Faith #4 Review: Ending On A High Note

Faith sticks the landing on her first miniseries!

Faith #4 (of 4)
Written by Jody Houser
Art by Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage
Published by Valiant Entertainment

Faith #4 is not on sale until April 27, so this advance review may contain spoilers!

Faith has been a popular character since Valiant’s relaunch almost five years ago, standing out from her teammates in the Harbinger title for her size but moreso for her enthusiasm and intelligence, a woman who is thrilled that the power of flight lets her act out her dreams from a lifetime tending to her pain with sci-fi pop culture. Spinning her into the title role of a miniseries has brought Valiant much-deserved attention for portraying a plus-sized hero, and the first issue has gone into multiple reprintings.

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Bam Smack Pow has loved her mini so far, a story where she establishes a secret identity writing for a Buzzfeed knockoff in Los Angeles. In hunting down missing people, she has uncovered a conspiracy by Valiant’s favorite aliens, The Vine. They kidnapped her ex-boyfriend, Torque, but Faith’s favorite sci-fi actor, Hadley Scott, turned out to be a Vine planting and defected to Team Faith just in time for this issue’s climax.

This issue has Faith, her working-on-it potential boyfriend Archer, and Hadley invading a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Faith does meet a few physical challenges, like wrestling midair with her mind-controlled ex, but most of the mission requires her to use her compassion, courage, and knowledge of science fiction to lead her team and talk the main bad guy out of his dastardly plot.

Stephanie Hans cover

I love what Valiant has accomplished with this character and this series. We can’t deny that she’s visually different from almost every other body on a comic book cover, but she’s not reduced to being the “big girl.” No one teases her or praises her for that. She gets in fist fights, but she’s not the athletic one of this team, and that’s fine with everyone. Her knowledge of teammate Hadley’s television show helps her to specifically motivate this woman into heroism, but it’s her experience of science fiction as a way to make sense of humanity and the struggles in life that help her to make her winning play at the end of the book.

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Faith is one of us. She’s a comic fan. Valiant isn’t patting us on the head and holding out the tip jar – Faith has a long road ahead of her, and heartbreak and grief are part of her journey. She has it tough. And that’s what we want. Don’t make it easy for us. Make it worth it. Tell us this will all make sense in the end. Tell us we don’t have to go through this alone. Tell us our mistakes will teach us. And tell us we’re going to smile in all the good parts. And Valiant, we will believe you. And we’ll keep reading.

The Bottom Line: Faith’s character has always celebrated wish fulfillment for comic fans, and this is the miniseries we would all want to have for ourselves.

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