Witchblade 63

Investigating a bizarre murder on Wall Street, Sara Pezzini realizes that powerful and extremely dangerous forces are afoot-ones that will require more than just keen detective work and the Witchblade. Sara needs the help of the mysterious and beautiful Magdalena, who's been conducting an investigation of her own. Forming an extremely uneasy alliance, the two women make a shocking discovery-something that Sara hoped she'd NEVER see again...

In the wake of Top Cow's Rebirth, Sara Pezzini has relocated from New York to Chicago and struggles to adapt to being a private detective. Pezzini quickly discovers that a change of scenery and occupation hasn't changed one thing... the Witchblade is still a magnet for the supernatural! Quickly drawn into a conflict between two mystical gangs, she must once again balance her responsibility as bearer of the Witchblade with her personal life.

"APPARITIONS" Sara Pezzini moved to Chicago and started a new life as a private investigator to escape her past in New York. But instead of getting settled into her new career, Sara has felt like she has been running in circles chasing ghosts... or, is it the ghosts that have been chasing her? Sara will have to contend against mercenaries, gangsters, and power hungry leprechauns, all while suffering the drudgeries of trying to stay profitable. Maybe black cats really do bring quantifiable amounts of bad luck. Collects WITCHBLADE 161-165

BORNE AGAIN Even without the Witchblade secured to her wrist, Sara Pezzini cannot escape the corrupting influence of the gauntlet.

In the 1990s, American televison audiences witnessed an unprecedented rise in programming devoted explicitly to women. Cable networks such as Oxygen Media, Women's Entertainment Network, and Lifetime targeted a female audience, and prime-time dramatic series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Judging Amy, Gilmore Girls, Sex and the City, and Ally McBeal empowered heroines, single career women, and professionals struggling with family commitments and occupational demands. After establishing this phenomenon's significance, Amanda D. Lotz explores the audience profile, the types of narrative and characters that recur, and changes to the industry landscape in the wake of media consolidation and a profusion of channels. Employing a cultural studies framework, Lotz examines whether the multiplicity of female-centric networks and narratives renders certain gender stereotypes uninhabitable, and how new dramatic portrayals of women have redefined narrative conventions. Redesigning Women also reveals how these changes led to narrowcasting, or the targeting of a niche segment of the overall audience, and the ways in which the new, sophisticated portrayals of women inspire sympathetic identification while also commodifying viewers into a marketable demographic for advertisers.

UNBALANCED PIECES', Part Four...Sara Pezzini only wants to repay Cain Jorgonson by rescuing him, but the cult of the mysterious Fleshblade stands firmly in her way. The new creative team of TIM SEELEY (HACK/SLASH) and DIEGO BERNARD (The Man With No Name) continue their genre bending run on WITCHBLADE!

Police officer Sara Pezzini busts a group of drug dealers. While interrogating one of them she learns of a sinister party going on downtown. Later, at the party, Kenneth Irons, a man who has used illegal means to gain fame and fortune, is planning on giving away a powerful item called the Witchblade. He desires to find out who is the one worthy of it and to control both it and its wielder. Sara sneaks in to the party to find out what's going on, but unknown to her so does her partner, Michael. Michael is captured - Sara leaps to save him from being shot, but they both get hit by the hail of bullets. The Witchblade - seeing her heroism - latches on to her, saving her life and all its power goes to Sara Pezzini. It seems she was the one it sought.

Between Ian Nottingham and Kenneth Irons stand Sara Pezzini and the Witchblade, who will ultimately wield it? By writers David Wohl and Christina Z and artist Michael Turner.