Witchblade, Volume 6

Witchblade by Ron Marz #6

by Ron Marz, Stjepan Šejić

The new era of Witchblade featuring the team of writer Ron Marz and artist Stjepan Sejic begins here! Collects Witchblade #116-120 and features an eye-catching cover gallery that includes pieces by Sejic, Greg Horn, Lucke Ross, and Marc Silvestri.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Action, Urban Fantasy, Comic Book, Supernatural

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

Marz is well known for his work on Silver Surfer and Green Lantern, as well as the Marvel vs DC crossover and Batman/Aliens. He also worked on the CrossGen Comics series Scion, Mystic, Sojourn, and The Path. At Dark Horse Comics he created Samurai: Heaven and Earth and various Star Wars comics. He has also done work for Devil’s Due Publishing’s Aftermath line, namely Blade of Kumori. In 1995, he had a brief run on XO-Manowar, for Valiant Comics.

Marz’s more recent works includes a number of Top Cow books including Witchblade and a Cyberforce relaunch. For DC Comics, he has written Ion, a 12 part comic book miniseries that followed the Kyle Rayner character after the One Year Later event, and Tales of the Sinistro Corps Presents: Parallax and Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Ion, two one-shot tie-ins to the Green Lantern crossover, The Sinestro Corps War.

His current creator owned projects include “Dragon Prince” (Top Cow) and “Samurai : Heaven and Earth” (Dark Horse).

Photo by Luigi Novi.

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cool volume to get more character development but not a WHOLE lot happened overall.

This one mostly has Dani getting tricked by her new boyfriend and finding out what he really is. Which, as you might have guessed, is evil. Because British guys always are (I joke I joke) and so Dani and Sara have to face off against him. The rest is basically Sara dealing with being a Mom, visiting her sister in prison, and showing Dani they aren't perfect but they have to try.

Good: The art is stunning, because I expect nothing less from one of my favorite artist. The fights are bloody and epic, some good dialogue, some good advice to Dani from Sara, and a touching moment with Sara and her sister.

Bad: The story itself doesn't move forward much. Feels a little to episodic.

Overall it was a solid volume for character development but I can't help but feel the main story could have used more of a push. A 3 out of 5.

[Ozan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sara visited her sister who was a former drug addict in prison and told her that she was an aunt now then Sara got an emergenct call from her partner and boy friend Patric Gleason and left. When Sara got to the crime scene, it was horrible, 3 man were crusified in the positions of some famous saints who were crusified at same positions back in the day.

Then we go to Dani side of the things, she was having sex with her new boyfriend when a crossbow arrow broke the window of the appartmant and got in... Dani was like what's going on and the boyfriend took the arrow and said '' an old enemy found me'' but nothing more... he kept his past as a secret from Dani and Dani was like -uuu mysterious, cool-... lol (if you ask me if you are witchblade and attract all kinds of supernatural monsters and stuff, you should be more careful about the guys who keep their pasts as a secret, just in case lol ok, i have to admit the guy was fishy from the start, i don't think there was anyone who didn't see this coming lol the dani's boyfriend turned out to be evil.... lol) Dani had to look after The Sara Pezzini's Baby Hope tomorrow cause Sara was busy with another murder which was done by the same crusifier murderer. The reporter Gratchen was there too to get some information but she got nothing from detective Pezzini. (I think this Grachen girl will play a big role in the future stories of Witchblade.) While Dani was looking after the baby, the boyfriend came and they were like the baby is sleeping, lets make out like we were at high school lol then Pezzini came back to her appartmant, called for Dani but got no answer, something was fishy... she pulled out her gun and started to seach for Dani, checked out the baby and she was ok then found Dani Laying on a bed and her boyfriend came behind and he had Dani's witchblade and he was like -HAHAHAHA ! i took the witchblade from Dani, now i want the part of witchblade that you have ! and wow... you are hotter than my father Kennet Irons said... ! lol it turned out he was Kennet Irons the former archnemesis of witchblade Sara Pezzini's son... who was a templer knight like his father who also drank from the holy grail back in the crusade days (there were flashbacks of this at the begining of the book and some part of it at the middle or something, not sure... brain, you failed me again ! lol) The evil boyfriend kicked Sara's butt really bad... but he couldn't take the other half of witchblade from her... ( ok, The evil boyfriend took Dani's part of the witchblade easly but he couldn't take The Sara Pezzini's part... why ? well, it's simple, the darn thing just didn't come off... these witchblades, they sometimes got stuck to arm of the bearer like one of those rings which you just can't get out of your finger... darn things... lol actually, in all seriousness, there is no answer, you just have to accept that the evil boy friend (by now you realised i don't remember the boy friend's name lol ) could easly take Dani's witchblade but he couldn't take Sara Pezzini's part of it... just couldn't with no explanation whatsoever. lol) and just left Sara Pezzini there uncontious and left saying ok, half of the witchblade is enough for me to kick the butt of my ancient enemy. Then he faced his ancient enemy on rooftop of a church or something (this makes it more dramatic i guess lol) and the ancient enemy was a guy who drank from the holy grail with Kennet Irons and his evil son and lost half of his face cause he was not pure in heart or something... the Kennet Iron's evil son who was also evil boyfriend of Dani and his ancient enemy started to fight, this antiant enemy was also the crusifier murderer... so he was a psycho too lol and The evil boy friend kicked his butt and killed him... then Dani and Sara Pezzini came and Sara pushed the evil boyfriend of Dani from the rooftop, the evilboyfriend fell and broke the most of the bones on his body... he was like ''please help...'' and Sara and Dani was like '' serves you right, you almost immortal poo'' (Kennet Irons and the other templers including his son who drank from the holy grail became almost immortal btw but just almost...not fully...lol the holy grail is not quite get you there...lol but pretty close...lol) then Dani took the witchblade back from her evilboyfriend, and Sara put the evil boyfriend in prison for life for murder. (this is what happens if you don't kill or take what's necessary from the hero when they are unconscious you stupid villain lol villains will never learn lol) The almost happy end... almost... not quite there though lol cause Dani's heart was broken.

