Witchblade #185: The Finale

Witchblade #185 (Image/Top Cow)

Ron Marz/Marc Silvestri/Matt Hawkins (w) Various (a)

Twenty years of Witchblade finally comes to an end this month with this final double-sized issue. Sporting a cover by the late, great Michael Turner (reprinted from the very first issue in 1995), Sara Pezzini embarks on a quest to pass on the artifact known as.. the Witchblade.

For those of you expecting high explosive action you will be disappointed. This is a very introspective adventure involving Sara's thoughts about her journey. For those of you (like me) who have not read a copy in a while this finale is worth adding to your collection no matter how long the gap.

Witchblade was once a highly popular comic whose early issues were highly sought after and attracted ridiculous prices in the age of the speculators, whose antics nearly destroyed the comics industry and certainly drove me out the hobby for a while.

Created by Marc Silvestri, Michael Turner, Brian Haberlin and David Wohl, this title made Top Cow one of the hottest companies in town.

Sadly Witchblade sells too few copies to be viable and all the other Top Cow titles have gone the way of the dodo. Sad, but tastes change.

For me the end came when Sara left the NYPD. But even then sales were dropping. Spin off comics like Artifacts did not impress and even the Darkness had it's limitations.

I'm sure this issue will sell a few more copies than normal but for now it is the end.

Here's some covers from Witchblades "heydays".