I must admit that I would have passed on this issue of Witchblade, based on the first few pages, if not for the fact that we still had Ron Marz scripting the story. How bad can it really be? I asked myself. Well, it was a good decision to keep it for this week’s pull since the story is truly a touching one, dealing with the aftermath of Hope’s kidnapping and Julie’s murder. Only Ron could pull such an adequate response to these tragic events. How would Sara Pezzini react to this frontal attack on her family and what psychological scars will be left and how will it change her relationship with the people around her and with her curse/salvation, the Witchblade. The answer is that we will not know immediately, but we do know from this issue that it will be taken care in a sympathetic and serious manner.
Now back to the art since in this issue we do not have Stjepan Sejic contributing his excellent work. We do have Michael Gaydos who has bravely stepped in to fill some pretty big shoes. I still have my reservation about the first couple of pages, especially with the selection of colors for the dream sequences, but he definitely has fulfilled his role in maintaining a good story flowing in such a manner that the art became integral to the storytelling. It was a nice contrast to Sejics’ strong coloring and imagery to have a subdued artist that still shines on his own terms. I do not know how much agonizing Top Cow editors experienced when they had to look for a replacement artist, but in my books their decision was a good one.