This is a comic that seems to be at war with its own legacy.
Writer | Marguerite Bennett |
Illustrator | Giuseppe Cafaro |
Colorist | Arif Prianto |
Content Rating | Mature Readers |
Publisher | Image/Top Cow | 08.21.24 |
Spoilers Ahead
I read the first issue of this relaunch of Witchblade and wasn't 100% sold on what series creator Marc Silvestri was trying to do. While the story was fine, if unremarkable, what had me more concerned was that Silvestri seemed to be aiming the book at the fabled modern audience, a demographic of fan that doesn't seem to exist, at least not in terms of forking over cash and buying the products tailored to them. Worse, when a book is aimed at modern audiences, it usually means sanitizing any elements that get social media keyboard warriors up in arms. This includes, in a series like Witchblade, toning down the signature sexiness of the lead character Sara Pezzini. Yet, when something deemed "problematic" in 2024 means removing a huge part of what makes an IP tick, one can't help but wonder how that's supposed to work in terms of maintaining audience interest in the longterm.
With issue two of Witchblade, I get the sense that this series is at war with itself. A huge chunk of the issue revolves around a running internal monologue Sara is having over ownership of her body. When this monologue is focused on the Witchblade itself starting to take hold of Sara, it works. When it's delivering canned commentary on lecherous men, it comes across as generic and uninteresting. To remind you, I never read Witchblade's initial run, so I'm approaching this as a completely new reader. So, if this is how Sara has always thought and felt, then I guess it's par for the course (but not enjoyable to read). But if this is writer Marguerite Bennett changing things up, it's still not working.
Don't get me wrong, if Sara is the victim of assault or abuse, there's potential to do something meaningful with the idea of her never having had what she sees as control of her body as a result of past trauma, which is now being dredged up and exacerbated by the Witchblade being able to override her physical movements at will. Unfortunately, that's not what I got from the story because, as I mentioned, Bennett's dialogue on the topic is so painfully cliched. And these cliches extend into other facets of the issue, like a male prison guard insisting she smile before he lets her out of her cell. These bits of misogyny that Bennett tries to insert to add weight to Sara's pontifications would land stronger if they didn't sound like they were copy-and-pasted from bad soap operas.
I mentioned in my last review that issue one ends strangely because the situation with Sara taking out swaths of bad guys using her new Witchblade powers raises a lot of hard-to-answer questions. Based on this issue is sounds like she didn't kill anyone, but the people that Sara did knock out are now saying she "went on some kind of rampage." I don't know about you, but I think if someone sprouted tentacles and started whipping them at me and hurling people around the room with them, that's how I would describe the incident. The captions at the start of the issue try to insinuate that no one believes the criminals because "they were on a lot of drugs." Except, if they're all on drugs, they wouldn't be uniformly saying the same thing happened. And unless Sara has superpowers, there's no conceivable way a single person is going to take out an entire pack of opponents.
As I've pointed out in other reviews, it's always possible to suspend disbelief when the writing is good, but the writing here is sloppy. Sara would have been outed by these guys, plain and simple. Things do get a little better when Sara exits her cell and starts roaming around New York. She's describing new sensations flooding her as a result of the Witchblade. Some of the descriptions of what Sara is feeling are well written, and the inset captions have a Daredevil-esque vibe to them, conveying how Sara is picking up on the minutia of every single thing around her, from the scent of candy to the muscles in her abdomen.
Unfortunately, we get another Reddit thread-inspired take on the real world when Sara happens upon some guys in a park apparently attacking homeless people for "trashing" the city. Now, I'm not saying this never happens, but I've lived in the SF Bay Area for over 30 years, from the time I was about one until now at almost 40. I have yet to see anyone take a baseball bat to or physically assault homeless people because they're getting garbage everywhere. This scene felt so forced and fake that it took me right out of the moment. Why not simply have it be some muggers attacking someone? Instead, we get this ham-fisted bit that rings totally hollow and untrue. It's possible to write a story without making commentary on every single societal issue that the writer has a beef with, but sadly it's something that American comics are hellbent on doing.
