GENRE: COMIC BOOKS

PUBLISHER: TOP COW

WRITER: RON MARZ

ARTIST(S): STJEPAN SEJIC

RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 10, 2008

Nutshell Version:

Witchblade #122 has everything that first drew me to the series in the first place. Marz is great at building suspense and tension and then giving the reader great payoff in the end. The end of this issue all but guarantees we are about to see Pezzini throw down. Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic are the best two things to ever happen to the Witchblade series. Marz’s taut writing that draws in the reader coupled with Sejic’s absolutely beautiful digital art is the perfect match.

Full Version:

Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic are the best two things to ever happen to the Witchblade series. Marz’s taut writing that draws in the reader coupled with Sejic’s absolutely beautiful digital art is the perfect match.

Working to solve the mysterious murder of a local rabbi while being tailed by a bothersome reporter, Pezzini isn’t so sure that everything is as it seems. First, the brutal nature of the murder just doesn’t seem to make sense. To make matters worse, she finds some Jewish youth crafting a Golem out of mud in hopes of protecting themselves from the violence, which they blame on the local black population.*

The scene shifts to Dani consoling one of the girls from her dance studio, which leads to one of the most unexpected instances I’ve encountered in a while in the series. While it wasn’t necessarily agreeable to me, it was humanizing and served to remind me that while this is fiction, what takes place is couched in reality, where things are broken and messy and confusing.

Things shift back to Pezzini and her partners piecing togther the evidence surrounding the rabbi’s murder. Unfortunately, the body count is only going to start rising, as one of the Jewish youth are found dead—murdered in the same fashion as the rabbi. It all leads up to the book’s closing pages where the reader is introduced to a new and terrifying creature.

What I find most wonderful about this particular story is that it is really taking the title back to what endeared Sara Pezzini to so many people. This particular arc has a very nourish/procedural drama feel to it. When Witchblade  first hit the market, this was one of its strongest selling points. While Pezzini had these magnificent powers because of the Witchblade, she still had flesh and blood—she still had fears, confusion, a job. Essentially, Witchblade established itself as a human piece. As of late, though, despite the upheaval in Pezzini’s life, stories seemed to have been more concerned with superpowers and less character development. Thus, this storyline is making me a very happy camper. It might be a little slow for some people’s taste (i.e. not enough action), but Marz is great at building suspense and tension and then giving the reader great payoff in the end. The end of this issue all but guarantees we are about to see Pezzini throw down.

I can’t wait for issue #123.

*The inclusion of the Golem from Jewish folklore is particularly impressive and continues the trend of Top Cow’s writers excavating history and bringing it alive to meld it with their particular brand of fiction.