Cursed

(Image, 2003-2004)
™ and © Image Comics, Inc.

Here’s another typical Top Cow comic book that’s a formulaic blend of pretty girls, slick art, and the icky supernatural. Basically, it’s Witchblade redux, except the heroine, reporter Shan Beaumont, receives visions instead of Sarah’s mystical junk jewelry (though both do share an identically shaped face).

Although the story jumps from Egypt to New Orleans to Greece to Germany, the settings are never more than empty potboiler backdrops for a fairly dull plot about an ancient cult led by a female pharaoh who has trouble keeping her clothes on.

Shan’s internal struggle with her destiny seems to be externalized by an out-of-balance wardrobe that consists entirely of men’s shirts and jackets and painfully short skirts (always color coordinated; in New Orleans the outfit is red, in Germany, it’s blue). It’s certainly pretty enough; I just wish more thought had been given to just about everything else.

— S.A. Bennett

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