Faithless II #1

BOOM! Studios

Writer: Brian Azzarello

Artist: Maria Llovet

“An erotic depiction of faith, sex and the devil in the tradition of the divine comedy.”

This is not a comic for kids. I’m going to say that right here. A lot of people might associate BOOM! with their licensed comics. They generally do comics based on well-known TV shows and films, a lot of stuff aimed at young children. One might assume that Faithless II is in a similar vein to these but it’s not. Faithless is one of their more mature comics and as such, there’s adult material in it. You’ll find a lot of graphic sexual content in this issue. If you’re not comfortable with that for whatever reason then this might not be the book for you. This review will naturally discuss this a bit further so you’ve had your warning. Onto the review!

As the tagline at the top of this article suggests, there’s a bit of the supernatural to this series. Faithless is the tale of a young, female artist named Faith who dabbles in the occult. Those around her mostly see this as a simple quirk but Faith herself fully believes in the power of magic. Eventually, Faith meets another young woman named Poppy who shares her appreciation for magic and they form a relationship. This first issue of the newest volume of the series stays rather grounded in reality though. It mostly focuses on Faith struggling to create a new piece of artwork while maintaining her long-distance relationship with Poppy. It’s quite a good read.

At the start of this issue, we see Faith staring at a blank canvas wondering what to do with it. Poppy calls her to initiate a sexual video chat session and this is where the story really begins. During the video chat, a naked Faith starts having her period just as the couple is interrupted by Faith’s roommate. It’s an embarrassing situation for Faith and the rest of the comic focuses heavily on her menstruation. It’s quite refreshing. Most comics, even the ones with female protagonists don’t really write about periods much. They tend to be more in the action genre with a focus on women battling bad guys. It’s nice to see some representation given to something women have to deal with in daily life.

The art throughout the issue is lovely. It’s vibrant and uses a large variety of colours. Llovet really did a good job on this issue. There’s a fair number of panels where a contrast of colours is used to bring attention to the main subject of the panel. It’s a really nice technique and I feel it adds a lot to the issue. Llovet also did a good job on the characters themselves. Every character appearing in this issue looks distinct, even the minor ones we likely won’t see again. Some artists tend to reuse faces and body types when drawing characters but this wasn’t the case here. It’s a fantastic quality.

The creative use of lettering adds a lot to this issue as well. Normally when the lettering is done well in a comic you can barely notice it so it doesn’t get much recognition. Here it stands out so much though. An example being how yellow speech bubbles are used instead of white to signify when someone is speaking through an electronic device. It’s a nice little stylistic touch. You also get color-coded boxes whenever someone is speaking who isn’t in the panel. It’s good for keeping the reader from getting confused by where the dialogue is coming from. The different colours used for sound effects are another great decision from the letterers. There are a lot of sound effects throughout this issue and the numerous colour schemes help them stand out so well. I particularly loved their use and how much they add to a dream sequence later in the issue but I won’t spoil it.

Overall, this debut issue of the new volume of Faithless was a good read. It’s a good story on its own about an artist struggling to find inspiration. I wouldn’t say it’s the best starting point for those new to the series though. You don’t get much of the usual supernatural aspects here and you may not understand who these characters are. I’d recommend reading the first volume before this issue in order to get familiar with the series. It’s easy to assume this is simply a series about a struggling artist otherwise. I’ve also got to praise the portrayal of the LGBT themes through the relationship between Faith and Poppy. They’re a great example of a gay couple in comics which is fairly rare. I can’t wait to read the next issue and find out what happens next.