“Bloodshot was a bust… Divinity didn’t work… Ninjak was nixed… No matter which of the Valiant Universe’s greatest heroes she recruits to her aid, Faith still can’t save the time stream! With time literally running out all around her, does L.A.’s sky-soaring superhero have what it takes to defend the entire universe…or will the secret key to saving existence itself come from the most darkest and most unexplored avenue of all?”

Well  this was an unexpected conclusion. When the combined might of the Valiant universe fails to save history, Faith, Neela Sethi and Ank try one last hail Mary – and it’s not exactly what you’d expect.

Faith And The Future Force has been a subtly intelligent series that subverts the industry established conventions that bigger and stronger heroes are needed as things get worse and the damage worsens. By having three comics in the four issue miniseries essentially tell the same story Jody Houser both pokes a little fun at the yearly summer events from the “Big Two” publishers while providing her own unique solution in the fourth issue; at some point we’ve got to learn that doing the same damn thing all the time just doesn’t work. To borrow a famous slogan, sometimes we need to think different.

To drive home the shift in thinking from the first three issues to the fourth, the art of Cary Nord (with Brian Thies) brings a different style to the story that is a little noticeable after the relative consistency of the first three issues, but that’s the entire point isn’t it? Although there is a scrappy feeling to the  artwork, it’s still very easy to follow the story –  it won’t leave your jaw on the floor, but there’s nothing inherently bad about the visuals this issue.

Where the comic does stumble is actually in some of the believability of the characters actions as they seem to just accept things without thinking too much about the whys. Granted this could be Houser making a clever point that I’m too dense to follow.

Ultimately the comic, and series as a whole, triumphs over the flaws in this issue – and while this could have easily been another arc within the ongoing Faith series, you’re not going to be lost if you’ve never touched the previous material as Faith And The Future Force stands alone as an entertaining story with a meta message.

Story: Jody Houser Art: Cary Nord with Brian Thies Colourist: Ulises Arreola
Story: 8.0 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy (the trade)

Valiant provided Graphic Policy a FREE copy for review – but I’m still buying this.