Publisher: Valiant
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Meghan Hetrick
Colourist: Andrew Dalhouse
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99
In Faith #5 (Election Special) Valiant, when a talking black cat persuades popular teen actress Zoe Hines to abandon a casting call you just know bad things are going to happen. Black cats have an unjustified bad rep in my opinion, but in this case, the stereotype plays out.
When Zoe’s overbearing Mum hits the TV news, Faith decides a missing person’s case is just what she needs to get her out of the doldrums. She may change her mind when a confrontation with the chatty kitty and the transformed Zoe prove too much even for Faith’s psiot powers to handle and that does not bode well for the other children Zoe and her glowing-eyed feline friend have their sights set on. Will Faith prevail?
Well, we’ll have to wait for the next issue of Faith to find out because the remainder of Faith #5 is taken up by the Louise Simonson and Pere Perez tale “Faith in Politics”. This is the Election Special after all and Summer, aka Faith, is asked to cover Hillary Clinton’s address for her blog from Faith’s unique perspective as a psiot hero. Using real people in comic books is nothing new. Music superstars such as The Beatles, Alice Cooper and Kiss have popped up here and there and, in the case of the latter two, headline their own continuing series. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wrote themselves into the pages of the Fantastic Four way back in the early sixties and, long before that even, during WWII, a certain Mr. A Hitler made regular guest appearances, usually getting his butt kicked by Captain America et al. Politicians such as JFK, Winston Churchill and LBJ have also been regulars.
But you have to ask yourself: why did Valiant think it a good idea to feature Hillary Clinton in the pages of Faith #5? Okay, it’s an Election Special, I get that, but tying modern day continuing storylines to a fixed historical point in seldom a good idea. If they just wanted laughs, then surely the Trump-meister would have been a better bet, but maybe, aside from nailing their political colours to the mast, they thought it best not to risk antagonising the President-Elect and that nice Mrs Clinton would be a much safer bet.
In the end, it turns out to be a treacly hymn to doing the right thing which can never be wrong as in Faith #5 saving the (almost) first female President of the USA from certain death. Published just before the US election it can now be viewed in historical perspective. Did Valiant back the wrong horse with Faith #5? Given their obvious political affiliations, would a Donald Trump issue, told the same, but presumably reversed, bias have garnered them more kudos? Only time will tell, but for now, let’s just draw a discrete veil over the curious peccadillos of a comic book like Faith #5 where politics are concerned and get on with the real action.
Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker