scene from a near future, where an ancient ritual is enacted: the daughter of FLAMINGO and ARCHER (from Archer and Armstrong) becomes the world's first HARBINGER-GEOMANCER. Thruout history, the Geomancer was protected by a Harbinger like Gilad the ETERNAL WARRIOR. This alternate future, an apocalyptic hell on earth, is so dangerous that now the Geomancer him/herself must be gifted with Harbinger abilities in order to survive.

Page 5

Page depicts a scene from a near future, where an ancient ritual has been enacted: the daughter of FLAMINGO and ARCHER (from Archer and Armstrong) has become the Earth's first HARBINGER-GEOMANCER. Thruout history, the Geomancer was protected by a Harbinger like Gilad the ETERNAL WARRIOR. This alternate future, an apocalyptic hell on earth, is so dangerous that now the Geomancer him/herself must be gifted with Harbinger abilities in order to survive. The last panel depicts an assault on Orb industries by a Harbinger battalion.

Page 6

Page depicts a scene from an apocalyptic future, where the HARBINGER WARS are in full swing. An aging X-O MANOWAR stages the last stand for humanity against an army of Toyo Harada's Harbinger warriors.

Page 7

Page 1 from the published script by Joe St. Pierre

This page features Geoff and Bloodshot, though Bloodshot is chained onto his bed unlike the published version.

The Valiant marketing annual given to retailers at the Capital City Distributors conference explaining Valiant's upcoming releases and promotions provides more information and further proof about the rejected Rai #0 story. Check out an excerpt below:

From the excerpt we can see that Joe St. Pierre was indeed scheduled to illustrate Rai #0. This is in keeping with several other #0 issues in which the titles regular artist also drew the #0 issue. We also see that the story was originally going to explain the origin of the Rai Power and show us the creation of the first Rai. Very little has been published about either. What we do know is that the Rai Power was created by Grandmother when she felt the Blood of Heroes was a threat to herself, is incredibly powerful and can harm energy beings like Mothergod.