Poppy’s Exclusive Party In Faithless #2
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Faith wakes up to a frightening vision before discovering that she’s alone in Poppy’s apartment. Faith then finds a note from Poppy inviting her to an exclusive party and to wear anything she can find in Poppy’s closet. Faith decides to go to the party, and she is shocked by all famous guests. Faith has a good time until she breaks one of the party’s cardinal rules and is thrown out. She meets someone else surprising on her way out, and this person turns out to have a connection to Poppy.
Faithless #2 follows Faith into this exclusive party and the debauchery that takes place both there and afterwards. Faithless quickly established itself to be about the journey of a young woman’s sexuality in its first issue, and that theme continues here.
That said, this issue largely focuses upon the strange and high-class world Poppy inhabits via Faith’s exploration of it.
A supernatural element arises in the back half. It makes for another interesting ingredient in the Faithless mixture, but it also poses something of a moral punishment that doesn’t feel especially moral–and it involves sexual violence. So…a little gross. Not everyone will take issue with it, and I will grant that the comic doesn’t present it as exclusively a good thing happening either. I guess this is more a warning about the comic as opposed to a strict criticism.
Maria Llovet’s artwork is once again beautiful and affecting. The forms, expressions, and clothing of the characters grab the readers’ attention and draws them into the world of Faithless. Her color art is explosive and beautiful to boot, drawing together the wonderful aesthetic of this comic.
Faithless #2 has a rather uncomfortable and off-putting sequence in its plot, but the remainder of the comic challenges the comfort zone of the reader in a far more interesting manner. The good far outweighs the bad, and this series gets another recommendation. Feel free to give it a read.
Faithless #2 comes to us from writer Brian Azzarello, artist Maria Llovet, cover artist Paul Pope with Daniel Semanas, and variant cover artists Vanesa R. Del Rey and Fábio Moon.
Final Score: 8/10
