REVIEW: Valiant’s ‘Faith #1′ breaks boundaries!

To start off, it should be fair warning that I’ve never read or subscribed to any Valiant books so I think it’s refreshing to review a book that to me is coming from out of the blue.

So Faith is a new series that centers around Faith Herbert AKA Zephyr. She originally debuted in Valiant’s flagship Harbinger series and was a fan favorite for a long time. It’s worth noting that she’s the only plus-sized female superhero in mainstream comics making her very well-loved since the concept is so out of this world.

The issue starts out pretty uniform: “Superhero looking for a change of pace moves to a completely different city to sort things through, but little does she know that behind her is a looming threat.” And if that’s not enough, she even takes a job at a local news source ala Clark Kent.

For those new to the character, her abilities include flight and apparently levitation due to her power called a “companion field”. It sounds a little teeny-bopper, especially when you pair it with the concept but it’s surprisingly a little more adult than I imagined. I’m attributing this to the emotion Francis Portela brings to his work. If you’ve been following the New 52 Green Lantern series, you’ve probably already noticed the expressive art and coloring that gives the piece a a sort of smoky glowing feature which is something that was a little hit or miss with the series as a whole.

Credit where it’s due, Portela nails the torturous look with his characters which kind of clashes with the book’s happy go-lucky approach. Clearly if you wanna go the Ms.Marvel/Captain Marvel route, you have to pair it with more appropriate art. If it were up to me, I think Marguerite Sauvage’s work should be the principal art instead of having to work on the fantasy sequence, her art has flow and just the right amount of color and tint to match the issue’s tone.

The story sort of falls on it’s feet a bit since it suddenly switches from puppy protection right into suicide bombing aliens. To be fair, the writer Jody Houser has worked on the highly rated Orphan Black series which on it’s own heavily relies on absurd twists. Faith #1 stands on it’s own as a set-up to further issues and it doesn’t rely on too much prior information. It’s exciting to see where the story could be going as long as the problem is compelling enough to keep the momentum up.

Faith, I believe is going to serve Valiant well; it has the potential to break boundaries concept wise. It’s on a decent but rocky start but with the right execution, the series will go on to something wonderful!