Witchblade #180 Review

By Harrison Rawdin on Thursday, February 12th, 2015

Behold a story years in the making, was it worth the build-up? Read on to find out.

The official description from Image:

DARKNESS FALLS IN WITCHBLADE’S 19TH ANNIVERSARY!

In another life Jackie Estacado was Sara Pezzini’s lover and the father of her child. Now he has used the power of the Darkness to endanger the whole of human existence and only the Witchblade can stop him. Here at last is the untold story…the Death Of Jackie Estacado!

The creative team keeps a strong focus on the key nuances that actually mattered to this release. In a lot of ways this confrontation has been in the making ever since First Born arrived at a local shop near you. And might I say as company events go this is one that was worth a wait, as it just so happened to pack an emotional core and a few heartfelt punches.

David Hine crafts the final story beats to his Erewhon arc in an issue that picks up months before Witchblade #170 but after The Darkness #116. We see a bearer faced with a difficult situation born from her own decisions. Sara sacrificed her daughter, Hope, to save the universe, but after that her father re-made the world and resurrected her. To add insult to injury Jackie stooped so low as to use his formerly dead girlfriend, Jenny, as her new mother. Because of that this situation with the Ancient Ones and the current Estacado family felt personnel. And the author clearly understood that, as he displayed narrative perfection by using mild dialogue in an outing that relied on heavy narration. Through that we, as an audience, witnessed some soul crushing revelations that bombarded the woman at the center of all this.

The visual side to these festivities started off a bit rocky for me, but it didn’t take long for the illustrations by Gabriel Rearte to win me over. Each page is rendered in a way that echoes back to the core visual mechanics that have allowed Top Cow to remain relevant in today’s industry. Simple panel designs, followed by excellent execution yields a dynamite comic that fits the intent of the written word without cheapening it. Truth be told what got me was the way the talent captured the small moments therein, as they built the core of the piece and made the whole of this work stand out. Add in the consistent colors by Betsy Gonia and there’s no doubt that the finished look is what the doctor ordered.

When I closed Witchblade #180 I realized it was what I wanted it to be. “Darkness Falls: The Death of Jackie Estacado” handles it’s responsibilities from start to finish as it comes highly recommended.

OUR RATING

9.5

+ Dark elements at play.
+ Fantastic art throughout.
+ Sara explains why Jackie died.
+ The beginning of the end of Erewhon...

S#!T Talking Central

Kondorr

After such a long wait I feel this one to be a disappointment.
The story itself is mostly the accelerated ending to Hine’s Darkness run, which is acceptable, but it does not really get anywhere in this issue.
The only interesting thing was, how Sara over-boiled with anger, maybe this is enough when we have both issues, but for now, this was a quick 10 minute read.
In my opinion the art was a major down side. I mean, every other essential artist to Witchblade and Darkness would have done a much better job… and the list is not short… but mostly I would have preferred to see on art duties either: Jeremy Haun, Stjepan Sejic, Laura Braga or finally Diego Bernard – in that order (although I like Sejic best, this kinda should be the complete final Darkness creative team, but those Sejic designs released into the web, where soooo far superior).

As the finale to the Darkness, maybe even to Sara’s Daughter and to the epic Hine-run, this first issues was nothing more then setup for hopefully something more interesting than just a final bossfight and the end credits on the Estacados…