Witchblade #24 // Review
Sara has fallen in love with a weapon. It’s not her own weapon that she’s fallen in love with, though. It’s something different altogether. It’s an android. Sara’s going to try to save that weapon from the clutches of those who use it. Maybe it can decide to be something else...something better. Sara’s going to meet with a great deal of resistance in Witchblade #24. Writer Marguerite Bennett and artist GIuseppe Cafaro close-out a story arc with the color team of Arif Prianto, Felix Hidayat and Sakti Yuwono. The closing of the series makes for an interesting poignant moment at the end of the second year of the new series.
It sounds like a joke: a girl with green hair walks into a bar. Sara feels like she’s the punchline. She’s trying to save an android who she’s fallen in love with. At the end of any assignment that android has its memory wiped during a recharge...then awaits for the next assignment. The androids aren’t allowed to have memories. They’re only allowed to be deadly weapons. Sara wants that to change. She’s going to have to defeat a whole lot of tech if she’s going to be able to free the android she loves.
Bennett’s treatment of the Aphrodite IX character is deeply enjoyable. Somehow, the author manages to avoid a whole lot of clichés regarding android assassins in that sort of thing. The basic premise is still there. However, there's more going on here and just that. And the relationship between her and Sara ends up being hugely enjoyable. That makes me ending of this particular story or that much more powerful. The deeper somatic elements of what's being explored haven't quite been framed in a way that feels totally satisfying. That may be by design, though. With any luck, Bennett may be able to explore Aphrodite under her own title.
Cafaro slides the action across the page with swift aggressive slices. There is a remarkable amount of energy on the page. The trauma attached into the faces of everyone as assembled tends to feel a letter over-the-top, but this is the climax of the story so that would make a lot of sense actually. The story would be a little bit better with slightly more modulation, though in particularly as the story reaches its climax. Prianto and company deliver a lot of death and a radiance to the page with the kind of color that feels pleasantly immersive.
It's a real disappointment that things couldn't have turned out differently at the end of the issue. Again: that's probably what they're going for. And anyway, Sara has her own issues to have to handle. Two years into this series and Bennett is still charting new territory. So many different angles to be taken on the character. So many different things that she could be involved in. It will be interesting to see where she's going with it next. In two years, she's explored as such a small amount of the potential for the character. It's nice to see her taking her time with it.
