Witchblade #178 Review

By Harrison Rawdin on Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

Can our former detective survive a trip to an abandoned mansion in New Jersey? Read on to find out.

The official description from Image:

Witchblade bearer Sara Pezzini has discovered the shocking identity of the new Angelus host, and now faces a decision with universe-shattering consequences. Does she dare confront the Angelus, and risk destroying not only the universal balance, but even the very fabric reality?

Ever since the rebirth of the Top Cow line-up, our beleaguered heroine has had to deal with the decisions she made that brought an entire world to an unbalanced state. Our protagonist took a holy trinity, which existed for countless generations, and tipped it toward the light. And as any avid follower knows it’s not a good thing when either the Darkness or the Angelus reign supreme.

Ron Marz pens the script as he continues his latest arc with Sara Pezzini at the center. For this author it wasn’t enough dealing with established problems, nah it was time to add in the death of Jackie Estacado and the fact that the wielder of the Witchblade gave up her artifact then got it back. In the space between things moved on and got more complicated. The whole environment that spawned forth from that has been riveting. Especially, as in this issue, the scribe delivers smart dialogue and a narrative weight born from his franchise experience.

I first saw Laura Braga‘s artwork in the pages of Hack/Slash and since then the talent has held my attention. I was ecstatic when she arrived with this series and after another release it feels good to report that she’s yet to disappoint. Each page is littered with form and function with a minimal amount of pencil strokes, which in turn leaves plenty of room for Betsy Gonia and her layers of color. It’s a rather pleasing package that’s continues to cement the quality of this run.

Witchblade #178 does not re-invent the supernatural wheelhouse that allowed this title to thrive, but it does show how innately bad-ass Sara Pezzini can be. And for that reason this comic comes recommended.