Zephyr's Masks

Writer Jody Houser and artist Francis Portela did an amazing job with the art and story line in the comic book Faith. According to Etelka Lehoczky “Faith’s costume is so graceless, it almost seems like the work of an artist who’s channeling unspoken fatophobia.” (Lehoczky) I agree with lehoczky point about the costume Francis Portela created in the comic that didn’t show any exotic look to her costume. But rather shows the shape or bulges of her figure. As many comic book fans might be disappointed due to the fact that they used a character that is over weight and has a full suit as her costume. I feel that he did a great job portraying this character and describing her unique hero figure. Through out comic book history female characters have always been created to show some type of
sexism towards women. The creators of Faith made this character that doesn’t bring up the question, is this sexism? But rather relates to one fantasizing about something that one might wish to have. Zephyr had a moment when she was dreaming about receiving an award, she started to question herself if it was right(right to do what; dreaming, and or taking breaks).
She feels like she doesn’t deserves a break and needs to stay focusing on being hero. Fantasy and reality is something everyone has experienced once or twice, for example, my fantasy is that one day I will wake up and my wheelchair won’t be there and I just stand up like it was something I have always done before. My reality is that the wheelchair is always going to be there, and Zephyr reality is that she will always be a superhero whether she likes it or not. In some of the daydream scenes (in the book or the film?) Zephyr starts to look more fashionable, is this because artist Marguerite Savage took over those scenes? In some eyes this could be sexism, but I feel it’s something women do, they dream about being more fashionable. Savage did a great job with the art in those scenes. Faith was a book that in some way may cause a problem because some comic fans might have a fatophobia, but what about the fans that are tired of seeing female character in tight outfits, low skirts and some type of exotic look to
it.
In the end most comics portray heroes being a certain size and having a certain look. However, both Jody Hausen and artist Francis Portela broke the ice with creating this character, which I enjoyed very much. This goes to shows that not every character has to show some type of sexism towards women and portray them as not to have fantasy of their own.