Ron Marz injects new life into this Top Cow character. The Magdalena wields the Spear of Destiny, which is known as the spear that pierced the side of Jesus. She is meant to be the protector of the Roman Catholic Church, although her allegiance is more to the common good than to serving the Church these days.

The opening arc of this series is masterfully written and nicely drawn. It will interest anyone who likes a bit of religious myth and intrigue to go along with the comic book action. This issue #4 is a pivotal point of the story, where the Magdelena closes in on the child who is rumored to be the devil on earth. It will satisfy your short-term comic desires while leaving you wanting the next issue SOON!

Here’s the short of it: due to dorm overflow, fifteen college freshmen are shipped over to live in the science building, which has been modified to create living space. When a lab experiment explodes, their cells evolve — granting them powers related to whatever they happened to be thinking at the moment. The one character who would have loved to be granted powers — the resident comic book geek — is the one character who stepped out for pizza, missing the explosion and remaining powerless. They face all sorts of evil, from robbers to a mad and evil genius to frat boys with super strength. The overall arc is as much about the students learning how to care about each other — rather than wallowing in their own worlds — as it is about the super powers or the main thrust of the plot.

Each issue is narrated by one of the main characters, sometimes more obviously than others. The writers make really good use of that narration, particularly in the third issue, when you can guess who the narrator is, but the voice seems almost omniscient, so the reveal at the end is excellent. The science is appropriately comic booky — the machine that breaks is designed to make cells heal themselves; clearly it also impacts the cells on a different level — and the conceit is believable inside the scope of the story. Most of the characters are likable — and even the ones who aren’t are easy to enjoy disliking. The art suits the style of storytelling. It’s in the traditional superhero style, and the panel work is almost invisible — the art serves the story without ever drawing attention to itself.

It’s hard to imagine this series going too far — a quick internet search shows that there’s a second arc and a couple of tie-between issues — because it would be too easy for it to become just another superhero story once it got beyond figuring out the relationships. But being a college freshman is all about figuring out who you are once you’re away from all the people who have known you your whole life, and learning how to relate to other people on your own terms. Adding super powers heightens those basic issues, which brings the comic together as a coming of age story for a group of characters. It’s definitely worth the read.

Famine. War. Death. Disease. They are in the bodies of some accursed bikers and are awaiting the Magus in the sleepy town of Ginsburg, CA. The Darkness is hired to come in and take them out. Not an easy task.

And this book is not one for the kids! Graphic violence and twists just might make you shake a little bit. Writer David Hine has imagined some gruesome circumstances, and artists Jeff Wamester and Jason Martin deliver it in quite graphic detail.

Issue #2 shows Jackie arriving to stop the Four Horsemen, only to find that his darklings aren't as effective as usual. Other forces are on their way to Ginsburg, and at the end of the book, it's all about to come to a head.

This is a good book for Darkness fans who want a fun story arc that doesn't play into the current Darkness or Artifacts storylines. If you want a nice, complete, and fun read, then check out Darkness: Four Horsemen.

The artwork really drives the story in Angelus #1, and is the reason for my 5-star rating. Stjepan Sejic crafts beautiful pages, and his action scenes in this issue could be collectible art. When colored, his drawing style takes on a painted look. The coloring on the screen really pops, as it ranges from the deep, cold colors of the underworld to the bright colors of the heavens.

This mini-series is a helpful lead-in to the Top Cow crossover event, Artifacts. Writer Ron Marz introduces readers to the current Angelus, which is an entity that is handed down through the ages. The current wielder, Dani Baptiste, is getting to know the depth of her power and her place in the universe through the course of this story arc.

Dying Breath 4 out of 5 It's rare these days for me to really enjoy something where I don't know the whole cast. Sure I know a little about Witchblade and the Darkness, but nothing to make me want to just dive into this book. However, I am on board for this ride after reading this issue. The artwork is GORE-geous from page to page and well that gets me going on the eye candy side of things. The story is what really hauled me in though. I was big on the Witchblade train for about a year, so I think it's safe to say that reading this issue has gotten me back into that spirit. The pacing was great and really intriguing. I loved the build up as it went along too. Needless to say Top Cow, you can count this headless guy on board for the whole sha-bang!

As a zero issue this comic is higly interesting. I realy liked the drawings and I'm very excited to find this dated comic from 90's now. David Wohl creates an interesting setting with so few pages. Dave Finch's artwork is brilliant. Yes there are a few scantly clad ladies but this comic is very promising.

When I last saw Danielle Baptiste, she’d just been chosen as the host of the Angelus — and rumor was that she was moving out west with friend (and potential lover), Finch. We’re now three issues in to her new story, told by Witchblade writer Marz and accompanied by Sejic’s usual amazing artwork, and a lot seems to have happened. Sabine, formerly determined to serve as host to the Angelus herself, is now Dani’s willing lieutenant. There’s a villain known so far only as the Conductor. And head of the Darkness, Jackie Estacato, has come to pay Dani his respects — however, that manages to work out.

As the issue opens, three of the Angelus warriors are in hell, stealing an artifact for Sabine (who must have her own agenda — no surprise here, as I didn’t trust her in Witchblade). They encounter another regular in the world — Tom Judge — who warns them about having two artifacts too close together and hints that a big event (probably a crossover event with all the splinter series that have started in 2010, but that may be my comics cynic talking) is coming. In one splash page, the Angelus warriors find out that their activities have not gone unnoticed — in a big (demonic) way. The posture of the Angelus warrior facing the legions of darkness is perfect — Sejic nails the image beautifully.

