Writer: Caitlin Kittredge
Artist: Roberta Ingranata
Colors: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Cover: Roberta Ingranata & Bryan Valenza
Publisher: Image Comics/ Top Cow Studios
Witchblade has become a comics institution and the stories of the bearers of the infamous Artifact have followed a sort of a type- a bold woman inherits the clothing-ripping bracelet and becomes a powerful, if scantily-clad warrior. What better way to bring the concept back then completely shattering that well-worn trope? That’s exactly what Caitlin Kittredge, Roberta Ingranata and Bryan Valenza do with their first issue.
Alex Underwood is a former celebrity turned New York City victim’s advocate in the DA’s office. Something has mysteriously killed her, while something ELSE has brought her back- an all too familiar bracelet. In the missing time she’s experiencing, the spouse of one of her clients has found and is about the kill the woman. Still experiencing pain for her merger with the Witchblade, Alex manifests her new powers for the first time to save her client’s life.
If you are coming into this story expecting the same sort of Witchblade story you’ve always gotten, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. If you’re coming in with expectations for a new take on a popular concept, you’re going to enjoy this. Kittredge tells a great story. Alex is interesting, and her situation is as disorienting to us as it is to Alex. It’s all done to great effect.
Ingranata and Valenza’s art is stellar. They’ve set this story in a very realistic New York City, that’s also the setting of a horror movie. The deep shadows, the strange angles, all contribute to a story that’s more ghost story than the supernatural superhero of the previous volume of Witchblade.
In the end, a great return and revival for a classic concept.
Overall: 8/10
Tony Thornley is a Mormon geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, amateur novelist and all around awesome guy. He was born and raised in Utah and has been reading comics since age five. His first comic series was GI Joe and he was doomed from there. You can follow him on Twitter @brawl2099.
