Ron Marz: Witchblade's Origin

This week, Withblade will be laid bare.

Calm down sparky – figuratively laid bare as Ron Marz and a host of artists finally tell the origin of the Witchblade – the weapon that has been a part of Detective Sara Pezinni’s life for the past ten years. That is, Witchblade #92 = origin story. Finally.

We caught up with Marz to talk about the issue, and how it came to be.

Newsarama: When did the decision come down that the origin of the Witchblade would be told in issue #92? Was it your idea or Top Cow’s?

Ron Marz: The whole thing really started with a conversation I was having with Top Cow editor Scott Tucker. He was the one who mentioned that the Witchblade was coming up on a 10-year anniversary. I was the one who pushed for marking the anniversary with something special, and something that mattered story-wise, not just a big pin-up package. The obvious story to tell, because it had never been told in the previous decade, was a definitive origin of the Witchblade.

NRAMA: Was much convincing needed? Relatively speaking, you’re still the new guy on the book, given that it has been around for 10 years…

RM: There wasn't much convincing needed, at least that I know of. Maybe there was some wrestling on top of the conference table at the Top Cow offices, but I never heard about it. I pitched my idea for the origin, everybody liked it, and off we went.

NRAMA: But why in #92? There’s the10th anniversary and everything, but you couldn’t hold out for eight more months to make it #100?

RM: Well, if we'd waited until issue #100, it would be 2006 ... which would be the 11-year anniversary. I know there's a precedent for fudging anniversary dates in comics, but I figured the math was pretty simple, so we should stick with it. It also gives us a nice one-two punch: we can trot out the dog-and-pony show for issue #92, and then do it again -- in a different way -- for issue #100.

NRAMA: The dog and pony show, not the origin?

RM: Right.

NRAMA: In a word, why? What can you do, what stories can you tell with the character now with her origin known that you might not have been able to before? Was the entire mystery aspect of it played out?

RM: I don't know if it had been played out as much as it was just something that had never been figured out. There are definitely times when mystery adds to the mystique of a character -- Wolverine's origin – well, until that story was told, or exactly who the Joker was before he became the Joker. I don't think the Witchblade falls into that category. The fact that the reader didn't know exactly what the Witchblade was ... well, I don't see that as part of the appeal of the Sara Pezzini character. The "mystery" truthfully wasn't a big part of the book; it was just something that wasn't addressed. Once Sara understands what the Witchblade is, it opens up a lot of character business that's frankly overdue for her.

NRAMA: So then, in telling the origin, how much research did it entail on your part? Did you have to pull all the references from all the times an origin was hinted at, or did you just as Marc Silvestri what it was?

RM: Hell, I don't think Marc even knew what it was! When I took over the writing of Witchblade, I sat down and read a stack of issues. One of the things that jumped out at me is that Sara doesn’t really know what the damn thing is. This symbiotic whatsis is attached to her, and she's never bothered to find out its true nature. Didn't make much sense to me, especially since she's a detective. So I started to treat it as a question that Sara didn't really want to ask because she might not like the answer. But in issue #92, she's finally asking the question, and getting the answer. There were hints of the origin here and there, previously. There was something about the Witchblade possibly being alien in origin, having fallen to earth as a meteor. There were also religious or supernatural connotations hinted at. I looked at all of it, and then came up with the origin that I thought made the most sense, and didn't necessarily put the lie to anything that had come before.

NRAMA: Talk about the approach you’re using. From the preview pages, it looks like you’re telling not only the origin, but also the Witchblade’s place through history?

RM: The Witchblade had already been established as cyclical -- it's been handed down to various bearers through the centuries. We happen to be telling Sara Pezzini's story right now, but that doesn’t mean hers is the only story to tell. So the issue travels from the present, back through various historical bearers, until we reach the beginning -- the origin. The historical snippets allowed us to divide the issue into bite-size chunks for all the artists who were contributing. Maybe at some point we can even go back and expand upon some of the historical sequences.

NRAMA: What historical periods are we seeing? Are you drawing from any of the better-known eras of the Witchblade as seen in the Tales of the Witchblade series, or are these all new?

RM: Some new, some that have been shown previously. I wanted to get a mix, so we could dovetail with what's already been established, as well as show off some previously unknown bearers. We see some familiar bearers, like Anne Bonny, or Shiori from feudal Japan, or Katarina, the Medieval Witchblade. But we have a number who are new, including a World War II-era Russian soldier and an African queen. One of the goals was to make the issue a worthy payoff for loyal readers, as well as a welcoming first issue for someone who's never read Witchblade before.

