Top Cow Rebirth: Witchblade Unbalanced Pieces Part 1
Tim Seeley-Writer Diego Bernard-Artist
When you first open part one you are introduced to a tall, dark-haired gentleman who seems to have some goblin-like creatures hiding in the shadows behind him. This is Jackie Estacado, the bearer of the Darkness. He is telling someone about how the 13 Artifacts triggered the events that set Rebirth into motion and how rather than saving the universe, the artifacts created a new one. Jackie claims to be the only one that knows about these changes and just had to get this info off his chest before turning the lights off.
Next we are introduced to Sara Pezzini, who seems to be in a bit of a situation. In a tight little black dress she is behind bars rather than putting the bad guys behind them. She was a detective for the NYPD, but is now working as a P.I. in Chicago. Sara is also the bearer of the Witchblade, a sentient Artifact and weapon; it is also the balance between Light and Darkness.Sara has only been living in Chicago for a few weeks, and is having a difficult time adjusting from being on the front lines of an investigation to hiding in the shadows. The CPD doesn't really care for Sara being involved in their investigations and stepping on their toes. The case that Sara is on at the moment appears to be a “typical wife assumes the husband is cheating” type of steakout, but sadly it's more complicated than that. Sara follows a hunch and ends up in the apartment of the supposed cheating husband, only to find him dead, and a matchbook as her only clue as to who is behind the killing. Rather than leave it to the CPD, Sarah chooses to look into this herself since the Witchblade seems to be drawing her into the case.
Following the matchbook lead, Sara finds herself at at a Goth/Punk club and the Witchblade alerts her to all types of arcanists among the clubbers. Shortly after entering the club she meets a mysterious man who introduces himself as Cain Jorgenson. During their conversation Cain mentions that he has been to New York before and has come across a curio shop run by an old Asian guy. Sara knows the curio shop all too well since she has dealt with the curator before (Refer to Witchblade #100) Cain is then distracted by a beautiful woman that enters the club and blows Sara off. Sara makes her way to the ladies room to gather her thoughts and to admit to herself that despite being the wielder of the Witchblade and all its abilities she cannot stop or slow down time (Sara has been granted many unique abilities, including the power and ability to heal herself, to create [often very revealing] armor over her skin [as the Witchblade tends to rip away all of her clothes], to shoot energy blasts, to extend razor sharp tendrils and even winged flight).
Meanwhile, the young woman who was talking to Cain excuses herself and follows Sara to the ladies room with the intent to kill Sara. Covered in what looks like muscle tissue with bone shards, the woman attacks. Sara uses the Witchblade to fight back but at this point the police show up yelling at Sara to put her hands up, telling her to gently put grandma down and back away. Confused Sara looks down and sees an elderly woman in the place of where the young woman she just fought. These events bring us to where we find Sara at the start of the issue.
Issue #2
Sara is bailed out of jail by none other than Cain, who seems guilty about blowing Sara off at the club. Cain explains that he knew the woman that attacked her, a woman by the name of Miranda Smalls. Cain seems more upset over the fact that Sara wasn't freaked out over what she saw and what happened. But Sara tries to explain that this is nothing new to her and that she has seen worse. Cain then tells Sara that he is a magician, and takes her to his place, for coffee *wink wink*. After being distracted for a little while Sara snaps out of it and rushes out of Cain's apartment, claiming that she has to go.
Meanwhile at the hospital Miranda is recovering from the attack and is visited by woman demanding to know where "The Fountain" is. Sara is sitting in her car outside of the hospital, when Miranda and the mystery woman come crashing from the window to the sidewalk. Sara chases after the them and finds them fighting. Leaving to to wait for the 3rd issue. Not too much really went on in this issue other than Sara getting back to her PI work and looking for more info into Miranda, and who is behind these odd powers and odd "meat armor suits." Diego Bernard is the new artist for the Rebirth story line taking the place of Stepjan Sejic [issues 116-150], Diego has done some work with the Red Lanterns series, Red Sonja, Kato. Tim Seely is the new writer, taking the place of Ron Marz [issues 80-15], Tim has done work on Hack/Slash and Bloodstrike.
Since this is a "start-over" in the Top Cow universe, you do not have to run back and read the previous 150 issues, but it would be awesome if you did and probably provide more context. Sara starts her life over in Chicago with no real idea as to what happened after the events in the Artifacts storyline. There are a few things that do not seem right to her, like seeing one image in a photograph but then it changes to something different. Sara is being followed by a shadow in the story, but she doesn't seem to notice him or who he is, but you do find out during the story that it is someone working for Jackie, the mysterious man from the beginning, and keeping tabs on her.
At the end of each issue there is something I found interesting and insightful. It seems that there is more to Cain Jorgenson than what we are seeing so far. There is also a file at the end of issue one from a Jericho Jorgenson, dated 4-29-1972. The end of issue two is one from a David Jorgenson dated 12-9-1958. Both oddly enough end up being transcribed by a Tim Seely on 12-31-2011.
I highly recommend checking this series out, even if you just start off with Rebirth [issue #151], you do not have to worry about missing out on anything that happened in the past, since this is a "do over". Witchblade is a great series to read if you are all for the urban fantasy kick-ass female lead. This would also be a great place to start off it you are looking to check out Top Cow. I could go on about the series, but I'd rather you check it for yourself.
~DD~
