Angel & Faith: Daddy Issues by Christos Gage
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I adore Faith. I could (and do!) write her for days. She’s a gift, an utter gift of a character, and I’m so very much in love with this series.
Gage has Faith, he’s got her. Perfectly. Gage’s Faith is a hard won character, a woman who’s pushed through the darkness in her life, and living, every day, with a sort of permanent guilt at who she is and what she’s done. I think this is key to Faith, this survivors guilt and the hard, hard edge inside her that will not let others experience what she has. She’s a Saver, is Faith, more than a Slayer. Always was. Just took her a while to realise it, and the world a while longer.
So here, in this comic, she does her thing and she does it in the most glorious partnering with Angel. Now usually, Angel (“Aaaangel”) irritates me so much, and here he doesn’t. He’s purposeful, solid, and I believe in him and everything he does. This guy is a hero. Still trying to make up for the impact of his actions as Twilight, permanently caught in a redemption cycle, he’s a mirror to Faith.
The two of them work through a series of adventures (mishaps/dreams/pain filled relivings) involving one of the most unnerving demons ever, and one of the most perfectly unnerving vampires ever. I won’t spoil it. But I will spoil the little, wondrous spark you get inside of you at witnessing the splash page of his/her/its arrival.
The other lovely thing about this is that we have somebody who can draw these characters and draw them well. Isaacs is perceptive and graceful with her sense of movement throughout the panels, allowing the beats to happen when they need to happen and yet giving a sense of vital action to the entire piece. Faith and Angel have always been hard characters to draw, the former sliding occasionally into pastiche whilst the latter shifts into blandness. That doesn’t happen here. Isaacs catches the eyes, and that’s where it all happens. Not in the fists, or the kicks, or in the perfect perfect hair. These two are about their eyes. Always have been.
This is great, great stuff. This is the comic you come to when you’re over self-referential navel gazing. This is the comic you come to when you need a little Faith.
Daisy May Johnson 