Then we had a one shot where Sara Pezzini reported for the weird insident of a woman who tried to kill her and they had this fight on a truck and truck wrected havock on the streets while they were fighting but lucky no casulties happend and the woman who tried to kill Pezzini escaped. This is the part Pezzini told to her superiors and luckly got away with it. What actually happend was The woman who tried to kill Sara Pezzini was an assassin android called Aphrodite IX which was sent on test massion to take on The Witchblade Sara Pezzini. The mysterious owners of Aphrodite IX thought, Aphrodite IX held herself pretty good against The Witchblade in the end and ready for dangerous missions.

Then we get to the Dani part of the things, she was dansing in club and a guy kind of bothered her but big sis Sara Pezzini came just in time to rescue Then they went to the top of a pilar tower of a bridge to have a heart to heart talk (and it was pretty fun to read, i really like the big sister, little sister moments of Sara and Dani) they talked about the evilboyfriend and Sara's boyfriend Patric Gleason, and how Sara feels between Patric and Jackie Estacado (The Darkness who is also Sara Pezzini's baby Hope's father) Then they littrely took off to have some breakfast lol then we found Dani in her dancing school, talking to the headmaster... headmaster said her sister was canser and she was in Poland so the headmaster needed to go to Polan and take care of her sister so when the headmaster was out of the countery doing that Dani needed to teach headmaster's beginers class, this was a great news for Dani cause Dani needed the money so she immidiatly started to teach at the next lasson of the class which was now. Headmaster intruduced her to students and Dani started to teach. Then we get to some Jewish rabbi's office while he was reading some ancient tome and someone came from behind and murdered him... and this is it for this TPB. Pretty fun read :D

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first started reading Ron Marx’ run, it was towards the end of his run. I was kind of impressed at first. I noticed it wasn’t all sexy girls and some of the plotting was pretty engaging.

The more I’ve read his books, though, the less impressed I’ve become. Sure, sometimes the storytelling is interesting, but at least in my opinion more often his tales come off as half-baked. Plus the sexy girl nature of the book is always there. The Witchblade still shreds hot girls’ clothes. All the girls still look like supermodels and often strip down, sometimes “for the story” and sometimes just because it’s sexy time I guess.

And in case you ever forget about the babealiciousness at the core of the series, the collected volumes include all of the gratuitously sexy covers, usually three times over for some reason (at least in the electronic version I have). It makes me embarrassed to read the books in public really.

Marz and others like to point out how the story makes real changes that stay changed. It’s not kind of a stasis world like many superhero comics. So we see Pezzini get knocked up and give up the Witchblade.

Well... but just a few issues later she gets the Witchblade back. And a few issues after that she loses her baby in a big reset. So it’s basically like those things didn’t happen.

Just like all the other superhero books.

I write all this here because Marz writes about those things in his comments in the back of the book. And it just seems so empty given what the comic has become.

