Villordsutch reviews Witchblade #181…
We come to Witchblade: Darkness Falls: The Death of Jackie of Estacado (Pt.2) and as with all two-parters there is going to be that slight sense of dread creeping in as you wonder if this closing section is going to be as brilliant as the opener. As Part One certainly carried a huge punch – read the review here – can this power be carried over to the conclusion; to the final moments of the Witchblade staring at Jackies head upon the table?
As we left the last issue Hope, Sara’s – the Witchblade – previously deceased daughter, now an ultimate power entity, who has been resurrecting cats along with a her dead nanny, has now read Sara’s mind and knows what she has come to do to Jackie. In a few seconds however the situation is brought to a calm by the careless tongue of the previously deceased girlfriend of Jackie – Jenny – who is under the belief that she is Hope’s mother when she reveals the location of Jackie. With that Jackie appears at the door and it appears that Jenny is dead once again, killed by the disciple of Jackie. After a brief word play and another resurrection of Jenny the Witchblade and Jackie – in his Darkness form – begin to battle and it soon becomes apparent that this battle will always be a stalemate, that is until Aram appears with a “Kill all sword” to help Jackie on his way.
Though Witchblade #181 is a good comic it does fall into the category of not being as good as the opener I’m sorry to say. I know we have the battle and death of Jackie in this issue, which is brutal, but the appearance of Aram and the “Kill all Sword” was a bit Deus ex machina. On top of this the powers of Hope are sent to another bedroom and not to be seen again; granted Jackie was protecting the people he loved but I really wanted to see what Hope could do.
Knocking these negatives away the comic is an enjoyable closing issue and it does make us aware that there are people and objects out there that can strike the Witchblade down with one blow and they are slowly closing in on her. David Hine has made Sara that bit more vulnerable whether she knows it or not. The artwork from Gabriel Rearte does look good, though it can get ever so slightly confusing in the fight scenes, but there seemed to be something slightly off in the colours. If you look at Issue #180 we had fantastic muted palette and now it’s fairly loud, I went back to #180 and could see a marked difference in quality straight away. I know that Betsy Gonia is an excellent colourist from her previous work, so I can only assume that this has happened during the processing of this issue.
Witchblade #181 doesn’t quite match the punch of #180. It’s still an enjoyable issue, bringing to a close the life of Jackie Estacado, but with Hope’s new powers I’m sure we’ll see him again one day soon.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsp_bmDYXc
Originally published March 19, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
