The true start to her story.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jody Houser
Art: Francis Portela with Marguerite Sauvage on fantasy sequence artwork
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
What They Say:
Outnumbered, outgunned, and out of time – but never out of Faith! Mild-mannered blogger by day and aspiring superhero by night, Faith Herbert never imagined she’d find herself at the center of a story like this! Pursued by the agents of a stealth extraterrestrial invasion at every turn, this former Harbinger Renegade is about to realize that Earth needs a new kind of hero to save the day.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s been a pretty good year for Faith so far as the series has gotten some good acclaim from fans and the media. In between the third issue and this finale of the miniseries we also got the word that it’s done well enough to warrant an ongoing series that will debut this coming July with a change out in the main artist. Francis Portela has certainly been a favorite of mine for quite a few years so I’m hopeful we’ll see him again down the line, but in the end his work on this miniseries certainly helped to shape what’s to come alongside Marguerite Sauvage with the very fun fantasy sequences that we’ve gotten. This issue has another couple of pages of those and while it may break the flow for some it’s the right kind of “meta” aspect that this series works with for me.
As a finale, Faith does pretty much what you’d expect. With Hadley having made her reveals and all things centered on this group of the Vine, the catch-up at the start for Archer sets the stage well. Yep, Archer has arrived to help out and Faith is pretty much calling this a first date – though he’s hopeful they’ll try that dancing thing sometime. The dynamic between the two is fun and not overdone, giving it a sense of hope and possibility that most people feel at the early potential stages of a relationship. Crashing the Hive secret base is definitely not your normal first date but it’s fun as they kick, punch, and snark their way trying to save the other Psiots so that the Vine can’t use them to destroy humanity after being pushed so far. There are no surprises in how it plays out but Portela keeps the flow of the action solid and House hits all the right quips and references without overdoing it, which isn’t easy with a character like Faith.
Ultimately, what sells me on this book as an ongoing is that this run feels like a proper setup for Faith as a person and a hero. The epilogue side of this issue is what does it best as it showcases the changes she’s gone through in the four issues but also the changes for others. I like her as a character and found her non-heroing time more interesting because of the struggle to find the right work/life/hero balance. Her narration hits a certain sweet spot and in this instance does it even better by talking about how life changes in small and incremental – sometimes in unseen – ways. That’s explored well as a montage piece and shows the growth and changes that make her better as a person and feeling like she has a sense of hope about her future.
In Summary:
While it’s easy to rag on dark books for their lack of hope, it’s missing in a lot of lighter books as well. Faith hits this theme well and I’m definitely curious to see if it can be tackled more in an ongoing. The changes here are not radical but the book provides a lot of them and in many ways reminded me of my favorite comics from the 80’s that involved non-hero time that showcased the actual character. Jody Houser has a good handle on her and hopefully we can decompress things just a touch more with an ongoing since a miniseries has a tight structure to work with and it had all the double duty of introducing the world to new readers like me that haven’t been involved with the character before. Portela and Sauvage did some great work here and fans of Faith have gotten a very solid treatment that should delight them with this book being a reference point for years to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: April 27th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
