Career
Faerber first broke into the comic book industry in 1998, when Marvel Comics purchased a story he wrote for the series What If...?. The book had already been cancelled, so the editor had no compunction about hiring him to write the final issue.[2]
Faerber's first ongoing series writing assignment was Generation X, which he began with issue #45 (December 1998).[19] Assignments on The New Warriors and The Titans would follow.[15]
In 2002, Faerber began publishing through Image Comics the series Noble Causes, which follows the lives of the Nobles, a wealthy superhero family, and which emphasized their interpersonal conflicts over battles with supervillain enemies. The series lasted until 2008, and concluded with issue #40.[20][21]
In 2007, Faerber debuted the Noble Causes spinoff, Dynamo 5, which starred a group of five illegitimate of the assassinated superhero Captain Dynamo, who were assembled by Dynamo's widow in order to protect Tower City. Like Noble Causes, Dynamo 5 was also a monthly series by Image Comics that depicted the superhero family dynamics, but placed more emphasis on action, dividing its content between the team's battles with adversaries and its interpersonal conflicts.[22] Dynamo 5 ended its ongoing run with issue #25 (Oct. 2009), and continued with a series of miniseries and one-shots.
In 2008, Faerber published a miniseries called Gemini, which stars Dan Johnson, an ordinary man who is unaware that at night, he comes under the control of an organization called the Constellation, who transform ordinary people like him into crimefighters named after star constellations, without any of these people retaining any knowledge or memory of these events.[23] Although intended as a five-issue miniseries,[24] the last issue published was issue #4 (July 2009), which featured a guest appearance by Dynamo 5. In December 2016, Image published Gemini: The Complete Series, which included the unpublished fifth issue.[25]
In September 2011, Faerber debuted Near Death, a crime series whose lead character, Markham, is an assassin who sets out to atone for his past sins after capturing a glimpse of hell during a near-death experience. During the course of the book, which mostly consists of self-contained stories, Markham saves people's lives (some of whom are targeted by other hitmen working for his former clients), not because his near-death experience made him a more altruistic person, but solely because of his self-interested motive in avoiding hell, a point with which Faerber hopes to explore questions of moral character and the nature of heroism. In creating the series, Faerber was inspired by the work of Andrew Vachss, Robert B. Parker, Robert Crais and Lee Child, and 80s crime shows such as The Equalizer and Stingray. In particular, the lack of any known first name for Markham is inspired by Vachss' Burke series and Parker's Spenser.[9] It is Faerber's first series that does not feature any science fiction or fantasy elements, as it is a straight-crime drama.[26]
Faerber was a writer on the CW TV series Ringer, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, and ran from September 2011[27] to May 2012.[28] Faerber then worked on the staff of the CW TV series Star-Crossed, which lasted one season, from 2013 - 2014.[26]
In 2014 Faerber premiered Copperhead, a science fiction Western series set on a planet of the same name. The series, which is drawn by Scott Godlewski, is inspired by the idea,"What if Deadwood had aliens?"[26] He also joined the writing staff of the CBS TV series Zoo, which began airing in 2015. The first episode Faerber wrote was the series' fifth episode, "Blame It On Leo"[29][30] and he remained with the show for its entire three year run. In 2019 Faerber joined the writing staff of Supergirl.
