By Ron Marz (Writer) and Sjepan Sejic (Art)
Some Thoughts Before The Review: A dead main character, a powerful artifact once again made whole…yep, the War of the Witchblades has definitely brought changes to the series.
The Story: The War of the Witchblades concludes…
What’s Good: While some parts of the War of the Witchblades arc felt a bit drawn out, Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic make every page of Witchblade #130 count. The script is tight, nearly every panel aides the storytelling in some way, and the changes promised breathe some new life into the Top Cow Universe. In short, as a conclusion to a “game-changing” storyline, Witchblade #130 delivers in a big way.
The biggest problem I’ve had with the recent direction of the Witchblade series is that too often individual issues lacked balance. A book was either the Ron Marz show (a slow read, loaded with exposition/dialogue/narration and maybe a montage for flavor) or the Stjepan Sejic show (a really pretty, but very fast, read). Witchblade #130 truly gives readers the best of both worlds. Ron Marz’s War comes to a satisfying close as some new story doors open up, while Stjepan Sejic is given enough epic action to really show off what he’s capable of. And let me tell you what… Stjepan Sejic is capable of a whole hell of a lot. From the dynamic panel layouts and shapes to the level of detail that’s on display, Witchblade #130 is one great-looking comic. It can definitely be a negative thing when a book is loaded with large panels, but Sejic makes the absolute most of every single bit of page space that he’s given.
What’s Not So Good: You know what tends to bother me? When a storyline feels like it wraps up in a way that’s almost too neat and tidy. While the War of the Witchblades’ ending satisfies, it also veers pretty far into ” clean, happy ending” territory that seems out of place considering how dark the overall arc is.
My only other complaint is a familiar one. Stjepan Sejic’s characters occasionally look plastic and doll-like due to the techniques that he uses. A bit more facial detail would really go a long way towards eliminating the plastic look in my opinion.
Conclusion: The latest issue of Witchblade looks great and brings a solid story to a satisfying close. Pick it up.
Grade: B+
-Kyle Posluszny