Faith and the Future Force #1-4
Writer: Jody Houser
Artists: Stephen Segovia, Barry Kitson, Diego Bernard, Cary Nord, Juan Castro, Brian Thies
Colourist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: Valiant
A review by Josh Rose
Earlier this summer I reviewed Faith and the Future Force #1 and Faith and the Future Force #2, and now the series is complete. Was it a good summer event? Let’s find out!
A robot is somehow unraveling reality and deleting key moments in history that need to happen: Hitler, the American Civil War, even the little guy that crawled out of the ocean onto land. Faith and the Future Force sees Dr. Neela Sethi and her dinosaur friend Ank recruit Faith numerous times to defeat the robot and save reality. And numerous times Faith and her ever growing complement heroes help her defeat it.
Jody Houser has done a great job with this slow burn of a story. With each issue the stakes get more desperate and the cast grows. What makes this series interesting is the fact that we don’t know anything about the villain, how it’s able to archive humanity and delete the fabric of reality and why. In issue #4, Faith is made privy to the numerous attempts to defeat the robot and, unlike most superhero events, Faith decides that the most prudent course of action is to talk the robot down with a super-villain. Despite all the doom and gloom, Faith and the Future Force is full of humour and pop culture references–Doctor Who, Terminator and Star Trek in particular.
Faith and the Future Force has a full complement of artists. They all make the time-arcs used to travel through time absolutely stunning, whether it’s just swirls of blues and purples or showcasing different time periods. The battles between the heroes and the robot are also quite impressive. Ulises Arreola’s colours are vibrant and reflective of the moods for each issue. His time-arc colouring of blues and purples and the white-blue pixelation of the robot’s victims are my favourite features throughout the series.
The Verdict:
Buy it! Faith and the Future Force is a fun time traveling romp through history. It redefines time travel, and, unlike typical superhero adventures, hitting things doesn’t necessarily work. Featuring fantastic battles, gorgeous artwork and fun pop culture references, this is a must-read adventure featuring Valiant’s favourite heroine. And new readers don’t need any prior knowledge of Faith or the Timewalkers to enjoy this story.
