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WITCHBLADE #54
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Image Comics
Writer: David Wohl
Pencils: Francis Manapul
Inks: Jason Gorder
Colors: Steve Firchow, John Starr & Beth Sotelo
Letters: Dreamer Design
Editor: Renae Geerlings
Price: $2.50 US/$4.00 CAN |
I've sampled Witchblade before, in comic and television form, but I'm not a particular fan of the concept and so I've never really been drawn in. Wohl, Manapul and company give it a good try, and it's a pretty good read, but they haven't really pulled me in completely either. On the other hand, for those who avoid this book because of a perception that it is little but cheesecake, don't let the covers fool you... Sara Pezzini keeps her clothes on for the entirety of this issue, and I'm hoping that this means the more unsavory cheesecake connotations of Witchblade will be kept
to a minimum.
I'm a fan of cop stories. Powers is a favorite book, and I've always got at least a few cop shows on my weekly watch list, whether it's Law & Order, NYPD Blue or my newest favorite The Shield. Wohl follows the same tack that his
predecessor Paul Jenkins did, focusing on Sara's career in the NYPD over the
mystical elements that the witchblade has brought into her life, and that's a
good thing. One thing that Wohl does in the book that I really appreciate is to
give Sara Pezzini a very strong inner monologue. Though she is sometimes a bit
wordy, her ongoing mental dialogue about her father, her thoughts on the
Organized Crime cops or the strangeness the witchblade has brought into her life
really help to develop her as a person.
Though the police procedure
is kept mostly off-screen, I thought Wohl did a good job of avoiding cop cliches
and creating a story that is more crime-centered than mystical, at least right
now. However, I can see the mystical elements coming, and though this sort of
urban fantasy genre has become Top Cow's bread and butter, it's just not my cup
of tea. Mobsters hiring mystic assassins and corporate magnates seeking ultimate
mystical power sounds all well and good, but I'm more interested in the emotions
that drive these men and women without demonic influences around to explain the
behavior. I was pretty impressed with the assassination of a Yakuza member or
the mystery of who killed a connected mob guy, but once the Yakuza went into a
Hellish realm for revenge, my interest cooled.
Another thing that has always put me off of Witchblade has been my perception of the character as driven by an overly stated sex appeal. The covers on the issue (aside from the gold foil one, of course) don't help this image, as they feature Sara in what is laughingly called her costume, mostly naked and in Maxim or Playboy poses.
This is forgivable marketing sense, though, and it seems worth mentioning that
Manapul engages in no such thing on the interior artwork. Instead, he draws some
very nice atmosphere, particularly in the restaurant where Kenny Furuya
celebrates his birthday and in the gothic, expansive mansion of Kenneth Irons at
the beginning of the story.
The Witchblade character really isn't my thing, and it's
likely that not even a creative team made up of Greg Rucka or Brian Bendis and
Bryan Hitch or Eduardo Risso could really make it so. However, fans of the
character who have strayed from the book might want to give this new (and
partially returning veteran) creative team a look, as they have managed to
mildly pique the interest of even a doubter like myself.
This comic book was not part of this week's new releases.
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