Written by: Ryan Cady, Jed McPherson
Art by: Vincent Valentine, Addison Duke, Mike Crawford & Various
Publisher: Image/Top Cow
I have a confession to make: I went into this book not realizing it was a retrospective. I do my best to avoid previews, because I like to go into things with as much of a blank slate and as unspoiled as possible. This usually serves me well, but I occasionally get a bit of a surprise. Luckily, I was also intending this to be my first foray back into Witchblade, which I haven’t read since very early on in the run, so a retrospective was probably actually just what I needed.
Ryan Cady is the writer here, and, as you could glean from the title, he’s organized this book as though it were a collection of material that Sara Pezzini would have gathered. The book’s visuals were designed by Vincent Valentine and Addison Duke to give the impression that you’re leafing through a manila folder packed to the gills with papers and photos, which keeps the book from having that rather dry quality that’s present in many of these comic retrospectives. There is no new art (apart from the design elements) in the retrospective portion of the book; everything is culled from the comics that are being referenced. The emphasis is on the Witchblade mythology, but there are also more abbreviated segments dedicated to the other artifacts present in the Top Cow Universe. So, while this serves as a refresher for Witchblade specifically, if you’re looking to catch up on Top Cow properties, in general, this could be a good place to start. Potential readers should keep in mind that there’s not a whole lot of depth here though. Given, we’re talking about a series that’s nearing 200 issues in addition to information about other, related properties that have also been around for a while. There’s only so much detail that can be provided over the course of 30 pages or so.
In addition to the bulk of the book that is presented as “in universe,” there is also the short story, “Working Late,” about an early incident in Jackie Estacado’s career as mob enforcer by Jed McPherson and Mike Crawford. The pair do a great job with the eight pages that their story is given. McPherson’s tale provides a glimpse into a time when Estacado was not the cold blooded psychopath that he’s presented as in his own series, and his dialogue accomplishes the exposition needed in this type of short segment without feeling like it’s cramming too much info into my eyeballs. Similarly, Crawford’s line work is detailed but clean, keeping things uncluttered while still maintaining a distinct look.
The nature of this book obviously means that it’s going to have a very specific audience. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but, for people looking for some background on Witchblade, that want something that has a bit more flair than a boring Wikipedia page, then this retrospective does just that.
