Irons is obsessed with the Witchblade, an ancient gauntlet which grants great power to its wielder. The first arc - issues 1-8 - tells the story of Kenneth Irons, billionaire, sorcerer, and all-around embodiment of patriarchal power. Its gender politics weren't as in-your-face as those of Ghost, but it was still pretty clearly about the difficulties of wielding female power in a world built on male violence and female victimhood.Īs the Witchblade armour shreds Sara's white ballgown, her empowered (and sexualised) 'bad girl' identity rises from the ruins of her 'good girl' femininity. However, unlike the other comics I've discussed in these posts, Witchblade was initially written by an actual woman, namely Christina Z, who wrote the first 39 issues. In later years, the creators of Witchblade were very open about the fact that they came up with her because Shi and Lady Death were the most successful characters in comics at the time, and they wanted a piece of the 'bad girl' action for themselves. And it provided a launchpad for Croatian artist Stjepan Šejić, who illustrated dozens of issues of Witchblade and its spin-offs between 20 before achieving online fame for his heartwarming lesbian BDSM romance comic, Sunstone (2014). It had a manga series (2007-8) and an anime series (2006) and a two-season live action TV show (2001-2). Witchblade quickly became the tentpole of the 'Top Cow' comics universe, relegating older characters like CyberForce to the status of mere supporting cast. It appeared monthly from 1995 all the way up to 2015: a run that dwarfs those of most of its competitors. Her comic ran for 185 issues, or 230-ish if you count the spin-offs and crossovers. She's mostly forgotten now, but there was a time when Witchblade was a pretty big deal. Previous posts on Shi, Warrior Nun, and Ghost here, here, and here. Fourth and possibly last in this series, depending on whether I can muster the energy to do posts on any of Kabuki, Dawn, Aphrodite IX, or Fallen Angel. This one's just on gender, as Witchblade had little interest in race beyond the usual 1990s surfeit of honour-obsessed Yakuza assassins.
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