Back in Witchblade #103 Sara Pezzini, the modern-day bearer of the Witchblade gave it up…well, gave part
of it up, to Danielle Baptiste. Transference of powers, right? A staple
of comic book characters where a legacy is passed on to another.
Well, not quite so simple.
While Dani has wielded her portion of the Witchblade since (the series
is currently on issue #121) Sara has remained in the background, as a
large chunk of the storyline focuses on her and her new baby (born in
the First Born event, collected in the Witchblade volume 5 trade). Apparently, there’s a battle a ‘brewin’.
Beginning in issue #125, Ron Marz and artist Stjepan Sejic will tell
the six part “War of the Witchblade,” which will show just what happens
when you split the Witchblade between two bearers. The covers at right
are to Witchblade #125 and are by Chris Bachalo.
“The story runs from #125-#130 by the end of it, we might have one
wielder of the Witchblade again…or we might have no wielder of the
Witchblade,” Marz told Newsarama . “Dani and Sara each have what’s most
easily described as ‘half’ of the Witchblade right now, but since the
Witchblade is best explained as a balance between the dark and the
light, the half is split along dark and light lines. We haven’t seen
much of that, but there have been hints, and the bearers – Dani and
Sara will start to go more in those directions.”
Marz said that (thanks in part to the intro page in the front of each
issue) the story of the “War of the Witchblade” will be entirely
self-contained in Witchblade, and not bleed out into other Top Cow series.
“It will be pretty well contained in our book – this is a Witchblade
story,” Marz said. “It’s not one of these things that crosses over into
every other book in the universe. It’s a big-deal Witchblade story, so
we’re containing it in the Witchblade title.”
Pressed for details, Marz declined specifics, but did explain where
each of the bearers are found at the beginning of the storyline:
“Sara is still getting used to being a mom. She had her baby in First Born,
and that remains an ongoing aspect of the series – we didn’t do the
whole, ‘Hey, let’s have a baby!’ and then six issues later, have it
adopted or whisked into a different time, or something like that. So
the baby is still a big part of the series, and we’re playing that
straight. A new baby forces you to adjust, and Sara is going through
that process while still retaining her job as a police detective.
“Dani is still adjusting to the fact that she has the Witchblade. This
is an on-the-job training situation for her. She doesn’t know what
she’s doing with it, or where it’s going to take her life, so it’s very
much up to her to figure out what she’s going to do with this thing,
and maybe, in the long run, whether or not she even wants this thing.
She’s taken on the responsibility so far, but maybe at some
point…enough’s enough.”
And of course, as history has shown, where the Witchblade is involved,
there are other interested parties looking to get their hands on it…or
rather, it’s hand on them.
“There are always third parties, and in this case, if you
were a third party that wanted the Witchblade, wouldn’t it be easier to
take it from the rookie than the hardass NYPD detective? So yeah,
that’s an aspect of the story too. Sara knows a lot more about what
she’s doing with the Witchblade – Dani’s a lot more vulnerable. I’m not
saying that Dani’s going to lose the Witchblade or that Sara is going
to keep it, but at the end of the story, we’re going to have a new
status quo.”
Witchblade #125 is scheduled to ship in March.
