‘Faith #12’ Review (Valiant)
Written by Jody Houser | Art by Joe Eisma | Published by Valiant
Faith has been gaining notoriety both outside and inside of her book so it was only a matter of time before she would be facing off against her first evil superhero team. Faithless, a group put together by Chris Chriswell, has come together over their shared hatred of Faith and desire to finally defeat her. Over the last few issues, they have successfully worked together to frame Faith for murder and take her captor. The only thing standing in their way of victory is themselves.
It does seem premature for this story arc. Most of these villains have not fully established themselves yet, and someone like Darkstar was just recently introduced in the previous story arc. Usually, it takes a number of failures before supervillains give up and try to go the team route. Since its inception Faith has been about commenting on common superhero tropes so it would get to this storyline eventually, but a little more patience may have let this story have a much larger impact.
Jody Houser has done a lot to progress the character of Faith. Having her overcome some major failures, learn how to better handle her secret identity, and lastly show that she is much more than her superpowers. At times her greatest weapons have been her wit and ability to empathize with others especially those who wish to do her harm. That ability is used once again through her interactions with Danger Mouse, who becomes the standout character of this arc.
Houser adds in a lot of her trademark humor though it is not as sharp as usual. Seeing Darkstar tipsy was as first rather humourous. I mean what is not funny about a drunk cat? The issue is it feels very out of character and somewhat cheap. Houser does not typically force humor like this so that is partially what caused it to stand out.
Overall Faithless has had its moments but was not up to the same level as the previous arcs for this series. Part of the problem is how incomplete Chris Chriswell feels as a character. Faith comments that he is her Lex Luther to her Superman but he has not earned that moniker as of yet. There is no doubt how well the Faith character has been developing since her first mini last year. For this series to take the next step better or more complete villains need to be created so she can have proper foils to face off against.
***½ 3.5/5
