One of the most popular comic book characters in recent years is back! Faith Herbert makes her Valiant print return in Faith: Dreamside #1 from Jody Houser and MJ Kim.

Faith: Dreamside #1
Written by: Jody Houser
Art by: MJ Kim
Published by: Valiant Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 09/26/2018

One of the most popular comic book characters in recent years is back! Faith Herbert makes her Valiant print return in Faith: Dreamside #1 from Jody Houser and MJ Kim.

The story in Faith: Dreamside #1 sees Faith trying to become a hero again after being wanted for a murder that she didn’t commit. Faith arrives at a pretty bad car wreck on the 101 freeway and she rescues a little girl trapped in a car. After she makes the rescue the police converge on her and arrest her. She is rescued by Animala who needs Faith’s help with a ghost problem. From there, the story “takes off” (pun very much intended).

I really enjoyed the story by Jody Houser and it is wonderful to see her return to the character of Faith. One of my favorite things about the writing is how Faith just accepts things as is and does whatever it takes to improve those things. The best moment of this book comes early on where Faith is at work. Faith and her friend Paige are talking about everything that Faith has been through, and Paige has a great line where she tells Faith, “It’s ok to not be ‘fine’ all of the time”. I really enjoyed those small moments of interaction that are sprinkled throughout this book. As I said above, it’s so nice to see Jody Houser return to this character and world.

The art by MJ Kim is beautiful. I really enjoyed the way the characters looked and loved the detail in every panel. The action sequences are a lot of fun and I had a huge smile on my face while reading them. Faith’s costume looks great and I loved the way the monster that Faith “battles” looks. My favorite panels in this book come from the beginning and the coincide with my favorite moment of writing. There was just something about the way the panels were drawn that I felt myself get sucked into the world even more. The art definitely matches the tone of the book and I cannot wait to see more of it.

As much I as enjoyed this book, it isn’t perfect. My one issue with the book is that it felt just a bit out of reach for new readers. Houser tries to tell the reader the big things that happened to Faith, but newer readers would have an easier time going back to previous story arcs.

I really had a lot of fun reading this book and I am very happy to see where Jody Houser takes Faith in series.

4 Faith Herberts out of 5