Switch #3
Publisher: Top Cow
Writer: Stjepan Sejic
Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Cover: Stjepan Sejic
There’s plenty of great things in this world worth waiting for. One of them being this issue of Switch which has breathed new life into the Witchblade mythos over the past several months. You might remember Sejic from his run on the popular title alongside writer Ron Marz as they helped redefine Top Cow’s flagship title. Now, Sejic has given us a new bearer in Mary and while she’s still not sure how the Witchblade actually works she’s had one heck of a time trying not to get killed by those that know all to well it’s power.
The Witchblade itself carries with it a legacy and Sejic taps into that in a way that just organically tells this new version. Mary is getting some help from the women of the past who have wielded this powerful Artifact and up until now it’s been all Una. The first of them, guiding Mary in this fight against her newfound and unwanted enemies. However there’s more help coming as Sejic introduces us to Imani who takes the lead for a bit and later catches Mary up to speed on the origins of the Witchblade. But it’s when Zala comes in that things take a strange turn. Zala doesn’t seem liked and has a slightly darker edge to her than the other bearers we have met. This makes for a more entertaining dynamic and there’s a bit of mystery here because it seems as if Zala knows more than she’s letting on and the others are a bit nervous about it.
Sejic has become an artist whose visuals I look forward to seeing regardless of what he’s working on. Being that his style was one that didn’t appeal to me during his early Witchblade days I had to admit that it was just stubbornness on my part. Sejic tells a story just as well visually as he does in his narrative. His use of the entire page and dynamic layouts just shows that he doesn’t just want you to read the story but be pulled into it as much as possible. The characters are a nice mix with some very great designs that makes them stand out as individuals. When we have to go back to the regular world of brownstones and detectives fetishizing coffee, Sejic’s art brings along the personality and expression needed in his characters to pull off some entertaining character moments. With the entrance of Zala, he makes this one beautiful double page piece that brings about the air of confidence and danger that follows her. Though the very last page is one of my favorites being that it totally captures the excitement and carefree attitude of our teenage heroine.
There is a brief touch on the villains here but most of the plot is focused on new characters and getting Mary caught up to the reader. Now that that’s taken care of I can’t wait to see where Sejic will take this as Mary’s issues are going to get worse due to a certain revelation in this issue.
So, regardless of if you’re one of those readers who read Witchblade it doesn’t matter because Sejic makes sure that Switch is a comfortable jumping on title. Even if you missed the first two issues, there’s a recap here that also will get you up to speed here. So with the focus being put on making the reader comfortable before reading the issue and then delivering something that’s great in both the writing and art, what’s no to like? If you haven’t checked out Switch then you should do so then go ahead and add it to your pull list.
Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net