Faithless II #2 from BOOM! - REVIEW

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Faithless II #2 is out July 15, 2020.

By Jacob Cordas — There’s a small detail I keep coming back to in Faithless II #2. Near the midpoint of the comic, our protagonist, Faith, has journeyed to Turin with her agent. Her agent reveals Louis, her mentor and possible devil, hasn’t come with them. He can’t fly. Instead he is taking a “slow boat from ‘Gina.” When Faith asks if Louis is afraid to fly, her agent says, “What else does can’t mean?”

And just like that I was dragged back into this series. 

If you read my previous review for the first issue of this volume, you would know my concerns I had for the series going forward. But in that single moment, all my fears were assuaged. It was back with all the nuance I wanted. 

Why doesn’t Louis fly? He’s been displayed as proud, patronizing and confident. There’s a certain style of masculinity he exudes. To be so controlled by such a fear seems counterintuitive for that kind of man, especially considering the degree of wealth he has. The agent suggests that, “We all have our eccentricities…” But this is clearly just a rationalization. Eccentricities are just character traits. Why does he have this trait?

Why doesn’t Louis fly? 

This is a comic about, amongst other things, occultism* to its core. This issue is even set in Turin, a city famed for its relationship to the occult. Ghosts wander the streets here. Door knockers are made to resemble the devil. Alchemical labs are supposedly hidden under buildings and statues. Turin is a city where in a story set there a homeless woman draws a binding circle on the ground and nobody questions it - not even the audience. 

If we’re talking about a setting where that degree of impossibility is possible, the range of the answers becomes much more diverse. There’s all sorts of occult reasons why someone wouldn’t fly. He’s parasitic and toxic. He’s devilish. He’s old, though never really in a way that’s specified. There must be a link that I’m missing. 

And after hours, I realized it was the blood. 

Faithless II has, much more actively than the first, made Faith’s blood, both her sexual and her life blood, an active element of the narrative. At this point in the series, Faith is literally painting with this blood.** 

And who is enabling that blood letting? Louis is. Who is parasitic and dangerous? Louis is. Who is charming and devilish? Louis is. Who has to take the slow route to cover moving water? Louis is. Metaphorically speaking, Louis is a vampire. 

I won’t say narratively what is going with Louis because I don’t know (and I think plot predictions in reviews for serialized stories is insulting to the creative teams working on them). But I will say this issue uses the language and imagery of vampirism beautifully. It deconstructs the vampire into something new and modern. It directly links all the elements that make up vampirism to the parasitic nature of the character, as well as men in power. 

It’s all so wonderfully done. The art and the language are perfectly balanced to create this unifying and complex narrative. And we are only two issues in right now. 

“What else does can’t mean?” she asked Faith. I can’t wait to get the answer.  

Overall: Faithless II #2 is a return to form after a lackluster first issue. The creative team is clearly on the top of their game. I apologize for ever doubting them. 10/10

*There is a longer discussion to be had about Faithless’ unification of sexuality and occultism, a running theme in Maria Llovet’s work. 

** This seems clearly to be a feminized reimagining of the Hemingway quote, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed,” as well as a recontextualizing of modern art tendencies practiced by people like Jen Lewis. 

Faithless II #2 - REVIEW

Faithless II #2
Writer: Brian Azzarello 
Artist: Maria Llovet
Letterer: AndWorld Design
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99
Faith is drawn to black magic in Turin, Italy, as she exhibits in a prestigious art gallery there.
Release Date: July 15, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Faithless II #2

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