WITCHBLADE Issue 165 Excerpt

Written by Tim Seeley

This issue references quite a few back issues, so I hope you’re ready to do some digging.  We definitely cover ARTIFACTS 13, WITCHBLADE 150, and we dig into the Way Back Machine for scenes from issues 3 and 4, and a few others.

PAGE 1

These first five panels can be relatively small in comparison. We just want to get across that we’re connecting this back to Artifacts 13, and then we can go hog-wild on Panel 6!

Panel 1: We open on the all white un-space seen in ARTIFACTS issue 13. We come into the scene at about page 10 of that issue. Have this pulled back, at bit, perhaps overhead, as Sara strikes out at Jackie, holding Hope in her arms.

Caption: Then. The last universe’s end. Sara: It has to be this way! Jackie: Ghh!

Panel 2: And, as in that issue, Jackie, face bleeding, tries to stop Sara as she plunges the bladed finger of the Witchblade into Hope (off panel preferably!) Jackie” Sara, don’t! Not like---

Panel 3: And, just as in that issue, the rebirth of the universe erupts from the small form of Hope.

Jackie: thii—

Panel 4: Small panel, as we see the formation of a universe, mirroring issue 13.

Panel 5: Another smaller shot, this time of a expanse of space…something that sort of elicits the feel of the very beginning of the universe…lots of cosmic dust coalescing into planets, etc…whatever looks Kirby cool! ***TROY! Use that cool Bubble treatment on the Humanoid Witchblade that you used in Witchblade 150! Witchblade (free floating): Sara. Panel 6: A shot of Sara’s face, her eyes open…awe in her eyes. Witchblade (free floating): This universe. All it ever was. All it will ever be. Is over. PAGE 2

Panel 1: SPLASH SHOT! Sara floats in space, before the HUMANOID WITCHBLADE (last seen in issue 150). “Standing” beside and behind the Witchblade Woman, extending off into infinite space, are the wielders of the Witchblade…past and future.

Draw only as many as you can draw without going crazy, but I think we should definitely see UNA, ANNE BONNY, KATARINA, DANI BAPTISTE, LETTY SWAN, SELINA LAUREN (from the Warren Ellis story!), TAKERU IBARAKI (from the manga: http://witchblade.wikia.com/wiki/Takeru_Ibaraki) and MASANE AMAHA (from the anime. http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/Masane%20Amaha%20Wallpaper__yvt2.JPG That should get the fannies talking!).

Also include GIOVANNA FIRENZE (a new bearer who shows up in this issue. She’s from circa 1910 New York City, an Italian immigrant with black hair, olive skin, and wearing something akin to this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/PSM_V83_D324_Three_italian_im migrant_women.png She’s in her early 20s, and, like most Witchblade bearers, she’s quite a looker.

Witchblade: And for this, you must answer a question. PAGE 3

Panel 1: Now. We’re in New York City. Early May. It’s a pleasant, late spring evening. Maybe 7 or 8 in the evening. We focus in first to see the face of a sort of intense, middle aged guy…a street preacher. He’s one of those guys who stands on a street corner shouting his message to the world, garishly dressed and eccentric. Street preacher: When the end comes, will your soul be prepared?!

Panel 2: Pull back to show Sara walking down Broadway in NYC. There are a variety of people around, as Sara passes the street preacher. He’s standing atop a milk crate, holding a pamphlet, shouting to no one and everyone.

Caption: Now. Street Preacher: for the donation of one dollar, you can find out how to ensure your passage into heaven!

Caption (Sara): Springtime in New York City. The birds sing. Grass pushes up through the sidewalk. And the weirdoes come out of their long winter’s nap.

Panel 3: Sara stops outside one of those small, jam packed electronic stores run by an Indian immigrant. A small-screened combination DVD player/ television shows the news from a shelf in the window. Nearby it are digital cameras, clock radios, and remote control toys.

TV (jag):…devastation of the mansion points to a possible gas leak, though rumors of Estacado’s mob connections fuel…. Caption (Sara): Six months. That’s enough time to be away from a place to make it feel just a little bit strange. Like coming into a conversation and trying to catch up so you can offer something valuable.

Panel 4: On Sara’s face as she watches the small screen.

