Blogcritics Books Reviews Witchblade Vol. 2 - Awakenings by Ron Marz and Mike Choi

I know I said that the first volume of the renewed Witchblade series wasn’t exactly my cup of tea; but short while after saying, there I was — feeling an inexplicable urge to read super-heroine stuff on glossy paper, and so I picked up the second volume of Witchblade. To my pleasant surprise, it was actually better than the previous volume, story-wise. No more apocalyptic end-of-days cliches, but rather your more usual day-to-day supernatural killers and mutated outlaws.

First, a quick recap: the renewed Witchblade series by writer Ron Marz follows Sara Pezzini, a beautiful New Yorker detective, the bearer of an ancient and powerful artifact called the Witchblade; the Witchblade symbiotically attaches to Sara’s (naked) body, both like an armor and a weapon (The original Witchblade series, with amazing art by Michael Turner, debuted in 1995, went on for 79 issues, and is still going on with the renewed series taking over from issue #80, first published in 2004; this second volume collects issues #86-#92).

All the art in this volume is perfectly and professionally colored by Brian Buccellato.

To summarize my impression of this volume, I would have to say that it is still not my usual cup of tea, but once in a while, it’s exactly the kind of tea I crave — and for sure it had been better tea than the previous one. I may drink more of it, once in a while.

Read the full review here.

Source: Blogcritics Books

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Rising Stars reviewed on G4's "Fresh Ink"!

Blair Butler discusses Mike Carey's new limited series, 'The Torch,' and explains why you should read her top three new comic releases: 'The Dylan Dog Case Files,' 'Scalped' and the 'Rising Stars' Compendium. You might need to spend a little more cash at your local shop than you thought.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

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Comic Book Resources reviews Rising Stars Compendium

Ten years ago, the buzz surrounding “Rising Stars” was great as comparisons to “Watchmen” were made, Neil Gaiman wrote a glowing piece about it in the promotional zero issue, and expectations were high. J. Michael Straczynski was writing an epic story in the vein of “Babylon 5” about 113 children who were affected by a mysterious comet while in utero, and gained special powers as a result. These ‘Specials’ grew up separate from the rest of society and some went on to greatness, some fell hard, but most just wanted normal lives. It look promising, but saddled with flashy art that couldn’t deliver the subtle storytelling Straczynski required and beginning a pattern of hopelessly late shipping, “Rising Stars” soon became a bit of a joke, something that had people asking, “That’s still being published?” and it ended mostly unnoticed -— but, now, the entire story is collected in one package along with the three tie-in mini-series, tipping the scales at 1000 pages.

READ MORE.

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