Witchblade #7 // Review
Detective Pezzini of the New York Police Department has been investigating the murder of her own father. She ‘s been led straight to a man wanted for questioning regarding the situation. She’s expecting some answers. What she isn’t expecting…is to be offered a collar in Witchblade #7. Writer Margueritte Bennett continues her re-imagining of the beloved supernatural character with artist Giuseppe Cafaro and colorist Arif Prianto. It’s a delicate weaving of drama and action. In a horror context that reaches will be on the supernatural into other directions of her that blend quite well together. Actually quite an impressive accomplishment for storytelling regarding this particular character.
The gentleman in question is a guy named Kenneth Irons. He’s offering the detective a collar. It allows her to join his collection. Those who fall in line are rewarded for their faithful service. Those who don’t our subject to a much more serious fate. Of course, Detective Pezzini isn’t really in a position to accept his offer. She’s disgusted. And rightfully so. Naturally, there’s going to be a struggle. And it might just be a little bit more difficult than if she might expect it to be given the artifact. I bet she is in possession of that is also in possession of her.
Bennett is using elements of psychological drama that can be disturbing if handled in just the right way. She is holding them at a distance that keeps them firmly planted in a supernatural horror genre. That’s a lot more cool than it is creepy. Through it all, the main character of Detective Pezzini continues to come across as being very virtuous and heroic, even though she’s diving into questionable areas of ethics and some degree of foolishness. There is a definite obsession that is underlying many of her actions, but she’s far from being the tortured hero cliché that has become so tedious on the comics page.
Cafaro delivers a very moody sort of action to the page. There’s lots of shadow. It in the luminescence of dark radiance that seems to cling to the corners, and occasionally lash out across the page. Prianto does an excellent job of keeping it moving. It all feels very well defined throughout. There’s lots of action going on that could have hit the page in a way that would be leaning too far into clichés of drama and supernatural horror. Cafaro keeps it alll composed on the page in a way that feels suitably energetic.
As fresh as it all seems, it’s still firmly rooted in the stories that had the first appeared over a quarter century ago. What Bennett is doing is narrowing the focus on a story that feels much more rooted in the heart of the inspiration behind a character than the original series managed this far in. There was a real restlessness with respect to the way everything was moving in the 1990s. Bennett has a much more disciplined approach to telling the story of this particular hero. And it serves her much better than the original series did.
