Faith

Valiant's Faith has been the superhero hit of 2016, so much so that the character was bumped up to an ongoing series before her mini had even finished. As the adventures of Faith continue, the real threats that come along with the life of a superhero start to pop up and we've got a preview of Faith's clash with her very first supervillain in next month's Faith #2 by Jody Houser, Pere Perez and Marguerite Sauvage.

Just before the US Presidential Election in November, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will make a guest appearance in Faith #5 from Valiant Comics. The story, in which Faith is assigned to cover Clinton for her day job as a journalis, but ends up interacting with her as a superhero as well, is written by Louise Simonson with art by Pere Perez.

If you're a fan of Valiant's Faith --- and you should be, she's great --- then you're in for a pretty good time next Wednesday. Not only does July 20 see the release of the all-new Faith ongoing series from Jody Houser, Pere Perez, Marguerite Sauvage and Colleen Doran, which picks up where the fantastic "Hollywood and Vine" miniseries left off and introduces an all-new supervillain, but we're also going to see her in a pretty significant guest appearance. In A&A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong #5, by Rafer Roberts, Mike Norton, and Allen Passalaqua, Faith and Archer are finally going on their first date, and if you thought seeing Archer trying to use emojis was cute, wait'll you see the conversation they have over dinner. Of course, given their night jobs --- and the fact that there's a shady dude watching them over mozzarella sticks --- I'm going to guess that the night might not go as smoothly as they'd like. Check out a preview!

Listen, fighting crime is a huge pain. If it wasn't, everybody would have their own rocket car and a belt full of little metal boomerangs they could throw at thematic bank robbers. Sadly, the day that we achieve a perfect crimefighting utopia is far off, and in the meantime, bringing down the bad guys can be a pain even if you've got plenty of super-powers. And that, friends and neighbors, seems to be the lesson that Faith Herbert is learning as she breaks out into her own high-flying ongoing series. After debuting in the pages of Harbinger and making her way through a self-titled miniseries that saw her making her way in Los Angeles as a pop culture blogger and aspiring superhero, Faith is back, and she's about to learn that for some reason, the cops don't like it when you just basically throw a guy in a ski mask at them and tell them to send him to San Quentin. Check out a preview from Faith #1 by Jody Houser, Pere Pérez and Marguerite Sauvage below!

The second annual Valiant Summit just wrapped at the UCB Theatre in New York City, the Belle of the East Coast. Broadcast on livestream, the summit saw several writers and artists take to the stage to talk about a string of new books from the publisher that will fall under the banner “The Future of Valiant”, including Rafer Roberts, Jody Houser, and Matt Kindt. The event was Valiant's answer to Image Expo, with five new titles announced, including the long-rumbled Britannia, plus the previously announced Faith ongoing. Here's the full rundown.

Since her first appearance in the pages of Harbinger, the superhero Zephyr, AKA Faith Herbert, has been one of the breakout stars of Valiant’s return, injecting the grim ‘n’ gritty world of superhero corporate espionage with her unique charm. Early this year, Faith starred in her very own miniseries by Jody Houser, Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage and, as reported today by the New York Times, it was so popular that Faith is relaunching as an ongoing series in July, with artist Pere Pérez stepping in to replace Portela and joining the team of Houser and Sauvage.

Faith #2, the second installment of the critically acclaimed and much-discussed superhero comic by writer Jody Houser and artists Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage, arrives February 24th from Valiant Comics. This issue finds Faith blaming herself for an explosion caused by a mysterious adversary who appears to be hunting down psiots (which I think is basically just the Valiant version of mutants?). She then gets call from an ally named @x, who must have been on Twitter really early to snag that handle. The official synopsis promises an appearance by Torque, Faith's ex-boyfriend and former teammate, but we don't get to see him in the preview pages.

There are few superheroes like Faith Herbert, a.k.a. Zephyr. Aside from the obvious --- she's a superheroine whose body type is uncommon among comics superheroines --- Faith also has an attitude and outlook few others share. She's a fan, and as a result, she sees the world in a way unique among superpowered heroes. Until now, both in the previous and current Valiant Universes, Faith has brought the perspective mostly to team books, with only a 2014 solo one-shot to her name --- and that was more or less a Unity tie-in. January 27th sees the release of her first true solo series. ComicsAlliance talked to writer Jody Houser about what we'll see through Faith's eyes with the help of artists Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage.

Valiant Comics‘ shared superhero universe is smaller and less familiar than those of its major rivals, but even a small shared universe can offer a lot to learn about. To help those readers looking to take the plunge into the Valiant Universe, we’ve assembled our own team of delinquents to break things down. Steve Morris knows Valiant inside out; J.A. Micheline is new to the universe. Micheline has the questions, and Morris has the answers. Last time, Steve introduced JAM to the first sixteen issues of horror series Shadowman and supernatural romance The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage. For the next assignment, he set JAM homework of the first two volumes of the superpowered team-book Harbinger, one of the flagship titles of the Valiant Universe — and now they’re back to talk about it!

After more than 20 years as a member of the Harbinger team, fan-turned-superhero Faith Herbert, better known as Zephyr, is finally taking a starring role in the form of a four-issue mini-series from writer Jody Houser and the art team of Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage, and it's pretty exciting news. It's always fun to see a genre-savvy character taking on a role as a superhero, but kicking off a new series with a focus on building up Faith's civilian life --- which, according to the solicitation, seems to be heading in the direction of a job writing about cats for a Buzzfeedesque website --- has a whole lot of potential to add a new dimension to Valiant's growing world of superheroics.