Adventures West Coast #9: Witchblade Vol 1
Can I be fair to this book? That’s the ultimate question here. You see, as my girlfriend, family, and enemies will tell you, I don’t forget anything. As I result, I have a hard time grasping the notion of “forgive and forget”, as I don’t see them as mutually exclusive. This also carries over to the realm of entertainment. For some reason, I can never forget an actor’s first role, and if it’s a bad performance, I can’t forgive it, either. For example, I don’t care how sexy and successful he may be, George Clooney will always be the guy from The Facts of Life. Some days, I might let that slide, but he’s still Booker from Roseanne. In any case, it took him a bit to get his career on track. That’s a lot like Witchblade. It seems like it’s on the right track, but I can’t forget what came before. This is ultimately going to be more a review of packaging and presentation than the actual plot itself.
The cover might say “Volume 1”, but that’s a lie. You see, Witchblade existed for about 80 issues prior to those collected in this volume, and that’s not counting all the one shots and miniseries. At launch, it was really just a mystical T&A book, which describes most of the early Top Cow output. I mean, this is a company that had a headlining character named Sexbot. That’s just who they were, and I can’t really shake it. It tends to cause problems, as I consider the current publisher of Top Cow to be friend. That said, I don’t think he likes me very much in an online capacity, as every bit of PR he puts out about a Top Cow product triggers some snark on my part. It got to the point where I simply unfollowed him on Twitter because I felt that it was probably for the best. I commend them on the desire to take the book in a less cheesecake direction, but it’s such a guerilla tactic to just act like those prior years never happened. I almost wish they had just cancelled the original series and relaunched with this. Sure, this is all just numbers and things printed on covers, but it would’ve seemed more…pure to me. You just can’t collect a storyline that takes place at #80 of a 13 year old series and just decide, “OK, this is gonna be Volume 1 from here on out”!
I had actually read some earlier Witchblade issues, published during the brief period in the mid ’90s when Top Cow broke away from Image in order to be their own company. That didn’t last long, and I was done with the book by the time they returned to the Image fold. Back then, at its best, it was a tits & ass book set against a supernatural backdrop. It never quite knew if it wanted to be NYPD Blue or Poltergeist: The Legacy. It followed Sara Pezzeni, a New York City detective, who finds herself in the possession of a mysterious weapon known as the Witchblade. She doesn’t know why she has it, let alone what it means. She’s a cop, but when she “witches out”, she looks like this:
Yup, just a regular old cop who kills demons in a thong made of supernatural thorns. Apparently, the Witchblade also provides good cup support! Well, that art made a household name of the late Michael Turner, who went on to create his own company, Aspen Entertainment. In any case, that’s the gist of the character for the first 80 issues or so. That’s YEARS worth of comics. Then, a funny thing happened: as is common with comic properties, Witchblade was turned into a TV series for TNT. Yancy Butler (Drop Zone, Brooklyn South) starred as Sara, in a weekly series where Sara tries to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Witchblade. Despite the fact that Yancy didn’t run around half-naked, the show was actually a success. The only reason production stopped was because Yancy went to rehab for substance abuse. Anyway, during the run of the show, Sara/Witchblade looked like this:
Pretty conservative, huh? Well, in a lot of ways, the TV show was ahead of its time, as it was the first appearance of what Sara would come to look like after the bold new direction of issue #80:
As this story opens, Sara wakes up in a hospital bed, with little to no memory as to how she got there. At her side is her partner (work, not banging), Jake McCarthy. Anyone familiar with prior issues know him as the other half of the “will they, won’t they” dynamic of the book. In walks Special Investigator Patrick Gleason, who’s been sent to getthe details on what happened to Detective Pezzini. Immediately, this sets off a dick measuring contest between the 2 guys, seemingly setting up a potential love triangle.
Patrick Gleason’s a really good character. Not only is he fairly likeable, but he also serves as “the eyes” for new readers. Once Sara comes out of the coma and jumps into her investigation, Gleason’s right there at her side, trying to get answers. Whenever something supernatural happens, it’s old hat for Sara, but it’s all completely new to Gleason. It’s a pretty nice dynamic, which also helps for a bond between the two characters.
So, the plot. Well, the only real witness to the events surrounding Sara’s coma was her childhood priest. Upon further investigation, she finds out that he’s part of an ancient sect of the Catholic church that dabbled in the dark arts. An event is coming that would allow some pretty major demons to pierce the veil and destroy our world. The sect wants this event to come to pass, but they want Sara dead, as the Witchblade has the power to stop them. She was to die the night she ended up in the coma, and the prist was ordered to finish the job. Instead, he’s killed by the Witchblade, but partner Jake gets injured in the process. Sara and Patrick team up for the final act, as he creates a diversion, while she uses the Witchblade to give those priests the old what for! In the end, Patrick and Sara find their relationship changed by the experience, while Jake clings to life in a hospital bed.
My biggest gripe of the collection comes down to packaging. You see, it was offered at the low, introductory price of $4.99. I’ve been working around comics long enough to know that some corners may have been cut in order to pass savings along to the consumer. In my case, the binding was shit. The pages just started falling out near the end of the book. I’m not sure if this was a common problem with the print run, but it certainly marred my experience.
Prior to reading this collection, I’d been sampling Witchblade via more recent issues, especially those leading into the Broken Trinity event. It’s at that point that Sara and Patrick are first entering into a real relationship, so it’s nice to see how they first met. I like what Ron Marz has done with the series, and it seems like the book had just been waiting for him to come along. He seems to have a plan, and it’s not the same old stories of “Sara goes undercover as an escort and poses a lot” that we seemed to have in the ’90s. Stjepen Sejic’s art is pretty nice, and quite reminiscent of Clayton Crain (X-Force) before his work got all muddy (Necrosha). I can be a cruel man, but I also believe in giving credit where it’s due. Witchblade may have a bit of a checkered history, but I think this collection signals the beginning of a promising future.
