REVIEW: Faithless III No.5

The penultimate issue of Faithless III is as cross-wired and dizzying as previous issues, yet toned down to a scale, if anything as a set up from Azzarello and Llovet for the impending grand finale.

It’s humorous really that the clues dropped throughout this series finally start to become blatantly obvious as the story winds down, though not in a tailspin. All this time I did not realize that Louis was a play on the name Lucifer, and the woman rooting through Faith’s garbage turned out to be a rendition of Eve from the Christian Mythos, though I still have my fingers crossed that Azzarello might throw in some time traveling curve ball and that woman surrounded by flying rats (that have scientifically been classified as pigeons) happens to be Faith in the future.

With my observations of the institution of marriage within western society, I enjoy the flip that Azzarello has done within this custody battle of sorts between Faith and Louis with their child. And I have to say, coming from a single mother raised community, I would rather see Faith’s kid raised under Louis in hell, because really : is a world where Faith didn’t even remember she pushed out a kid truly any better place to raise a child? With that insatiable debonair flair I have to be on Louis’ side for this custody battle, and I like that the fact that Azzarello gives readers and opportunity to choose to not support the supposed protagonist in Faith. She takes responsibility for her actions in the conversations that she has with both the grotesque Eve and the gorgeous Ginny – both figures in Faith’s existence at different spectrums, but just as the audience, are still willing to hear out Faith, despite the path of destruction that she has eeked out for herself which has caused casualties around her and caused those on the outside looking in on her life to turn against her.

The armchair moments are powerful in this issue of Faithless III, but possibly the best panels in this book come from the vision Faith has while on the subway – a sex dungeon turned into an abattoir filled with decomposing bodies, severed and incomplete. Llovet’s range from drawing eye catching women with coffee colored skin and pink cropped hair to a burgeoning necropolis to the bustling Uptown streets is nothing short of stunning and is absolutely another high point within her already timeless portfolio.

Though this trip is coming to a close, as someone who’s followed the series since the first Faithless hit the streets, I have to say this is a relief. Faithless is a literal literary acid trip : the high points are wonky and almost indescribable, but those low points – they stick and are sure to more cause flashbacks than the positive instances. And with the graphic novel collection soon to be released after the series wraps with it’s next issue, to connect the whole series without any breaks, this is a trip that reader’s will deign to take again; if not for nothing more than the experience, which this gem from Azzarello and Llovet should be described as if nothing more could be said.

Score : 4.5/5

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Maria Llovet