Oh well. This volume is kind of interesting, with... well no it’s more crazy Christians killing each other. And another incredibly hot guy shagging the hot girl but he is really a villain. And another astonishingly hot babe shows up to fight the astonishingly hot main character, only to literally get defeated before the first page even starts (it’s a flashback).

Still the art is staggeringly awesome.

[Ionarr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't love this. It's just not well done, but given the story it clearly could have been if there was more care and less sexism.

The story is very well paced, but despite some interesting plot points is just formulaic and not very engaging. The characterisation is flat, and compared to some other comics I've been reading laughably bad at times. The artwork is... Fine, really nice in places but truly dodgy in others, and I've rarely seen such a good candidate for Sexy Hawkeye treatment - I can only assume the artist has never seen a female human and assumes they are a different species because Dani would have snapped her spine halfway through the first issue (for starters). If you're considering this, I'd flip to the cover gallery at the back first - it really sums up the whole feel of the comic, so see how you can stand that before reading. If you're anything like me and your reaction is laugh-cringe, don't bother. The cover after the character design pages literally has camel toe drawn in.

Even the men were largely obvious power fantasies, or all on steroids. While some were allowed to look like actual people (and those were also better characterised) they were all secondary characters or appeared in one page as extras. Not to mention the blindingly stereotypical dialogue - the men aren't too bad (although very overwrought) but no woman I know would even think some of the stuff Dani and Sara say as normal conversation between friends.

Ultimately, I was looking to scratch my Black Magick itch, but this only underscored to me how much I want Black Magick to return. It's a gem of a comic, and the more comics I read the more I realise just how great it is. Witchblade v6 is great if you want thinly veiled wank material; otherwise, just read Black Magick.

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sara's back on the job and a triple murder with religious themes is her first case. Dani starts a relationship that ends badly with David Worthy, an artifact hunter with a secret past. Sara faces Aphrodite, a deadly assassin android, in the only really cool part of the volume. More soap opera with Dani being picked up by an unpleasant guy in a club and Sara kicking his teeth in. Gleason is amazing with the baby... blah, blah, blah. 'So why is it the good boys want us, but we always want the bad boys?' What in holy hell is this in an action comic? Dani has turned into the weakest character in the book and Sara holds her hand through everything. At least the artwork is still great.

A cool flashback reveals an interesting fact about Kenneth Irons. He drank from the Holy Grail as a Crusader and Templar Knight during the Middle Ages. Gerard is Irons' son and one of the knights serving under him. He is now called David Worthy and he takes Dani's half of the Witchblade, but fails with Sara's half. The author of the triple murder is another knight who never stopped hunting Gerard. He loses the battle with the enhanced Gerard, but Sara finishes him off.

[Vaughn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is less intense than the previous ones, but there is still some good stories and development.
The first three issues conclude the storyline dealing with Dani's new boyfriend: David Worthy, while Sara investigates a series of murders which have a biblical theme. The fourth issue has Sara battling a cyborg called Aphrodite, while the last issue is a quiet downtime story with Dani and Sara.

This volume is pretty much just filler, as none of the stories seem that important. It's still a fun volume though and the quality is still there, with great character development, storytelling and art.

[Zec · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weakest of the lot so far, liked the supernatural procedural angle, but the story gets less intriguing the more characters are added. None of the mysteries are particularly interesting and the character of Dani just doesn't work for me. She's not quite a foil for Sara or a frenemy. Where this comic shines is in the paranormal detective angle and discovering little drips of info about the Witchblade. The further it deviates from that, the more boring it becomes.

[John Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like we’re just rehashing old plot lines with the new protagonist at the moment.

[Becky O'Rourke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keep waiting for them to explain how the witchblade is split between Sara and Dani. Guess that’s not happening. And now a dude can come and just steal it? Howwwwwwww?

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The next installment of Witchblade has arrived and the quality is still high. A plot point that has been developing over the last trade or two pays off in this volume very well. There is the problem of the three issue villain again which is disappointing, but the other half of this trade sets up a new one and I'm hoping it will be drug out a little longer, because the new character certainly seems important. If you've enjoyed any of the previous trades, then I think you'll find little here to complain about.

[Albert Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

And another volume has come to an end.

We're introduced to another character in this series, a robot from the future that is part of the Aphrodite program.

As the series progresses I find my self happier with how it is playing out. I really like Sara wearing the Witchblade to be honest, it might be her hard nosed attitude from being a NYC police officer shining through as she takes zero crap.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhh....kinf of spinning its wheels a bit here.