NRAMA: What’s the impetus for the reveal of the origin story-wise? Does Sara just get fed up with not knowing?

RM: In issue #91, she made a promise to her semi-partner, Patrick Gleason, to find out what it is. Sara had settled into a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of arrangement. As I said, if you're not sure you want the answer, you don't ask the question. But Gleason really badgers her into confronting it, showing Sara how irresponsible she's been by ignoring the fundamental question of what the hell it is.

NRAMA: Who does the telling of the Witchblade’s origin?

RM: Sara goes to the Curator character we introduced back in issue #80, who is our mysterious "knows more than he should" guy. He helps her learn the origin, but he doesn't sit her down and just tell it to her. It's more like a movie that plays out in front of her, though I don't want to specifically say how that happens, because it's a bit of a spoiler.

NRAMA: In the preview pages, it’s said that the ‘blade is “one of thirteen.” Huh?

RM: There are 13 "artifacts" in the Top Cow Universe, 13 objects or aspects of power. A few of them have been shown previously, like the Witchblade or the Magdalena's Spear of Destiny, but not all of them. Might be interesting to see what would happen if all 13 were ever brought together at once, huh?

NRAMA: Might be. Any plans?

RM: These are not the droids you’re looking for…

NRAMA: Onward then…with the story itself, you’ve got different artists on different eras – your idea? Can you list them out?

RM: Yeah, my idea, because I'm a sucker for the big "all-star artists extravaganza." I've mentioned Batman #400 and Superman #400 as inspirations for this issue. More recently, Daredevil's 40th anniversary was marked with this kind of issue, and Avengers Finale had the same sort of structure.

I tried to match artists with subject matter suited to their styles, and I think everything fell into place pretty nicely. Here's the definitive list: regular artist Mike Choi does the present-day stuff that bookends the issue. We’ve already previewed pages by Darwyn Cooke, showing the siege of Stalingrad during World Ward II, and Eric Basaldua, set in turn-of-the century Paris. After that, in order, we've got Keu Cha, Luke Ross, Francis Manapul, Rodolfo Migliari, Brandon Peterson, Bart Sears, Terry Dodson, Chris Bachalo, George Perez and Marc Silvestri.

And somewhere in there, we've got our "mystery artist," who was someone we didn't advertise in the solicitation. Since this issue comes out this week, we might as well unwrap the package: Joseph Michael Linsner chipped in with a couple of pages that are pretty important to Sara's understanding of the Witchblade.

NRAMA: For the long-time fans, how big is the payoff? That is, how tightly is this all tied to what we saw at the start of the series? That is, are we going to see the Kenneth Irons tie-ins to the whole thing?

RM: We see Kenneth Irons in the Paris segment by Eric Basaldua, which to my mind is the first time he ever comes into contact with the Witchblade. I thought it would be a nice nod, because Irons' pursuit of the Witchblade played a major part in Sara getting it in the first place. Beyond that, Irons seems to be pretty dead at present, so I wouldn't hold my breath for further appearances.

NRAMA: So tease - obviously, you’re not going to tell what the origin is here, but what elements does it play in?

RM: Well, it's safe to say it ain't an extraterrestrial meteor. I will say the Witchblade is tied to the greater cosmology of the Top Cow universe, the two primal opposing forces in the universe. Hopefully the way this plays out brings a little more of a unified feel to the Cow universe -- not the huge continuity ties you're seeing in Marvel and DC storylines right now, just more of a sense that the various books and concepts occupy the same space. It's the same sort of thinking that led to Samantha Argent from Hunter-Killer making a brief appearance at the end of Witchblade #91.

NRAMA: End of the day – Sara learns the whole origin? Where it is, where it came from, what its purpose is, and where it all fits – all of it?

RM: It's actually the end of three days, from which you can take whatever religious symbolism you want. Sara definitely learns the big picture, the answers to all the important questions. It's a double-size issue, we started way ahead of time, we jumped through all the logistical hoops to put together this many artists, you can be sure that your five bucks is going to get you a definitive origin.

NRAMA: So where do you go from there, story-wise? Again, what kind of doors does revealing the origin of the Witchblade open for you, editorially?

RM: Issue #92 is very much a self-contained story, but I think we'd be remiss if we didn’t follow up on what Sara learns, and more importantly, her reaction to it. There are ramifications we'll be exploring in the future, starting in issue #93, in fact. The whole thing lets me move Sara forward. Once she knows what the Witchblade is, the next obvious question is...does she want it? Stay tuned, issue #100 is coming up.

SOURCE