Progeny Part 4
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Marco Turini
Colorist: Andy Troy
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Editor: Bryan Rountree, Betsy Gonia and Matt Hawkins
Publisher: Top Cow Productions and Image Comics
On Sale: Mar 20th, 2013
Price: $3.99
Format: Full Color
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama
Series: Artifacts
Tom Judge’s plans to recruit Witchblade bearer Sara Pezzini in his quest to overthrow Darkness bearer Jackie Estacado didn’t pan out quite the way he expected. In a desperate grasp to turn his fortunes in battle, Tom has turned his attention to attacking the perversion of the universe Jackie created at its core. But will Tom do what needs to be done when he must brace himself to end the life of an innocent bystander?
I waited for this issue with both eagerness and a touch of trepidation that occurs whenever an established book has a change in the creative team. Change in creative team? Yes, that’s what I said. In case you were away from comic news in the past couple weeks and were unaware, Stjepan Séjic will no longer be the artist on Artifacts. He has taken on the artist role on Matt Hawkins’ upcoming book, Aphrodite IX opening the door for Italian artist, Marco Turini to take on the artist role for this issue and one or two more.
While I can say that I enjoyed his work on this issue, I am a bit disappointed that he will not` be staying on this title long enough to truly show us what he could do with the characters and the storytelling of Ron Marz.
Marz has the task of wrapping up this four issue cross-over event and set up Artifacts (and the Witchblade universe, or should we call it the Darkness universe these days) for what’s next. He does this with aplomb and a touch of humor (or is that just my dark side peaking through as I read this issue?) Sadly I think I may have gone into this issue expecting something different. Something a bit more definitive for the universe, a mistake I try to avoid but didn’t manage to this time. This left me feeling as though it could have been more. But again, this is not the fault of Marz or his story telling so much as a let down because of expectations.
Now setting my expectations aside, did the story deliver? YES
Did the story leave me wondering where Marz will steer it in the future? YES
Do I consider the answer to the preceding questions an indication that the issue was a success? Most definitely.
Now I will leave you wondering what did I expect Marz to do in this issue versus what he did, because if I were to tell you these things then you would have little reason to pick the book up yourself.
Looking back at a review I did of an earlier issue it seems that Marz manages to take his stories in directions I don’t expect on a fairly regular basis. This must be why I enjoy reading them so much. After all if he were writing what I expected, then I would have no need to read it.
Final Score: 7/10
Originally published by MetalLife.com
good,
thanks