Caption (Sara): Time moves so fast. I’ve been so wrapped up in my new “life” in Chicago… Caption (Sara): How long would it have taken me to get back here if I hadn’t been dragged back by Tom Judge? A year?

Panel 5: Sara turns back as an NYPD car comes blazing down the street, sirens and lights on. Caption (Sara): How far removed from my hometown could I get? Could I be away long enough to make it unfamiliar? SFX: WHEEEOOOOOO WHEEEEEOOOOOO

Caption (Sara): Or will there always be things…sights, smells, and sounds….

Panel 6: Sara begins to walk down the street, hurriedly, after the cop car. Caption (Sara): That make it feel like home? PAGE 4

Panel 1: The police car is parked alongside the sidewalk. A beat cop talks to a few passersby. A pretty, young female detective talks to a clerk, who is both angry and frightened by what just happened.

Clerk: …If I coulda just got to my Taser, I tell ya the whole thing woulda gone down a whole lot differently…

Panel 2: Sara walks up to the scene. In the background. The young detective tries to calm the clerk in the foreground.

Detective: You did the right thing by just giving up the register. The important thing is that no one got hurt. Caption (Sara): Fresh new detective. Still on probation.

Panel 3: On Sara, a small smile on her face, as she, along with a few others, watches the scene. Caption (Sara): Working hard to bust stick-up artists and corner kids in the hopes that she’ll get to chase high level drug dealers or serial killers some day.

Detective (from op): Can you describe the guy for me?

Panel 4: Back over to the clerk and the detective.

Caption (Sara): She’s learning one of the first lessons of detective work….

Clerk: He was really tall. Black beard. Or, like a mustache…

Panel 5: Sara walks on past the scene, away from the assembled crowd.

Clerk (op): But, really tall. Wait, no…it was a beard.

Caption (Sara): Eyewitness memory is notoriously unreliable. PAGE 5

Panel 1: Overhead as Sara walks down the NYC street. Caption (Sara): In times of high stress or fear, short-term memory becomes undependable. Time is protracted. Facts are relative.

Panel 2: Focus in on Sara’s wrist, where we see the Witchblade in its bracelet form. Caption (Sara): But for the WItchblade at my wrist, what has come before is too important to be left to human perception.

Panel 3: Big shot. Pull back as the city around Sara transform into New York City of 1910. I would suggest having the “flashback” parts of the city be in a different color, maybe sepia toned. I think it would be cool if some of the scene overlap, with part of it reflective of modern day, and part of it in the flashback era! Maybe even some of the people are represented as partially in the modern era, listening to iPods, and in the other, accurate to t1910 fashion. FOR REF: http://www.retronaut.com/2012/11/manhattan-noir-1913/, http://www.retronaut.com/2012/11/fashions-worn-at-the-auteuil-races/ http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/3b02840u.preview.jpg http://www.theusreport.com/storage/Bread%20Line%20NYC%201910.jpg? __SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1329942598519 http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2743/4339027648_436a4f7d00.jpg http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/historic-photos-from-the-nyc-municipal- archives/100286/

Caption (Sara): 1911. An unusually warm September evening. Horses passing out from the heat. Caption (Sara): Most of the city still en route to their uncomfortable apartments after a day spent at Coney Island.

Panel 4: Sara, in the midst of the scene, turns down an alley. The people around her are obviously oblivious to her, as she’s not really there. There are three people in the alley, though we need not see much of them yet.

Caption (Sara): GIOVANNA FIRENZE, bearer of the Witchblade didn’t get the day off. And now she was working at night too… PAGE 6

Panel 1: We see Giovanna standing in front of another woman, who is obviously some kind of prostitute. Giovanna has her arm out. The Witchblade is wrapped around her upper body, and is forming a wicked looking epee (She’s a fencer after all), which points at the prostitute’s chest. Standing with her is a very proper looking man of about 65 years old. He has a large mustache, and a striped suit. This is demon hunter Friedrich Reinhardt. He’s loading ammo into his 1870 Luger.

Caption (Sara): Assisting famed demon hunter, Friedrich Reinhardt chase down a soul devouring demoness.

Panel 2: On Sara, in the foreground, as she sees Freidrich, behind Giovanna, lifting up his luger, unbeknownst to Giovanna. The prostitute smiles knowingly, seemingly unafraid of the Witchblade in front of her. Caption (Sara): And here’s the part that the Witchblade wants perfectly and accurately captured for posterity.

