Faith Vol 1: Hollywood and Vine Review

"Maybe it's still a work in progress....but it's still my kind of story. (Also a cute mysterious time traveler would also be my kind of story. Just putting that out there.)"

Review:

(Thank you NetGalley for a copy)

From Valiant’s own superhero universe we have the adventures of Faith Herbert aka Zephyr and recently aka Summer Smith. While her telekinetic skillset isn’t that unusual in the superhero world she’s been recognized as an hefty female superhero who isn’t a brunt of jokes or slobbily inept as they tend to be. Her series is also free of fat jokes and all together proves to be a positive, exciting read on a young superheroine who happens to be fat while she uncovers crimes such as puppy-napping and kidnapping of other psionics as well as her secret identity and job at a Buzzfeed expy. There’s also the awkwardness of her exe having a tacky superpowered, reality show with a new girlfriend where all she can do is feel sorry for his wasted potential and have to write about him at work.

I came into this book pretty clind other than the praises of a positive fat superhero. True, the Valiant universe isn’t as well known as DC or Marvel but its got its own history. Faith was in fact created in 1992 as a member of teen superhero team Harbringers and in this series we see and learn a bit of the character Archer from the Armstrong and Archer series. There’s more mythology here that’s obviously brought up here and there and while the there’s not that much in-depth recap it gives the unfamiliar reader enough to go on.

The story keeps you invested as well as Faith’s fun and kind character. The art is generally very well done but Faith’s daydream sequences by the talented artist of DC Bombshells are exceptionally adorable. Overall, Faith is fun superhero story and brings an unique character more to people’s attention. In fact, this series was just intended to be a mini and is now an ongoing starting from July.

Recommendation:

Obviously a solid book for the YA crowd but also because of the dark agenda and violence of the main villains. This book is quite a fun, different read for anyone’s superhero collection.