By Jacob Cordas — The issue opens with flies. Lots and lots of flies. The first page is swarmed with them, leaving mostly blackness. As it opens up, the visual is a magical reimagining of the setting we are familiar with from the last issue, but now the page is overwhelmed with sinister pinks and silence. The only noise being the sound of sleep and flies giving the opening scene a dream like quality - a nightmare that overwhelms the world. 

Whereas the last issue used the imagery of the vampire, this issue cements the imagery of Beelzebub as a metaphor for man’s ability to corrupt that which it loves. For those unfamiliar, Beelzebub is an ancient demon with a few titles but for the sake of this article we are going to focus on two: 1) Prince of Hell and 2) Lord of the Flies. 

Looking at the Prince of Hell (in this story's case, Princess), the comic incorporates the traits in a few truly unique ways. Taking ideas first introduced in the apocrypha text, Testament of Solomon, the creative team of Brian Azzarello and Maria Llovet have recontextualized the idea of a fallen angel who once stood as a symbol for sex and beauty* but has now fallen into filth. In this narrative, they are now the forces commodifying both a woman’s sexuality and the art created as an extension of that sexuality. 

This issue especially leans heavily on the way Faith needs to make more art. She needs to be constantly creating or “[i]n five years, you’ll be forgotten… or ridiculed.” It takes it a step further literalizing the relationship between her sexuality and art with the immediate next line being, “ If you don’t blow your own work out of the water -- or a critic…” Her sexuality, something initially she found empowerment through, is now so commodified there is a requirement to keep manufacturing it. Her sexuality now only exists as something to be traded by the wealthy in the hopes she will succeed. 

This ties beautifully back into Dante’s idea of man’s ability to corrupt love, specifically eros in this case. Since her art is a stand in for that love, the way capitalism, a human construct, over takes it perfectly calls back to this. Man has corrupted her work, which Faith goes as far as to say is “from my heart.” Hell, she even goes so far as to refer to the woman who is commodifying her sexuality as “a snake.” Her desire to make art with her body is clearly not the sin but the act of it being commodified is. It was once beautiful but has now fallen into filth. 

There is more here but, purely for length reasons, I will move on to the Lord of the Flies. 

Now the issue has three main moments featuring flies. The opening scene I’ve described in some detail but it’s worth noting the immediate response the characters have to Faith’s vision - they minimize it. “Jet lag, my dear, was all it was. Jet lag.” Immediately upon minimizing it, they jump to the process of commodifying her body and art. 

She matters not in the face of the Lord of the Flies. And this cycle is repeated all three times, this shows up. In the second feature of flies, Faith is alone. She hears the flies from outside her window. It is clearly an overpowering noise but all Faith sees is the world she has been taken to. It’s important to remember she is not native here** and has been forced to be here. The world outside is not her own. 

And as soon as this is brought up, she is forced out into the world. The same character she saw coated in flies coaxes her into the world. The Lord of the Flies forces her out to a club and then goes so far as to minimize the very reason they had all agreed to the vision before. She gaslights Faith into embracing a situation she never wanted to embrace. Faith is nothing to the Lord of the Flies. 

The final moment is the moment that really seals the deal on this. It makes clear the metaphor. It is simply a kiss and a fly but Beezelbub is unignorable. Eros can only be corrupted when the fallen are involved. And nothing can fall harder than man.

Reading over this all now, I want to make sure I end by saying how much I love that this series lets me do this. I have checked with weird biblical texts I distantly remember. I have had to read various translations of the bible to make sure I’m correct. And I need to make the choice to do it. I can still interact with this story superficially and it’s great. 

If the best writing can be consumed by the audience however they want, Faithless II #3 is perfect. 

*As an angel, he was connected with the star, Hesperus, which is also the traditional Greek name for Venus (the Roman god of love). Boy, do I love this. 

**They actually make a point of voicing this in a scene at a club where a character says, “When I’m in A-Mer-I-Ca, I [speak English]. In Italia, Italian. You should learn.”

Overall: Faithless II #3 continues the series exploration of man’s ability to corrupt love adding more nuance while wonderfully expanding on the characters. 10/10

Faithless II #3

Faithless II #3
Writer: Brian Azzarello  
Artist: Maria Llovet
Publisher: BOOM! Studios 
Cost: $3.99
Faith is ready to take new risks with her art and her magic - and something powerful that lives between the two. But her experiments draws new attention, and a mysterious collector may be interested in more than just Faith's art.
Release Date: August 19, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Faithless II #3

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My name is Jacob Cordas (@jacweasel) and I am not qualified to write this.