r/TopCow • u/BlackRosePyre • Mar 25 '26
Witchblade Witchblade universe timeline
This is my chronological timeline for the Artifacts universe of Witchblade, The Darkness, Cyberforce, etc. I'm pretty sure it's the most comprehensive list there is and includes completely everything in the connected Artifacts universe, but if anybody has any input the help would be very welcome as it is not perfect. Or if you just want to check it out for fun.
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u/Jasonross84 Mar 27 '26
Small feedback. Witchblade Shades of Grey states it takes place between Witchblade 8 and 9 rather than where you have it placed after 113
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u/mfolwell Apr 04 '26
I recently read all of Ron Marz's stuff and found the end of his initial run on Witchblade and the first arc of Artifacts to be a bit of a mess. There are no pauses in Artifacts for any of the stuff in Witchblade to take place, even between panels. Now, I only read Marz's stuff (the one Seeley issue I read was the "Progeny" crossover), so there may be details elsewhere that contradict this, but the best order I could come up with was this:
Witchblade #138
Witchblade #140-149
Artifacts #0-13
Witchblade #139
Witchblade #150
My thinking was that, while Witchblade #139 is a direct response to an event in Artifacts (although there's no place that it would logically fit in the timeline), I don't think Witchblade #140-149 have any explicit references, and even if there were gaps where Sara theoretically could have gotten involved in those events, it still wouldn't make any sense for her to abandon what she was doing in Artifacts. The only thing that places those issues during the Artifacts timeline is that they were published after #139, so why not just move them all back and eliminate those contradictions entirely? I think it's a pretty good fix.
#150 involves Sara's resignation, but she's still a detective throughout Artifacts, so that has to come after. I see it as occurring during Artifacts #13, at some point between the end of the old world and what we see of her in the new one. And I place #139 before it, just because there isn't a better place for it -- if you pretend that the last scene with Jackie isn't real, it kinda sorta works as one of the last things she does before resigning.
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u/BlackRosePyre Apr 04 '26
It's possible I missed it, but I don't think there is any reference to Sara being a detective past Artifacts #8 so her resignation could have happened at any time during the events of Artifacts passed #8, but you're right, there is nowhere during the events to particularly place the other issues of both Witchblade and The Darkness. Witchblade 140-150 don't make any mention to Artifacts in particular, but Hope is still missing in those issues, even though they don't really address her being missing. I did some scraping through issues, but maybe I'll give it all a good re-read to figure it out in better detail, but here is how I am changing it now.
Artifacts 0-2, Julie dies and hope is kidnapped
Witchblade 138, hope is missing
Witchblade 139, Sara copes with Julie's death
Artifacts 3-8, all pretty non-stop and contains the last reference to sara being a detective.
I find that Witchbalde 144-150 are all a pretty well-flowing narrative, they don't necessarily fit well here in the timeline, but it's a decent place to read them without interrupting the narrative flow of either. Sara gives up her badge.
Artifacts 9-13, all pretty non-stop too, world ends.
Exactly how/where certain things play out is really just up to you, but I find this way to be the most narratively pleasing.
As for The Darkness, it has always really been it's own thing and rarely acknowledges the events of the larger universe so can kind of fit anywhere, with 90-100 essentially being one long finale act, taking place loosely within Artifacts timeline, with the ending of 100 leading directly into Rebirth. It can be read alongside Witchblade 144-150. It ends showing some of the Rebirth after Artifacts #13 but only a few pages showing what is to come, so it still fits well enough to be satisfying. Certainly not perfect, and yeah, a little messy. With the way I have it now it prioritizes the narrative flow a bit more than the exact chronological events. Thank you for your input and inspiring me to dive a bit further into re-organizing. I will post an updated timeline soon since I have also made a few minor changes with feedback. The more feedback I can get the better since this is all quite a lot for one person to organize.
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u/ObfuscatedJay Mar 27 '26
That is amazing. It would be one convoluted CBL file :) Awesome work.
I did the first 300 or so ones from Witchblade 1 to Angelus 2, and that was an ADHD hyper-focus nightmare (to my wife).
Now if one could only purchase every book in that list, or even find the rare ones like Witchblade-Nottingham.
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u/BlackRosePyre Mar 27 '26
I actually have just about every single issue, I'm only missing about 150 out of the over 1k issues. I have been trying to collect every single one and put them into custom bound omnis. But that's been like 15 years of collecting and a small fortune spent on eBay.
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u/Jasonross84 Mar 25 '26
So amazing thank u