Review: Faith #1 (of 4)
There’s a certain appeal to what I consider blue-collar superheroes—the working-class folks who struggle to pay the bills while fighting bad guys for no financial gain, but who do it anyway because they have a strong moral belief that, as Stan Lee put so famously, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Spider-Man—aka Peter Parker of Queens, NY—used to be like that, before Marvel recently turned him into the new Tony Stark. Star Brand of the 1980s “New Universe” was a Pittsburgh car mechanic. DC’s ’Mazing Man was just an odd little guy protecting his Queens neighborhood. And during the 1990s, even Wonder Woman worked shifts at a fast-food restaurant so she could pay the rent.
Faith Herbert is one of those working-class stiffs. She lives in an apartment building with thin walls, writes articles for a Buzzfeed/Gawker/Cracked–style website called Zipline, has to put up with coworkers and an annoying boss, and nerds out over comic books and sci-fi TV shows. But when she’s not writing listicles for Web consumption, she’s fighting crime as the superheroine Zephyr, a former member of a superteam called the Renegades. And God help you if you’re a dognapper…
Faith #1, written by Jody Houser (Orphan Black, Max Ride: Ultimate Flight), illustrated by Francis Portela (Ivar: Timewalker, Trinity of Sin: Pandora) and Marguerite Sauvage (DC Comics Bombshells, Ninjak), and published by Valiant Entertainment, kicks off this four-issue miniseries by introducing us to Faith—her aspirations, her daydreams, her desire to be a totally awesome crimefighter. Houser succeeds in making her a thoroughly believable character, and it will be interesting to see where Faith’s story goes. My one minor complaint is that, not being a Valiant reader, some of the callbacks to prior events left me scratching my head, but they didn’t detract from the story.
Artwise, Portela and Sauvage make for a great combination—Portela drawing the main story, and Sauvage providing Faith’s daydreamy fantasy sequences. Together, they produce some wonderful eye-catching art without clashing styles.
Bottom line? Reading like an appealing mix of The Greatest American Hero and Marvel’s Star Brand, Faith is a lighthearted superheroine comic that should appeal not just to female comic readers, but superhero fans in general. Definitely give it a read.
Faith #1
Written by Jody Houser
Art by Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage
Main cover art by Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
32 pages • full-color
$3.99 U.S.
On sale January 27, 2016
About the Author
Steven Roman Steven A. Roman is the author of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel series and the graphic novels Lorelei: Sects and the City and Sunn, and the bestselling author of the novels X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand. Follow his adventures in publishing at StarWarp Concepts.
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