Faithless II #2

BOOM! Studios

Writer: Brian Azzarello

Artist: Maria Llovet

After a great debut, the Faithless sequel returns with its second issue. The first issue focused on Faith suffering from a creative block while dealing with her period. Eventually deciding to use the blood from her menstruation to create new pieces of art. This new issue picks up here with Louis, who had been promoting Faith as an artist, inspecting her new work. After cracking some jokes he has Faith sent off to Italy where she gets to reunite with Poppy. This is where the issue starts to really pick up so I won’t go any further into spoilers. Now that you have an idea of what the issue is about, let’s get into the review.

The writing for this issue is pretty solid overall. The initial pages with Louis reviewing Faith’s work are well done. They show the characters’ humorous side well and his relationship with the businesswoman, Lily. We also see a bit of the relationship between Lily and Faith as they chat at the airport. It’s nice since it’s a seemingly positive relationship. The older woman, Lily genuinely seems to support Faith’s artistic career and she’s open about how she benefits from it. It’s fairly realistic and their discussion of Louis reveals a new quirk about that character.

The rest of the issue mostly focuses on Faith and Poppy though. This is where things get a bit more interesting. The issue delves into their relationship and Poppy’s feelings about Faith having sex with her roommate, Solomon last issue. It feels honest. Most comics would use this as a source of friction between the couple in order to create drama. It’s handled quite maturely and realistically here though. All of the characters and their relationships are just very well-written throughout this issue. They feel real and I love that. One of the benefits of that realism is that when the supernatural themes start showing up they stand out more. Azzarello has done a great job writing this issue.

As far as the art goes, Llovet continues to be the perfect artist for this series. Her characters continue to look realistic and expressive. The facial expressions of her characters tell you almost as much about them as the dialogue does. I also love the variety of body types she uses. Maria isn’t afraid to draw female characters with stereotypically unattractive traits. In this issue, we see women with wrinkles, missing teeth, large noses, and actual body fat. Most comics have every woman looking like a supermodel. Even the older ones tend to be drawn in the most stereotypically attractive way possible. It’s great seeing characters with the kinds of bodies and features that real women commonly have.

 In regards to the lettering, it’s not as creative as the last issue but it’s still good. We get bold letters on certain words to highlight them along with darker outlines on speech bubbles when characters shout. Those dark outlines add a lot to the drama, especially since the characters are pretty calm throughout this issue. The colourful sound effects are back from the last issue. Once again these vibrant colours help draw your attention to the action whether it’s a dog barking or a simple kiss on the cheek. There are also some exclamation marks throughout the issue that are used in a similar manner. They don’t relate to any sound but they help convey emotion and draw attention to important objects in a panel. As I said, it’s not the tour de force in lettering that the first issue was but it’s still impressive.

In summary, this was another great issue for the second series of “Faithless”. There’s a lot of character development here and a bit more of the supernatural themes. The art is amazing. I particularly enjoyed Llovet’s work on the statues and buildings in Italy. The lettering continues to be phenomenal, even if it’s not as interesting as the last issue. We’re also left with a nice cliffhanger that’s made me curious about what will happen in the next issue. Incredible work from Azzarello and Llovet. I’d recommend this issue and this series to anyone interested in LGBT relationships, the supernatural, or great comics in general.