Top Cow Universe Question

[shadowpsykie]

Hey guys, I have always been on the periphery of the Top Cow universe, i "know" who the top players are, and what i know of them is mostly from Witchblade (and most of that interest has come from the TNT movie) that said, i have read an issue or two of Witchblade (usually while waiting around in a book store and perusing the trades)

that said, even though my knowledge of it is slim to none, it has always interested me. most of the characters and stories seem so interesting, and the art for the most part is always pretty (yes there is a lot of cheesecake but i like that even the characters are like "Seriously witchblade?" even funnier when you find "Wait it's a guy? god it all makes sense now!")

anyway. recently (last two years or so) with the whole War of the Witchblades, First born, and Now Artifacts things have become alot more interesting (and more unified)

Now the point i am trying to make... i kinda wanna get into this universe. any suggestions on where would be a good place to start? should i start with the events that have happened? if so what "event" should i start with... are there any trades i can pick up?

there seems to be a mythology (story and MYTHOLOGY mythology) involved here and that interests me.

for Legality, Pretty art! A variant cover for Artifacts 1 (ithink)

Comments

[stolisomancer]

The Top Cow "universe" is pretty self-contained. Apparently Sara exists in Invincible's universe, but it's not the same Sara. In the same vein, what Jackie gets up to in his own book has never impacted Sara's book to any significant degree.

The Top Cow 'verse has also been redesigned almost from the ground up since Ron Marz took over, so my recommendation would be to pick up the Witch Hunt trade paperback. It looks like the entire run's been collected, so just go from there.

[shadowpsykie]

is there a Magdalena collection?

[stolisomancer]

Magdalena's solo book is only on issue #4, and everything else you need to know about her as of right now is delivered in Witchblade. Her previous existence as a Catholic-themed "bad girl" with the Spear of Destiny can be safely disregarded.

[shadowpsykie]

well i kinda like the "catholic" side of it. its part of the mythology of the story wasnt there a 12 part maxi series? i remember a couple of those issues.

is her story re itereated in the current WB series?

[stolisomancer]

Briefly, since she's in First Born.

[big_daddy_d]

A good jump on point is First Born as Top Cow really kicked it into high gear then. From there I recommend Broken Trinity, War of the Witchblades, Broken Trinity: Pandora's Box, The Angelus, and Artifacts. You can thank Ron Marz because he's been doing epic work with these characters. The brilliance of First Born and Broken Trinity is that though they're event books, they're told in 3 issues. 3 ISSUES! And it works so well. Also tie-ins are told in a way that they stand alone, yet also are part of the story if that makes sense. Hell buy the events in trade and you see how well they're put together.

Above all..Witchblade. That's what drew me into Top Cow and I believe it's the flagship title.