Witchblade, Vol. 1 (Witchblade (2017-))

by Caitlin Kittredge

[Quirky Cat]

For the sake of honesty, I should probably start off this review by telling you that up until this series reboot, I didn’t know much about Witchblade. Actually, other than knowing it is a reboot I didn’t know anything at all. Still, there were a couple of things that drew my attention to this ‘new’ series, and it was enough to make me want to give it a try.
The first time I heard about the Witchblade reboot was from a facebook post by one of my favorite authors. You can probably guess who I’m talking about, but I’ll lay it all out for you. Caitlin Kittredge was talking about the newly rebooted series she was working on, and basically how excited she was about it. So obviously that caught my interest – I’m always looking for new books by my favorite authors.
Then I realized it was a graphic novel. I was more excited than I should have been by that realization – but I love seeing my favorite authors try out new mediums, so this was really cool for me. More than that though, the artwork I was seeing was absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t have asked for more; a fantastic author and a talented artist all in one? Yes please!
All that being said; I can safely and honestly tell you that you don’t need to have been a Witchblade fan to understand what is happening here. Sure, I may have missed some subtleties and references, but on the whole I really enjoyed the experience and am looking forward to more.



This was a great start to a new series; there are events that immediately pulled me into the story, even though the artwork alone was probably enough to keep me turning the page. I had been a little worried that this series would pick up where the original Witchblade had ended (because then I wouldn’t have understood what was going on) but thankfully that wasn’t the case.
Alex Underwood was a reporter, now she works in witness protection, and she’s pretty amazing at her job. That’s probably the reason she got killed. Now she’s the Witchblade, even if she spends more time than not resisting that fact. To be honest, it’s kind of hard to blame her.
I really enjoyed all of the buildup and backstory for Alex. Having her day job be a witness protection agent is ironically perfect. Granted, I was cringing at the idea of a witness protect agent going missing while on an active case, only to have a restraining order fall through because of her absence. That seems like some sort of giveaway, doesn’t it? One would think that, at least. But, sadly, it does help establish Alex as being part of the real world – where things don’t always work out as ideally as one would hope.
Luckily Alex has a lot of support in her life, all things considered. What’s interesting is how different each of those characters ends up being. One is the stereotypical boss/kickass friend, which I think Alex desperately needed, so I don’t really mind the stereotype. Meanwhile Majil reminded me of Harry Dresden, in a way. Just without the ability to cast magic (picture the magical artifact stash, the bravado, the charm, and the arrogance of Harry, and you’ve basically got this guy). And finally our mystery guy, Asher (love the name). If I had to guess I’d say he’s very long lived, as opposed to actively trying to conceal his identity (though he’s totally doing that a bit too). I don’t really understand his connection or motivations yet, but I’m sure we’ll get there.
As for the Witchblade part of the plot…consider me interested. Again, I don’t know much about the Witchblade origin or history, but I really enjoyed what I’ve been seeing here. They did a good job of building up the intrigue – Alex’s resistant personality actually really helped with that, and threat level. The use of lower left and scummy people of the city was an interesting choice, and not one you’d expect from a supernatural being (which is probably why it worked). And that personal twist on Alex’s life? Yikes. I can’t wait to see where that leads us.
I’m really happy I decided to give this series a try. I pretty much loved everything about it, from the characters to the look of the Witchblade, down to the villains and setup. I’m curious about where the plot will go next, and just how much we’ll be seeing of the secondary characters (I hope they all hang around).


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks