Witchblade #3 Review

 

Writer: Marguerite Bennett

Artist: Giuseppe Cafaro

Colorist: Arif Prianto

Letterer: Troy Peteri

Editors: Marc Silvestri, Matt Hawkins & Elena Salcedo

Cover Artists: Giuseppe Cafaro & Arif Prianto; David Mack; Marc Silvestri

Publisher: Top Cow Productions & Image Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 18, 2024

 

After the police arrested and questioned Sara, they released her pending further investigation. Sara used this time to study the strange entity that caused the bloodbath. As she learns how the Witchblade affects her, Ian Nottingham watches Sara. Does Ian spot one of the Human Traffickers entering Sara’s apartment building? How will he respond to the death that follows? Let’s leap into Witchblade #3 and see!

 

Story

Siry runs the Human Trafficking ring. Sara infiltrated a police protection squad paid to look the other way. Siry's lieutenant, Vinter, paid Sara to work for him. Vinter died when the Witchblade bonded with Sara. Sara claimed they didn’t pay her. The unpaid bill angered the corrupt cops, and the survivors of Vinter's squad sent someone to kill Sara. He didn't yell, "Land Shark.” The Witchblade still bit him in two. Sara doesn’t want to get arrested and questioned again, so she mops up the blood and burns his body parts in a pail on her balcony. Yet the fluid that pumped through the Human Trafficker’s veins wasn’t blood.

 

The more Sara learned about her father’s death, the less she trusted his fellow officers. Betrayed by the police, Sara fought overseas in a Black Ops squad. In addition to a soldier's PTSD, Sara also carries the guilt of carrying out the government's dirty deeds. In Witchblade #3, Sara tells herself she is just another victim. She argues that society preys on people, and men prey on women. Yet Sara can’t hide from the truth. She could have shut down Siry’s Human Trafficking ring long ago.

 

While Sara’s grasp on her moral center loosens, her body experiences rebirth. The Witchblade completes her. Perhaps the constant influx of knowledge flooding her senses and mind reveals the sham her life has become. Sara insists that she does all this in the name of justice. Yet Sara struggles to discern good from evil. Everyone is dirty. Even the so-called good people, like Sara's partner Michael and her civilian liaison Nicole, lie and break the law to protect her. How good can they be?

 

Sara serves as our guide in Marguerite Bennett's story. Yet Sara tells everyone in her life a different story. How much of what Sara tells us is true? While Sara seeks to understand who she is becoming, Ian Nottingham follows. He also watches people in pain, does little to help them, and serves a boss who regards people as commodities. Like Sara, his actions will reveal part of the truth about himself in Witchblade #3.

 

Art

Giuseppe Cafaro complements Sara's long dark hair and lips with dark clothes and shoes. The smuggler's organs are also dark. Ian Nottingham wears similarly dark attire. He frames his bearded face with long dark hair. Like Sara, he frequently frowns. Sara takes out her frustrations on a boxing dummy. Yet her scowl lingers as she walks past the men working at their desks. Few of her fellow cops look at her. Detective Fontaine, who taunted Sara in her police cell, crosses his arms over his chest as she approaches. Smiling people like Fontaine are rare in Witchblade #3.

 

Arif Prianto adorns Sara's apartment with green, brown, blue, and purple. Soft green light tinges street scenes of New Yorkers walking through gently falling snow. While Sara's memories are red, other locales betray Printo’s affection for brown, purple, blue, and green. Yet Witchblade #3 escapes a limited-palette look with rich shading, texturing, and clearly defined light sources. After the beautifully colored pages have come and gone, we share Sara's puzzlement over the Human Traffickers' purple blood.

 

Troy Peteri orders black uppercase letters into red-outlined golden narrative boxes and white dialogue balloons. He portrays Sara's indictments against her coworkers with red uppercase letters on yellow Post-It Notes. Immense white letters in gold-bordered black boxes place us in time and space, while Sara’s thoughts appear as small white uppercase letters in rounded brown boxes. Sound effects energize an explosive multipage fight. Sara might as well ask, "You call that a knife?" as she becomes a mass of living blades and crashes through equipment, doors, and ceilings in Witchblade #3. Thanks to Image Comics and Top Cow Productions for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Sara Pizzoli plumbs the depths of a police force protecting Human Traffickers and seeks those involved in her father's murder. Sara's web of deceit and life of denial make it difficult for her to accept that other superhumans walk among us in Witchblade #3.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.