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Witchblade #88 Book Released: 17 Aug 2005 Review posted: 05 Sept 2005 Writer: Ron Marz Artist: Mike Choi Publisher: Top Cow  1.00 out of 5 Stars Reviewed by Adam White

I’ll admit I’ve never been a fan of Witchblade, even if I do find some of the ideas in the concept interesting, but when I saw Ron Marz had taken over the writing chores I had to at least try an issue. Marz has proven himself as a more-than-capable writer in the past and is responsible for the only interesting Green Lantern stories in the past three decades, so he at least warrants a tryout. I also know that Top Cow has been trying to heighten their profile of late, and Jim McLauchlin has ushered in a PR boom for the company, so I thought: why not?

After I finished reading Witchblade #88, I had the answer to my question.

All of the general malaise of Witchblade really leads back to one main problem: Witchblade is a T&A book trying to transcend its original conception.

Sometimes writers, despite being talented and creative, just can’t figure out what to do with a character or series — Witchblade is a textbook example of this. Marz has proven himself on Green Lantern and a variety of DC books in years past, and he also did a lot of good work at Crossgen (which is sorely missed). However, his work in Witchblade is stagnant: the plot reads like any other generic police melodrama; the moral and social questions are addressed in the over-acted style of an after-school special; and nothing really happens — the characters go through the motions and have as little interest in their lives as we do. It’s a police procedural written by someone who is unfamiliar with and bored by police procedurals. I still have a high opinion of Ron Marz, I simply think he is ill-fitted to Witchblade.

Mike Choi’s art is standard Top Cow; he was obviously “influenced” by the house style originally derived from Marc Silvestri’s art. Choi’s females actually work for me, as they are not too anatomically overstated, even if they are still all too beautiful. Choi’s males leave something to be desired though, as their eyes are a bit too small and they just have this weird, babyish vibe to them that freaks me out. The pace of the art is a bit slow, and the action a little stiff, but that simply follows the style of the script he was given. I think with a little “outside of the box” thinking that Choi could mature into a fine artist.

All of the general malaise of Witchblade really leads back to one main problem, though: Witchblade is a T&A book trying to transcend its original conception. Seriously: if you take the T&A out of a T&A book, what’s left? I personally hate T&A books and believe they are one of the bigger reasons that the comic book industry bears the stigma it does, but that’s getting slightly off-topic. However, I think Witchblade could benefit greatly from the creators (and Top Cow) embracing its origins and perhaps deconstructing the T&A genre and making it work for them. Whoever Top Cow could grab hold of to work on Witchblade should have them fly in the face of readers’ expectations and play up the ridiculousness of the whole T&A craze. They should approach Witchblade with a sense of humor but put some heart into the characters and make them have an internal depth to match their bust sizes. There’s a fine line to tread there, but I guarantee someone could walk it if given the chance.

The bottom line is that people don’t come to Witchblade looking for pathetically prosaic police procedurals — they want big beautiful bouncing boobies. So I say give them more than they can handle, but sneak in some profundity to penetrate their psyches. The series and the characters will benefit from it, and consequently so will Top Cow.