Faith and the Future Force #2 Review

Faith and the Future Force #2 Review

Writer: Jody Houser
Artists: Barry Kitson and Diego Bernard with Juan Castro
Colourist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: Valiant

A review by Josh Rose

And we are back with another time traveling story chalk-full of Doctor Who references, so allons-y! Faith and the Future Force #2 starts out in Ancient Athens. The time traveling robot that’s dismantling time is quoting Plato and, it appears, downloading and cataloguing humanity. That’s when the Harbinger Renegades drop through the time arc to go fight the robot. Unfortunately, they aren’t enough to defeat it and everyone is back to square one.

But like our heroes we don’t know how or why the robot is doing any of it. Jody Houser is making a great time travel story. We’ve heard about time loops, time repeating itself, but never like this. I’ve seen time loops where the hero is aware of the situation and manipulates it. I’ve seen time loops where the character doesn’t realize they’re in a loop. Faith and the Future Force #2 is like a combination of the two. Things end up much the same as last issue when Faith fought the robot alone, and the Timewalkers are somewhat aware that they have recruited Faith to fight the robot before. Except that this time there’s more people in this fight than Faith and it’s taking place in ancient Athens, not the American Civil War of last issue. It’s more like a giant sense of deja vu.

Aside from all the time travel jargon, there are still some very real emotions and relationships being explored. Or at least mentioned and teased. There’s not a whole lot of room to explore all of the relationships between these characters with everything else that is happening.

Barry Kitson, Diego Bernard and Juan Castro’s art in Faith and the Future Force #2 is a lot of fun to look at, especially when Neela and Faith go time hopping to recruit heroes from across time. Earlier in this issue Kitson used the time arcs to show different periods of time. Bernard and Castro used the same spaces to show Faith and Neela talking to Rai, Shadowman, Doctor Mirage, and lots of other heroes.

Ulises Arreola is the real hero of this issue. The blues of pixelated victims, Peter and Faith’s yellow auras, the blues, greens and purples in the time arcs, and the red and purple backgrounds for Rai and Shadowman respectively are all fantastic. Arreola has a wide selection of colours and uses each one perfectly. Not a single colour seems out of place or awkward. If anything, those colours that do stand out only add to the atmosphere of the scene.

The Verdict
Buy it! Faith and the Future Force #2 continues the story of the Timewalkers and their attempts to save reality from destruction. The crew to fight the robot gets larger with each attempt, but the real issue is that they don’t know anything about how the robot works. There isn’t much in the way of a great superhero fight, it’s over fairly quickly. But the art is beautiful and the colours are gorgeous. Pick this up if you’re into great time travel stories, or to see your favorite Valiant heroes in a brand new setting!