Panel 3: Close in on them. Friedrich pulls the trigger, though it’s unnecessary that we see Giovanna shot. Perhaps just the implication of her black hair, coming in from off panel. Caption (Sara): Because the tragic end of Giovanna Firenze contains an important lesson.

Panel 4: The prostitute regains her natural form, that of a demonic succubus, and embraces Friedrich. (For the sake of continuity, and a ref to the previous run, maybe refer to the cover demoness from WB: REDEMPTION VOLUME 2 for her design! http://clzimages.com/comic/large/90/90_268475_0_WitchbladeRedemption2TP.jpg, or similar to the female demon is WITCHBLADE 105 that Sara and Patience tussle with: http://th08.deviantart.net/fs6/PRE/f/2006/352/e/6/witchblade_105_splash_page_by_neb ezial.jpg)

Caption (Sara): Never trust a man around a succubus.

Panel 5: Sara exits the flashback scenery, entering back into modern NYC and continuing her walk.

Caption (Sara): Hell, for most of us, you could probably just cut out the “around a succubus part.” PAGE 7 Panel 1: Sara is now at the end of Manhattan Island. Battery Park. There are people walking together…couples arm in arm as she approaches the guardrails that face out over the bay. Caption (Sara): And, so, just like the Witchblade recorded the sad end of Giovanna, it also collected the lives of each and every bearer, just in case it should be needed.

Panel 2: Sara looks out over the bay towards the very well lit STATUE OF LIBERTY off on Liberty Island. Caption (Sara): Just like, I guess, someday the next bearer, the one after that or one a million years from now will be able to see and relive parts of my life.

Panel 3: On Sara’s face, her expression indicating a discomfort with the weird realization of her own mortality. Caption (Sara): What a weird thought that is; to know your life, all your private moments, might be a lesson laden dream for some piss & vinegar filled girl who might not even be born yet.

Panel 4: Closing in on Liberty Island in a flashback WAAAAY back to WITCHBLADE issue 3, as Sara looks up at a helicopter off the edge of the island, shining it’s light down at her. We want to transition this flashback from it being seen from Sara’s viewpoint now, from Battery Park, to a recreation from her vantage point from issues 3 and 4.

Caption (Sara): What will the bearer of the blade in ten, fifty…a hundred years, see from my life?

Panel 5: And, a recreation now, from Sara’s point of view, of IAN NOTTINGHAM, leaping towards her, looking as handsome and irresistible as ol’ Mike Turner could make him. He’s dressed in his pretty over the top vest thing, hair flowing, and sword at the ready. Sara is in her outfit from this particular issue…a shredded pair of wet sweat pants, tattered top and lots of Witchblade armor.

Caption (Sara): Will they dredge up this old nugget? PAGE 8 Panel 1: A recreation of Sara and Ian duking it out on Liberty Island from issue 4, with all the sexual tension imagined by our 13-year-old selves. He’s got that blue glowing mystical tattoo on his hand, and his sword glows blue.

Caption (Sara): I suppose if the Witchblade needs to show some hormone heavy future chick the cautionary story of what happens when a bearer falls in love with the bad boy….

Panel 2: Ian has Sara by the throat, just as he does in issue 4. At this moment she’s still afraid, and he’s still ambivalent to her….

Caption (Sara): It could probably start riiiiiight abouuuut….

Panel 3: But we close in their profiles, as suddenly there’s a connection between them…some kind of passion/attraction only imagined in the hearts of 50 SHADES OF GREY fans everywhere.

Caption (Sara): There. Caption (Sara): The WItchblade has given me a lot since I first picked it up. Hell, I’d be dead without it.

Panel 4: Back to Sara at the railing, leaning there. Light wind off the water ruffles her hair. Caption (Sara): But I can’t say I’m grateful for that increased sense of invulnerability… that passion for danger, that led me to guys like Ian. Ken Irons. Ahem, Etcetera.

SFX: (phone, from pocket?) Beep Beep

Panel 5: She looks down at her phone. She’s received a text. Her face shows a little bit of guilt.

Caption (Text, from phone): FROM: GLEASON MSG: GLAD UR BACK IN TOWN. MEET UP AT THE OLD PLACE FOR A BEER & BS in 20? Caption (Sara): And away from…others.