As Sara's deep, serious monologue continues, it eventually does a tonal 180° when she declares that she's "so %$@# horny!" Now, this is Witchblade, and as the comic existed for years prior, one might think this will lean into some of the titillation that the franchise is known for. Except, when Sara finally satisfies her new, raging need for sex, the comic does everything it can to make the scene as unsexy as possible. In fact, it throws in another unbelievable moment where the guy Sara is with becomes incensed because, uh, she had a really good orgasm. Look, I'm a straight male, and I can't think of a single situation where I would be angry because the woman I'm with orgasmed too well. Wouldn't the average guy be pleased with himself in that instant, assuming he's the reason she's reacting so strongly?
Apparently not in Bennett's experience, except, Bennett's experience doesn't reflect what the average reader would be accustomed to in that scene. So, if we're supposed to think, "there goes another selfish man!" as we read the panels, we're instead once more ripped out of the moment because it's so outlandish. I said above that this comic seems to be at war with itself, and this is an example of what I mean. The franchise built (in part) on sex appeal brings up sex, implies that it's at least a part of the Witchblade's hold on Sara, and then gives readers the most sterile, unsexy take on sex that it can give you. To be fair, Bennett might argue that sex isn't the point of the scene, that it's just a passing bit in the issue, but you can't escape what Witchblade is and what its audience is used to. Sara is sexy and the new Witchblade comic seems to want you to feel bad about ever having thought she was hot.
Meanwhile, at the Iron Spire, which is mysterious bad guy Kenneth Irons' base of operations, we hear the villain comment on how Sara has become tenacious in her investigation into the Witchblade. Which might have been nice to actually see in the comic, instead of Sara's body monologue and page after page of Sara kind of explaining her powers, like her heightened senses, but... not really. As readers, we have no real idea what Sara can do. She makes knives and tendrils and stuff from her body armor is about all I definitively know. Why we have the bad guy casually mentioning an investigation that Sara herself never even comments on in the issue, despite sounding pretty darn important, is rather perplexing. It's almost as though Bennett is too focused on incorporating social commentary and not enough on the nuts and bolts of the story itself.
The issue culminates in one of the human trafficker's men from issue one tracking Sara down to her apartment. He says that he's going to kill her to get back in good graces with the syndicate and tries to shoot Sara, but this sends the Witchblade into self-defense mode. However, the amulet, as Sara describes it, is on autopilot and cuts the attacker in half without Sara's input. She stands by unable to control herself and watches in horror as the man is severed in two right on the floor of her apartment. I'm torn on Sara's reaction. On the one hand, she seems to be mortified at the thought of her body being under the control of this thing she doesn't understand, which rings true. On the other, however, I don't totally buy a woman with the sort of military history Bennett has hinted at being this broken up over killing some piece of garbage that just tried to murder her. Maybe I'm being a stickler here, but I don't think you can have it both ways. Is Sara an average person or is she a hardened killer?
Giuseppe Cafaro and Arif Prianto are back on art duties, but their work, as good as it is, isn't enough to recommend the book for it alone. Like issue one, the illustrations are solid, although the shot of the gunman in Sara's apartment being cut in half could stand to have been rendered a little better. There's supposed to be guts and end trails oozing out of the guy, but they're mostly just silhouetted in black, almost as though the scene is being toned down. Which is perplexing: either go with the gore or don't, it doesn't make much sense to land in the middle. If Witchblade is for mature readers, go with it. Otherwise, find a more elegant way of incorporating the violence than muting explicit shots like this.
But that's the thing, which is what I warned about in my review of issue one: I get the sense that Silvestri wants to make Witchblade appeal to everyone. Which means, and I have yet to be dissuaded of this, that in the end Witchblade will appeal to no one, as a result. Witchblade is a comic that feels scared of its own legacy. It wants to shy away from anything that might get it in trouble on social media, thus spurning longtime fans. And if it's going to have a hope of earning new readers, then Bennett is going to have to break away from the cliches and find a better way of making the social commentary she clearly wants to. This is a story that's flirting with being good, but it never will be if it won't stop getting in its own way.
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