The Cast: Sara Pezzini (Witchblade), Ariel Chylde (Darkchylde), Kenneth Irons

The Catalyst: Kenneth Irons will do anything for power including using the powers of the Darkchylde for his own.

The Convergence: Things are going down in the city and the Witchblade senses it has something to do with Ariel Chylde which leads to a confrontation.

The Critique: This was a crossover that definitely catered to fans of the bad girl craze as it featured two of the hottest characters of the time it was released, that being Witchblade and Darkchylde. Thankfully the two women would fit together like bacon and eggs, both magic-based and both characters who have seen their fair share of violence and such during their lives. For one, that being Ariel, gets a chance to be a normal girl, one like everyone else and free of the curse that is bonded to her soul. That being said, the opportunity comes from Kenneth Irons and while she does not know it, that is not a good thing. So it is that chaos erupts throughout the city and Witchblade is the one who has to clean it up, not that she would necessarily go out of her way to avoid it. This leads her into a confrontation with Ariel as well as the revelation that everything that is happening all around them, the death and the destruction, is all because of Kenneth Irons, even if Ariel is indirectly involved in it. Despite being somewhat fan service, this was not the best of crossovers that one would ever see or read as it was very light on story and was over before one even realized it. If anything, this should have been a forty to forty-eight-page special with a lot more depth, twists, turns and characterization present than there was here. There should have been more with Irons, his motivation and goal in gaining this particular power-set and readers should have seen him use it more. The art was good, Randy Queen always able to lay it down on paper in a most attractive manner to the eye of readers everywhere but the colours were a little off, especially during the last couple of pages where it was impossible to tell Sara and Ariel apart from one another, a bit of a letdown to somewhat of a letdown overall. Still, for curiosities sake or for the completionist looking to add this to their collection, it was an okay interlude into the ongoing events of both characters’ respective titles.

The Credits: Randy Queen – Writer, Randy Queen – Artist, Alp Altiner and Victor Llamas – Inker, Jimmy Yu and Matt Nelson – Colours, Robin Spehar and Dennis Heisler – Letters

Companies Involved: Image Comics

Chronology: September 2000