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Publisher: Top Cow
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Cover: Stjepan Sejic

“Illumination pt 1”: Danielle Baptiste has been through a pretty rough patch lately. She was bearer of half of the Witchblade, which immediately turned her world upside down.  Her friend and bearer of the other half, Sara Pezzini, was later possessed by the darker half and tried to kill her in War of the Witchblades.  When the dust settled, Sara was herself again and Danielle had been chosen to be the new host for the Angelus. However, she is unaware that there are a select few who feel she isn’t fit to be the host and are planning her immediate downfall.

Sabine has called together the other Angelus Warriors, and has tasked them with carrying out her plan to make Dani’s role as an Angelus host one of the shortest in history.  She explains that the fact that Dani retains free will makes her dangerous and she can’t be trusted; that Dani and the Angelus Warriors have the same goals in mind.  So after sending her followers out, we are brought to the gates of Hell where Cerberus is sleeping on the job.  A trio of Angelus Warriors get the drop on him and make quick work of the guardian, and enter to find whatever Sabine has sent them after.

Now Dani has left New York for her hometown of New Orleans to sort out a few things about her new role, as well as her relationship with Finch.  So after all the unpacking is done, Finch asks Dani to show her around town; and after some time has passed, the two are about to share a tender moment when Dani is attacked by a huge beast with the head of a ram, lion, man and eagle! Dani immediately transforms into the Angelus and throws herself into the fight, only to be “saved” by Sabine moments later.  Dani questions her timing for a moment, but Sabine deflects the conversation which ends up with Dani wanting to understand more about the Angelus and the Warriors at her command; so Sabine teleports them away, leaving Finch in the streets of New Orleans alone.

Angelus is starting off pretty good with the quality of writing expected from Marz.  He finds that natural balance of humanizing the characters while maintaining the fantasy element that helps drive the story.  It’s in the little details, like Dani wanting to return to her home town to find a semblance of peace and just be around something that’s familiar, which is a natural thing to do when things get too crazy for you.  I also like the fact that Ron took her out of New York, as it gives us a change of scenery since New Orleans has a much different landscape and feel to it.  Sejic is still as spectacular as ever with each page, and if you have only seen the scans from the preview and were amazed, then it’s time you grabbed the book.   There was a bit of confusion for me as the face on the beast looked masculine at times, and then feminine. I don’t know if this was intentional, but it’s still not a slight to the quality of the art in the book.

I’ve got quite a few theories and questions regarding the outcome of this, but I’ll reserve those for later. For now I’m pleased with the beginning of Dani’s role as Angelus, and can’t wait to see if anything that’s bouncing around in my head is right!

Infinite Speech
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