One Of My Favorite Comics: Witchblade

One of my favorite comics is Witchblade, which is celebrating it's 15th anniversary this year. I can honestly say I have been with this comic since issue #1 debut back in 1995. It follows the complicated life of New York homicide detective Sara Pezzini, who comes into possession of the Witchblade, a supernatural  sentient artifact with immense destructive and protective powers. The weapon has bonded with various other women throughout history and now Sara has it. In the early years Sara used the witchblade to help her solve cases before becoming entangled with the history of the artifact. The Witchblade was discovered in modern times in Greece by Kenneth Irons, but before he found it, it had many wielders. When not in use, it can look like an ornate, jewel encrusted, right-handed gauntlet. When wielded by an unworthy user, that person will lose their arm. It forms a symbiotic relationship with the host, who can hear the Witchblade. When used, it expands across the body of the wielder, often shredding clothes and covering the body like armour. The amount and coverage of the armour depends on the level of the threat. For example, when facing mortals, it will usually generate less armour than when facing a demon of hell. This armor can produce extensions of itself that can form swords, other stabbing weapons, hooks, chains, shields, and wings, enabling the wielder to fly. It may also become temperamental if the wielder chooses not to use it. When wielded, it can shoot energy blasts from the hand or sword, fire projectile darts, and whip-like grapples to attack or to climb. The Witchblade is also an excellent lock pick, and can heal wounds, even mortal ones. The Witchblade can re-animate the dead, empathically show the wielder scenes of great trauma, and allow the wielder to relive experiences from past wielders as dreams. This led her into conflict with wealthy entrepreneur, Kenneth Irons, who once possessed the witchblade himself centuries ago. He went all out against Sara to retrieve what he believes to be his. Sara also had to deal with Iron's bodyguard Ian Nottingham (great name by the way), who she kind of fell in love with, even though the guy tried his best to kill her.

The series dealt with a lot of supernatural things like demons, monsters, and more recently angels. More recently the witchblade was split and it was shared between Sara and a young dancer named Danielle Baptiste (another great name for a character). But a few months ago, Sara regained full control of the ancient artifact once again. There have been several writers and artists who have worked on this series throughout the years but proper thanks should be given to original creators David Wohl, Christina Z , Marc Silvestri, Brian Haberlin and artist Michael Turner, who crafted an immensely original and entertaining new series that didn't rely on heroes running around in spandex or the bad guys wanting world domination. Witchblade was just a book about a young woman with her bracelet trying to do good. It just so happens that said bracelet packed a lot of power in it. Witchblade is the only series that I have read since day one and is still reading it. No other series can lay claim to that: not Spider-Man, Batman or even the X-Men. Witchblade is really a great intelligent and well drawn comic that everyone should be reading right now. I can see this series easily running
for a few more years because the stories still seem
very fresh and original.