As the story continues, Jackie Estacato makes himself known and, as is inevitable when the Darkness and the Angelus meet, they explode into battle. Dani doesn’t want things to go the way they always have, but Jackie makes it difficult for her to see him as anything but an enemy. Best part of this battle scene? It happens above Mardi Gras — and the commentary from the by-standers about having had too many shots, etc., is the comic relief for the tense battle above.

There are some quiet images in this issue — Dani and Finch have dessert with Dani’s dad (they’ve returned to her home town of New Orleans), and Sejic does some of that interesting panel work I love: in the top panel, we see what’s above the table and the conversation taking place. In the following panel, we see the feet below the table, and Dani interrupts whatever Finch was about to say. The gap in time between the panels — always existent in comics, which is one of the reasons they’re an interesting medium — is nearly transparent. The way the space is taken up and the way the lines are broken fit perfectly. It’s little moments like this that show that Marz and Sejic really know how to tell a story.

Dying Breath 4 out of 5

It's actually not to typical for me to go and read a Darkness book. I guess I have never been drawn to the character before, but with that said I wanted to give this book a read due to people kind of nudging me in its direction. I was pleasantly surprised at the product, but then again it was written by David Hine. The artwork was pretty good here and there but there were some GORE-geous scenes in between that made it a big winner. The story was engaging and I will easily be looking to check out the rest of this mini series, mostly because I have to know how The Darkness can win. There is a lot more Hell that is going to break loose and I will not have a problem admitting that I am on board!

Midnight Nation - Excellent. First discovered this comic in a French language version. Well thought out and interesting themes.

Here is is, folks, Artifacts #1, the first issue of the big cross-over event of the Top Cow universe.

And is it ever off to a bang. In several of the Top Cow series, we’ve been hearing about the 13 artifacts and how dangerous it would be to bring them all together. (Potentially, you know, the end of the world.) Some of the artifact holders are actively working toward that. Others are, of course, working against it, not wanting to be a party to Armageddon. But when Tom Judge is released from Hell bearing the Rapture, one of the 13, it begins to look like fate (or some power like it) is at work, bringing them together.

We open in New York with Sara Pezzini, the bearer of the Witchblade, fighting a minion of hell who is killing priests, looking for one in specific, the aforementioned Tom Judge. Judge doesn’t know how he escaped hell, but he makes his way to the shop of the Curator, the wise old man who was so vital to Dani, now the Angelus host, Baptiste during the War of the Witchblades. The Curator fills Judge, and by default, the readers, in on what the heck is going on with this artifacts thing — and why it’s vital they don’t all come together.

Meanwhile, despite the protection of the Angelus force and the Darkness, Hope Pezzini, daughter of Sara and Jackie Estacado (the host of Darkness) is kidnapped by Aphrodite IV, making me as an audience member really wish Sara’d killed the cyborg assassin when she had the chance. Also in this issue, a character I’ve been growing to love over the past several issues of Witchblade is murdered. Saying who would spoil the shock value, so I’ll leave it at that (and just hope that some crazy force in the highly supernatural Top Cow universe comes to the rescue in the next issue).

Ron Marz is writing Artifacts, but joining him for the artwork are Michael Broussard on pencils, Rick Basaldua and Sal Regla on inks, and Sunny Gho on colors. The art team does a phenomenal job — it’s not Sejic’s surrealistic style from Witchblade and Angelus, but there’s a great deal to look at in these images, from shattering stained glass to a scruffy looking Tom Judge walking out of the panels. On one page, Sara lets loose with her gun, and in each progressive, page wide panel, the witchblade grows longer on her arm until she’s armored up and ready to fight. (There’s one panel that suffers from “comic-book-women-have-painfully-enormous-breasts” syndrome, but only one.)

The ending of this issue with a “holy crap, they just did that?” moment means we’re likely to get a lot of world shifting moments in this series. If you haven’t been reading any of the Top Cow series, I’m not sure this is the right place to start, but based on the recap from the Curator, Marz is trying to make it easy for new readers to dig in to the universe. If it keeps the tone of issue one, this is going to be a great ride.

Wow. After reading the first issue of "Impaler," my first thought was 'How did I miss this?' The series originally debuted in 2006, and it's a great take on both the tired genre of vampires and the mythos of Dracula itself. The story starts out in 1460's Romania, where the army of Wallachia is being overrun by vampires. In a twist to the legend of Vlad the Impaler, the version of Vlad in this story is an agent of church, who goes through a ritual to become a blessed warrior of God and battle the demonic forces assaulting Wallachia.

Fast forward to present time, and a seemingly abandoned cargo ship floats into New York Harbor. Upon closer inspection, police find the murdered crew on the ship, as well as an ancient evil that is now loose on the streets of New York.

Writer William Harms does the improbable here, as he crafts a very unique take on a genre that has been done to death. His dark story is matched perfectly by the art team of Nick Postic and Nick Marinkovich, who depict vampires as unliving shadows that can get to anyone, anywhere at any time.

All in all, a very creepy first issue, and one well worth checking out.

Hand down this is one of my all time favorite series. Some people like to say that it kind of went off track towards the end but not me. I loved the concept here and the way it was executed was just top notch. This issue starts everything rolling in the right direction so take a look, you'll easily be hooked if you have not had a chance to check this one out just yet.

I was expecting .. more, but no doubt, since I praised an earlier part of this arc for its restraint, I can't have it both ways. The big finish seems more manipulative than epic.

Great issue! It's definitely out with the old, in with the new. Things begin moving along and the scope of the conspiracy begins to appear, after a dilatory previous couple of episodes.

I like this new direction, with more restrained art and a storyline with genuine pull.