Faith #4

Written by: Jody Houser
Art by: Pere Perez and Marguerite Sauvage
Published by Valiant Comics

Faith and Archers adventure at Comic-Con continues in this issue. Last month the two confronted a theft who had stolen several collectables from various tables, one of which was a mystical stone that created a Faith double. In this issue, Faith argues with her double for a few pages about which one is the evil double. Eventually, they team up to fight the robber dressed as Murder Mouse who has also created doubles of himself. Do the two Faiths and their trusty boyfriend/sidekick have what it takes to defeat the villain?? Read this one to find out!

Jody Houser not only does a good job writing Faith, but also is writing a really likeable Archer. The book and this issue, in particular, has the feeling of the super hero comics of the 70s, a fun and light adventure with definite good characters and definite bad guys. It's weird that this is refreshing, but such is the state of modern comics. We get the perfect balance of comedy and drama that just makes this book work so well. The relationship between Archer and Faith is a nice added touch that was teased back in the first Archer and Armstrong series. It's nice to see that seeds planted in Valiant books do eventually flower. It means that a long term reader will be rewarded for paying attention to things.(In the issue Ivar the time walker asks Archer where Faith is or something to that effect, because he meets people out of order). It's just nice to see a hero in a positive potential relationship. A large interconnected universe was one of the hallmarks of the 90s Valiant and it's great to see that for the most part that is happening here. I mean the two characters didn't even meet in there own titles it was in X-O Manowar. Great job once again.

The art was good. I like that Faith's dream/fantasy scenes are done by a different artist. It's a fun way to portray the inner thoughts of our hero, and really sets the sequences apart. The rest of the art is good as well. The colours are pretty unique for the Valiant line.

As I've said before this is the biggest book in Valliant's entire line of comics. It's a unique book, maybe one of the truly different books out there, and does so by capturing the feel of a classic comic book. A feeling which is sadly missing in other books. I'm not the target market for Faith, and that I can see how good this book is, not just in quality but also just good for Valiant in general. It is generating the positive buzz that Valiant really needs being a smaller company. I have to recommend this book. It's one that is a good read for everyone from teenage girls to grandpa, if they love comics they will love Faith.