Ron Marz, Mike Choi, and Joe Weems’ Witchblade Volume 1: Witch Hunt collects Witchblade no. 80-85. These stories represent a relaunch of the title, with issue 80 featuring a blurb announcing “New Team! New Story!” to attract new readers. The story begins with Sara Pezzini awakening from a coma with a new understanding of the Witchblade. She moves to a new NYPD precinct with a new partner. This volume began Marz’ impressive run of nearly 200 continuous issues of Witchblade while helping to move the story beyond some of the ’90s comic book clichés that dominated its earliest issues. ( )

There is something funny about any media that has the central theme of female empowerment embodied by a character that is a teenage boy's wet dream.

Witchblade is an intriguing work and has me interested, but there is something about it that keeps me at a distance. It may be the drip-feeding of plot, or the fact that I'm reading the books whilst also watching the TV series (the differences between the two are noticeable), either way I look forward to reading more of this series, if for nothing more than to confirm whether I like it or not. ( )

I know Turner’s artwork has been called static at one point, although it was a personal conversation I was having with someone. He pointed out that the facial expressions looked very similar. Still, I kinda miss his artwork here: static maybe, but also stunning.

The artwork here felt variable, from that same stunning quality to panels where I was severely unimpressed. Those panels, however, were few. Overall, I was left highly impressed with the art, while also wishing for Turner’s art.

As for the storyline, it got a little too religious whoo-whoo for me. Like cult crazy, let’s bring in another god because our god is dead, and we’re Catholic priests who’ve studied the dark arts, so, yeah, we can do this. From me not really buying that these priests would do this, to me not really caring for this storyline - for an evil god storyline, this was kinda tame - it’s the first volume that I haven’t loved from this Top Cow bundle.

On the other hand, I didn’t hate this, either. I really liked the triangle between Jake, Sara, and Gleason. It wasn’t highly sexualized. It wasn’t really sexual at all. There was no hugging, kissing, or hitting on Sarah: Jake was her partner, and protective of her, and Jake was questioning them about her passing out and being in a coma for three weeks. Jake felt it was intrusive and resented Gleason’s presence. Gleason understood, but was also just trying to do his job - and in doing so was sucked into Sara’s world of weird. There was some teasing, most of which I can remember came from Sara. It was refreshing to see a triangle with resentment that was all about something other than needing to have sex with a woman: it felt a little more natural, and a little less like someone trying to possess her.

At the same time, it’s Sara and the Witchblade who end up doing all the heavy lifting, and Sara responds appropriately. Oh, she knows she needs help going up against the bigger guns, and she appreciates the fact that both Jake and Gleason worry about her, but she carries the day. And it’s nice to see the protective, worried males get shoved aside while the woman does her thing.

I sort of get it: Jake and Gleason are both cops, trained to take control and protect people. It must chafe to let anyone handle it on their own, especially their partner, whom they are especially supposed to protect. The fact that she is a skinny woman probably does make it worse.

But they do step aside, let her do the heavy lifting, and rush in and worry after, especially Gleason. (They both do insist on following her around trying to protect her, or follow her without telling, but the truth is she needed help, but a man would have to after the hellhound-things she was facing.)

Overall, a pleasant experience. I hope the religious factor gets dealt with in a way that’s more palatable to me, and I’m hoping the only Angelus, and Magdalena thing don’t get this way, too. Onto volume two for now. ( )

This is a great buy for any comic book junkie. The storyline is entertaining, the characters kick butt when they're not making witty wisecracks, and the artwork is fantastic. The binding on my issue started to fall apart as I first opened it, though, and I've reviews about other books from this title/publisher doing the same. ( )

Mja. Niet zo goed als de Japanse versie, maar niet oninteressant. Misschien laat ik mij verleiden tot nog een deel, maar prioritair is het niet. ( )