Witchblade Vol. 2: Awakenings
Written by Ron Marz
Pencils by Keu Cha, Mike Choi, Chris Bachalo and various
Inks by Jay Leisten, Jon Holdredge, Sal Regla and various
Colors by Brian Beuccellato, Chad Fidler, Tyson Wengler
Letters by Troy Peteri
Top Cow Productions
Cover price: $14.99; Available now

So, Witchblade is always a weird one for me to review, because while I’m aware of the basic premise of the series — New York cop Sara Pezzini gets mystical weapon and proceeds to get into shenanigans — I don’t read it that often. In fact the seven issues found in this collection may be the longest run of consecutive issues I’ve ever read of the series. And it’s not that I think it’s bad, it’s just never been a title that interests me, and while I can’t say this will make me pick up the series, I can’t dismiss the whole thing any more, and maybe in a different world, I’d count myself as a Witchblade fan. If you’ve never read the series before, and are curious about it, I’d suggest checking out the value priced Vol. 1 (reviewed here) and then checking out this volume, as this one works okay on its own, but you can tell it’s the middle part of a larger story.

What we’ve got in this volume is a bunch of shorter stories, there’s only one two part story, and the rest are done in ones. The stories are a bit hit or miss for me; there’s a pretty decent samurai story, a weird murder mystery, a kidnapping story, the three-part story involving a sort-of Captain America gone wrong, and then the real highlight of the collection, an art showcase issue that reveals the origin of the Witchblade for the first time. The stories all work fairly well, and you can tell that writer Ron Marz is building up for future events but the issues never develop a cohesion that make them feel like an ongoing story.

But really, Witchblade has never been about the stories. The series has first and foremost been an art showcase, from the early days of Michael Turner, to the current run by Stjepan Sejic. Keu Cha’s work is probably the weakest of the bunch, but it’s still fairly decent with lots of nice detail and some lovely painted pages. Chris Bachalo turns in some stellar work, and the story is kind of light on action, which plays to his strength (or against his weakness) but I know a lot of people go one way or the other when it comes to his work. I’ve always kind of enjoyed his singular style, so it appealed to me. Mike Choi does a good version of the Top Cow house style, with going into over-rendered mode like so many other Silvestri clones. He’s good with the details, he’s got a good handle on the emotions, and his storytelling and panel layout is decent, if fairly standard. The last issue of the collection though has a great run down. Here’s the highlights: Darwyn Cooke, Luke Ross, Brandon Peterson, Bart Sears, Terry Dodson, George Perez, Joseph Michael Linsner, and Marc Silvestri. Each artist gets a couple of pages to draw a different bearer of the Witchblade, going back to the very first person to wield it. There are lots of different styles here, but each works in its own way, so I say, what’s not to love?

So, what we have here are some Witchblade stories, plain and simple, albeit some very enjoyable ones. Let’s be honest, Witchblade is never going to be the greatest book on the racks, but this has some good fun and some choice art. Like I said, if you’re interested in giving the series a try, check out volume 1, but if you enjoy that, you’ll want to follow up by reading this. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had.