Faith #2
Valiant Entertainment
Written by: Jody Houser
Art by: Francis Portela & Marguerite Sauvage
The first issue of Faith introduced me to the happy and bubbly Faith Herbert. Everything about her seems to scream footloose and fancy free. After the explosive conclusion of issue one though, we see a different side to Faith. She was dealing with something many superheroes have had to deal with in their careers. Never being enough.
The second issue of Faith really seems to focus on how kindhearted Faith truly is. She’s devastated after the explosion from issue one and feels terrible that she was unable to find the missing psiots. Even though the people she did rescue from inflamed houses were eternally grateful, Faith took it to heart that she could’ve done more. She should’ve done more. After finally getting home from the crime scene, Faith even stuck around to give witness testimony, she received a phone call from her informant @x. Even he was unable to cheer her up. The only thing that seemed to ease her mind was what little extra info she could give him involving the missing psiots.
On top of feeling bad about this, at Zipline, during a meeting, Faith is exhausted from the night before and still racking her brain about the psiots. Her lack of interest causes her boss to force her to write a scathing hit piece about Faith’s ex-boyfriend, Torque. Things just can’t seem to go her way. Even after a brief meeting with Torque, whom she was trying to ask for some help with the psiots case, things were still crumbling. A short argument between them and Faith was on her way again, but even then her bad luck doesn’t change as someone involved with the kidnapping of the psiots discovers Faith’s secret identity. This unraveled secret places her co-workers in great danger and, yet again, Faith closes with a bang.
Houser is adding great depth to Faith. Seeing her struggle with not being as great as she could be resonated with me. Even though Faith was able to save lives, she felt like it wasn’t enough. We’ve often seen heroes like Superman and Batman go through these same struggles, but Faith has such a broader sense of humanity that it is easier to identify and empathize with her.
While issue one laid the ground work for the Faith mini-series, issue two paved the story’s path. We got a better look at what was happening with the kidnapped psiots. We see Faith using every resource she has to break this case. Now another obstacle has arisen with her secret identity being known. Faith has a battle on many fronts to fight, both personal and heroic.
Much like in issue one, there is a balance in the artwork between Portela and Sauvage. Sauvage’s flashback/fantasy panels form a nice contrast to the main art of Portela. While I usually don’t enjoy multiple artists in one book, they have found a creative way to make it work without being jarring or interruptive.
Faith has a lot of ground to cover in the final two issues. Faith #2 was definitely another strong showing from the creative team of Houser, Portela, and Sauvage. Even though she has many adversities to overcome, Faith is staying strong and I hope is able to beat these calamities. I highly recommend picking up Faith #2.