Review: Witchblade #3

This new Witchblade series takes a lot of getting used to. If I“m not careful, I have a tendency to call the main character Sara and not Alex. But Alex is a very different character than Sara and the way they accept and use the witchblade is very distinct.

This series is one of those that might be easier for readers who never read a Witchblade book before than for long time readers. Sara was a cop. She was trained to be decisive. Once she made a choice, she stuck with it and rode it through.

Alex Underwood is a social worker. Her world is a murky one filled with shades of grey rather than black and white. She is trained to see an issue from multiple perspectives before choosing a course of action. And suitably, the menace she faces is indistinct. It is smokey and nebulous. You can see why she was chosen by the witchblade for this menace.

The real question then becomes is Alex ready to choose the witchblade? She seems to know that embracing the witchblade means that she has to change and it isn“t clear that she is ready to embrace that change. After three issues, readers may be getting frustrated with her hesitancy. Even the blade itself seems to getting be handicapped until she fully accepts her destiny and is trying to bully her into it.

It is interesting to see the ways that Caitlin Kittredge and Roberta Ingranata decide which parts of the witchblade history and lore to embrace and which they choose to abandon as they adapt this title to the story they want to tell.

Alex gets called in by the police to work with a woman whose daughter has gone missing. In the course of the interview, the woman admits to killing her daughter. At first it isn“t clear that Alex has slipped into a witchblade vision, until the mom threatens to kill Alex.

After that, she continues to investigate the magical elements of her last couple cases and is attacked directly. Alex finds herself not only fighting the demon, but the witchblade as well.

Even with Alex“s reluctance to accept her destiny, Kittredge (Throways, Coffin Hill) is beginning to drive the story forward with more deliberation and faster pacing. I love the world they are creating, I just need them to start showing more and telling less. I don“t need to be verbally spoon-fed every emotion and Ingranatta (Robyn Hood, Van Helsing) seems more than capable of handling that work.

Ingranatta“s art is getting better with each issue as she seems to get to know her characters better. The black swirling mass seems to be following Alex in most reflective surfaces above and behind her. Also, Alex“s visions are merging with the real world, leaving her unsure what is actually going on. It adds to the sense of menace that she is under.

If they can keep the plot“s pacing moving in the upcoming issues, I would definitely say that this book should be on your pull list. As is stands right now, if you are curious about the title or have been an old fan of it, you should pick it up. It is still pretty easy to dive into the story.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Caitlin Kittredge
Artist: Roberta Ingranatta
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Troy Peteri

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!