By Ron Marz (Writer) and Stjepan Sejic (Art)
The Story: Sara and Patrick share an evening together reconnecting before getting involved with a mystery involving missing children.
What’s Good: It’s been a while since Witchblade had an arc that featured Sara confronting the supernatural in a way that’s unconnected (as far as I can tell) to a future event. That’s part of the reason why Witchblade #132 is worth the read. It works really well as a return to the effective formula that made me a fan of the series in the first place.
While little happens in the first part of “The Bridge” to move the story forward past the setup, the character work done by Ron Marz in the opening scene makes up for it in a weird way. It’s a little heavy on fan-service (though it IS a sex scene, so you can’t be surprised it is there), but there’s no denying that the scene contains well written, mature, adult dialogue that does justice to the relationship that Marz has done such a fine job of establishing. The conversation between the characters had to happen and it is executed in a way that simply works.
What’s Not So Good: Stjepan Sejic’s artwork always shines when the Witchblade powers or the supernatural are a part of the story. Unfortunately, in Witchblade #132, there is little use of the Witchblade and only one shot of the supernatural thing that “The Bridge” is all about. As a result the flaws of Sejic’s style are a bit more noticeable than usual. The characters all look a bit plastic, inconsistent, or emotionless at times, some panels seem pretty rushed, and there’s a lack of definition in a few scenes that proves to be distracting. While the latest issue of Witchblade looks far from bad as a whole, but I’ve come to expect more from the series and the artist.
Conclusion: Witchblade #132 works because it takes care of some character issues in an effective way and proves to be a nice start to what looks to be a short, but entertaining arc. While the book isn’t exactly a “must read” in any way, it’s worth checking out if you are a fan of the Witchblade series.
Grade: C
-Kyle Posluszny
Filed under: Image Comics, Reviews, Top Cow Tagged: | Comic Book Reviews, Darkness, Image Comics, Kyle Posluszny, Ron Marz, Sara Pezzini, Stjepan Sejic, The Bridge, Top Cow, Weekly Comic Book Review, weeklycomicbookreview.com, Witchblade, Witchblade #132
