Woman Warrior Wednesdays #6 by Kate Krimson

Artifacts #1-Image Comics-$3.99

4 out of 5 Stars


Summary:


Detective Sara Pezzini, the current bearer of the Witchblade, and her partner, Gleason, catch a monster killing a priest. Many priests have been killed lately. Pezzini thinks this monster may be the killer. The monster says he is looking for the one, but this priest is not the one. Gleason takes the priest away to safety. The monster is looking for someone who escaped Hell. Pezzini kills the monster with her blade, when he attacks her.


Julie Pezzini, Sara’s sister, calls to tell Sara that she and Sara’s daughter, Hope, will be staying at the park a little longer than she originally planned. Sara says that’s okay since she’s tied up with a case. Unfortunately, it appears that a strange woman is watching Julie and Hope.


Meanwhile, a new monster finds the damned escapee, Tom Judge, who is a former priest, but Tom kills the monster with power given to him by his cross necklace. Tom apparently woke up on train in the city. He’s not sure how he got out of Hell, but he had an address on his mind during the ride. The address was that of a man simply known as The Curator. The Curator tells Tom some very important information, like Tom’s double-stacked cross necklace, The Rapture, has something to do with his miraculous escape from Hell and that The Rapture is one of 13 artifacts that when all put together means doom for Earth. Each of these artifacts is assigned to a person and luckily #13 remains hidden and unknown. Unfortunately, The Curator thinks that Tom made it out of Hell because someone is trying to collect all the artifacts.


Back at the park, the strange woman poses as a balloon saleswoman. When Julie tries to purchase one for Hope, the woman shoots Julie in the head. Her name is Aphrodite IV. She is an android programmed to kill. Aphrodite kills a green monster with a strange light beam that comes from her chest. The monster was trying to save Hope because he works for Hope’s father. After her two kills, Aphrodite walks away with Hope into the night.


Writer (Ron Marz): Marz sucks the reader in automatically, when the monster says he looking for someone who escaped from Hell. A trick that I’m sure most people wish they had. The 13 artifacts for a 13 issue miniseries probably means each will issue will give a detailed tale on the artifact and its owner. #1 gave us two artifact holders: Sara Pezzini (The Witchblade) and Tom Judge (The Rapture). One is sure to want to read the upcoming issues to find out about all the artifacts, especially the mysterious #13.


Illustrator (Michael Broussard): His monsters are scary. His depiction of Aphrodite IV as a goth clown android interesting and yet still fits the character. He gives the reader a glance of the artifacts and their owners that definitely makes the reader want to pick up issue 2.