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Witchblade #151
Publisher: Top Cow
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artists: Diego Bernard & Fred Benes
Cover: John Tyler Christopher

Sara Pezzini, the bearer of the Witchblade, is now a private investigator in her new home of Chicago and things aren’t going well. While on one of her jobs she discovers a very dead body and a clue that leads to a club that has some mystical ties to it. All the while, someone seems to also be keeping tabs on Sara, but she’s got bigger problems right now since it looks as if Sara may have killed an old woman.

With things in the Top Cow Universe changed as a result of what happened in Artifacts #13, this issue seems to read more like a number one. There’s nothing wrong with that, as Seeley is establishing himself as the new writer on the series and does a fine job satisfying any long time readers while making the book accessible to any new ones that picked up this title. The story itself is pretty intriguing, though the excessive amount of internal dialog slowed it down at points. Now, that could have been because of the whole “she’s a P.I. now” thing and it’s a common theme to have, but I was so happy when we got out of Sara’s head and back to reality. The actual dialog between her and the other characters made for much better moments, so I’m hoping that we get an all new and interesting supporting cast for Sara to interact with. The new faces we met in this issue were a good change of pace, though “Big Woz” quickly annoyed me. We get it, she’s a little overweight and Sara has the “hot girl” look so she’s a bit resentful of Sara.

It looks as if Top Cow has snagged themselves another great artist in Diego Bernard. From beginning to end this guy delivers a very good looking issue. I’m pretty sure the panel with Sara doing her best Spider-Man impression is my favorite. He also adds quite a bit of detail that always makes city landscapes stand out just as much as the characters. It was a bit surprising that we didn’t get much of a fight between Sara and the new villain before things quickly ended, but I’m sure we’ll get to see him cut loose in a huge action scene soon enough.

There is a very nice story written by Marz with art from John Tyler Christopher that opens up the book. The Darkness wielder, Jackie Estacado, is explaining to a man who is about to die after what has happened to the world as a result of all 13 Artifacts coming together. Basically just clearing his conscience, because it seems as if there’s more to this universal rebirth than what we saw in Artifacts.

This issue being as good as it was surprised me since I’m not really a fan of Seeley’s other work. I am, however, a fan of Witchblade, and with this issue Seeley and Bernard have definitely given me a reason to stay on the title for a while longer. A few things still bother me regarding the issue, but I don’t want to spoil anything that happens here or in Artifacts, so I’ll just be patient and see how things play out. In the mean time you need to pick up Witchblade #151 because it’s definitely worth checking out.

Infinite Speech
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