Review: Faithless #1 (of 5)
It seems that witches are making a bit of a comeback. If it isn’t the Charmed ones or Sabrina that causes trouble, you also have Black Magic from Image Comics. Now Boom! are getting in on the act with their new book Faithless.
Faith likes to dabble in lots of things, as evidenced by the first page. One thing that does become apparent, she has a touch of the magics about her. Her friends put up with it, though barely, given as she seems to be messing with the Devil, despite her protests to the contrary. When Poppy, on the run from an ex, bumps into Faith a connection is made that leads to an education for both girls. But with the Devil providing work for idle fingers, in more ways than one, is Poppy all that she seems and how does that impact Faith’s ability to influence things?
The book is written by Brian Azzarello who is fantastic at writing a variety of story types. Here, the magic elements are toned down; there are effectively no special effects. In its place, Azzarello delivers the type of dialogue that has nuance and a level of humor that is not forced. Faith’s pointing out the fact there are no frogs and the world being a crappy place both brought a smile to my face. With the tagline of “an erotic depiction of faith, sex and devil” coupled with the fact that there are two girls does mean that two become entwined. Again, credit goes to Azzarello as this more than obvious story point is well handled, graphic but not salacious in anyway.
The art for the book is provided by Maria Llovet whose style has a very simple style that is becoming popular, in part to artists like Emily Pearson. Llovet’s panel design has an almost underground art vibe that suits the grunge element of the story. The framework of the characters has a real life feel, faces can be a trifle inconsistent, though this doesn’t distract the eye so much; there is nothing superfluous in the art in any of the characters and various states of undress that they find themselves in. At times there is a lack of background art, which helps the characters stand out; at other times there is a wealth of details on show, which gives the impression that Llovet is an observer of locales. With no colorist listed, I am left to assume that Llovet herself colored the book, which again displays a high level of observations. Nothing is to bright, which allows the art to meet the expected tone set by the script. AndWorld Design, maybe taking a break from superhero books, uses a font that is a little less standard; its not quite the handwriting that the dialogue infers. One final thought about the art, the standard book has a fantastic Paul Pope cover that makes me wonder why you would actually look for the variants.
What more could you wants from a book that features, magic, sex and humor? Azzarello and Llovet feel well suited to chronicle Faith’s relationships with magic, Poppy and the Devil.
Writing – 5 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Brian Azzarello
Art by; Maria Llovet
Letter by; AndWorld Design
Cover by; Paul Pope
Published by; Boom! Studios
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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