Artifacts #32
Hell, On Wheels
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Chan-Hyuk Lee
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Editor: Bryan Rountree, Betsy Gonia and Matt Hawkins
Publisher: Top Cow Productions and Image Comics
On Sale: November 27, 2013
Price: $3.99
Format: Full Color
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama
Rated: T+/Teen Plus
Hell, On Wheels
Tom Judge is no stranger to Hell and the horrors it conjures. In his effort to redeem Jackie Estacado’s accursed soul, he finds something much more surprising. But what he won’t find represents and even darker omen.
I must confess to mixed feelings about this issue. I know anytime you have a new writer or artist on a comic it may take some time for either them to find their footing or for the readers to come to terms with their style. Chan-Hyuk Lee’s art has me wondering which it would have been. Or could it simply be that with where this issue goes the art ws matched up to the setting? Since this series appears to be heading for a hiatus, after the issues that will be done by Talent Hunt winners, we may never know the answer.
As for the writing, Ron Marz is obviously in the process of setting something up for the Witchblade universe as he has announced this was his last issue of Artifacts. The next few issues will be by Talent Hunt winners.
Clearly there is something coming for the universe, or should I say, some change is in the works. We have heard the news over the past few months, the death of Jackie, but is he dead? And if he is dead then where would the bearer of The Darkness go upon his death? This issue is obviously an opening salvo in asking and hopefully leading us to answers to these and many other questions that have come up from the past few months. Though this issue reads very quickly, and Troy Peteri obviously did not have an exorbitant amount of lettering to do, it is no less powerful of a story. I will miss Ron Marz’s writing on this series, but look forward to amazing stories in the Witchblade title as he weaves his tales over there instead.
Tom Judge is still his gruff self, though obviously rattled by recent events. Tilly? Well you will need to read this issue to see how our Tilly is doing.
Final Score for Artifacts 32 is a 6/10, based primarily on the writing itself as the art left me wishing for so much more.
