Review - Witchblade #150

Witchblade is a series that I’ve followed off and on ever since it launched (I even own the first issue) and issue #150 marks the end of an era for the title both in a changing of the creative guard and the story. With this issue Ron Marz and Troy Peteri are leaving after seventy (that’s right--SEVENTY) consecutive issues written by and lettered by the duo.

This also marks the end of a 35 issue run for artist Stepjan Sejic on the title. Together the trio took a legacy created by Marc Silvestri, David Wohl, Brian Haberlin and Michael Turner and made it, in my opinion, the cornerstone of the entire Top Cow Universe.

Read on to learn a little bit more about what transpires in the pivotal Witchblade #150.

I know a question I’ve always asked is “How long can people in the NYPD seriously expect me to buy them not noticing that one of their detectives has crazy supernatural powers?” Well thanks to the heel Lieutenant Phipps that question has finally come to bear its ugly head. He's ready to report Sara to Internal Affairs and delivers an ultimatum: The Witchblade or her job. She has to choose.

This leads to Sara taking a wonderful stroll down memory lane. Where better to experience this than at The Rialto, the hotel where it all began in a bloodbath of gangsters. We see glimpses of all the events that have come to pass and the Witchblade materializes in a form not quite so bent on destruction to reveal Sara’s purpose to her.

Sara sees all the good and the lives saved because the Witchblade has been with her. Of course, we also see the faces of the dead mixed in. In what I hope will be a four page fold out in print, all the major players are laid out before her in her memories in a glorious rooftop scene.

Sara discovers her destiny and as all some things come to an end, as all things must. The issue is moving and deep on emotion, which is exactly what you would expect from an issue where so many things, both within the story and back here in are world are changing.

Detective Sara Pezzini has seen the birth of a child with The Darkness bearer Jackie Estacado. She's lost the Witchblade more than once only to regain it again. There has been a war between the good and evil within the Witchblade with Sara’s friend Dani Baptiste, resulting in the latter’s selection to become the new bearer of The Angelus. Sara has faced off against killer cyborg assassins and is currently embattled–-along with the other 12 bearers of Artifacts of power-–in a battle to save all of existence in Artifacts.

I’d say that is a pretty full 150 issues when you consider that throughout it all Sara has been battling supernatural enemies both abroad and within using the power of the Witchblade to protect as many people as she can. So yeah, this issue is special.

Witchblade has a lot of momentum and Tim Seeley and Diego Bernard certainly have their work cut out for them. I’ve no doubt that they will do the series proud while presenting Sara in a new setting with a whole new set of challenges. The six page preview in this issue certainly left me confident that issue 151 will drop us right into the action.

Oh and Pezzini will still be smokin’ hot with Bernard at the helm. Want proof? Pick up this milestone issues at stores and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Enjoy some interiors below to whet your appetite and tide you over until you can get to the store.

Happy reading!