Tales of the Witchblade Issue 4 is the fourth of nine part Witchblade comics series, which focus on other wielders of the Witchblade. This is the second and final part of story focused around Witchblade wielder, Selena Lauren.
Synopsis[]
Detective John Chimu and Witchblade wielder, Selena Lauren continue their investigation of a spree of murder in 2097, New York.
Characters[]
Plot Summary[]
John brings Selena to the murder scene of Geoffrey Kuhn and his secretary Getz Muller. After inspecting the scene, Selena smokes a cigarette, which displeases Chimu and reveals that this isn't the work of a serial killer. Selena explains that it's a revenge killing as it's too cold, deliberate and specific to be a serial killer's job. She then directs her focus to the secretary's corpse.
The second corpse puzzles Chimu as the victim had sex with the killer. He questions Selena if the killer was the victims girlfriend or close friend. Selena denies this, explaining, that death is the great aphrodisiac. The killer had sex with her victim because of the murder and she then killed him because, he either was a witness or maybe because she felt like a black widow.
Selena then proceeds to seduce Chimu and have sex with him. During the sexual intercourse, Selena connects her Witchblade tendril to his head. Later Chimu questions as to why she connected with him. Selena evades the question, asking him if he didn't like it. Chimu answers that he didn't, but he would like to do it again. Selena tells him, that they might as well as he probably already knows who made the killings. Chimu is confused as he has no idea, who the killer is.
This amuses Selena and she reveals that Kuhn was a member of Sustain team, the people responsible for creating the age retardant. Once Sustain was fully developed, the team chose to drop below the publicity horizon. They names were never revealed, except to intelligence. As Chimu activates his comms, he's informed that there was another killing. The victim is Andrea Tyler an one hundred twenty-three year old geneticist. After hearing this, Selena reveals that she was on the Sustain team too,
At the murder scene, Selena explains that taking the victims hands, eyes, tongue, nose and ears are the killer's point. She then reanimates Andrea's corpse with help of the Witchblade, which sickens Chimu. Selena proceeds to ask Andrea, who killed her. Andrea reluctantly answers that it was Esther Dannen, the first test subject of Sustain. Chimu recognizes the name as the volunteer forensic discovery team member, he met earlier. He tells the officers the find her immediately.
Chimu then threatens Selena with his pistol and forces her to tell him the whole story, regarding the Sustain team. Selena reveals that there were five people on the Sustain team, and five human testbeds. Esther Dannen was the first, and the worst. During the early days, the Sustain dosage were hundreds of times what people take today. Dannen appeared to die under that dosage and the corpse was placed in storage, where it stayed for three years. In reality it was a Sustain induced blackout, that lasted three years. During the entire time, her mind was awake, locked in a black prison of complete sensory deprivation.
Selena continues, telling that Dannen, like the other four test subjects, including Selena herself, were psychopaths, taken from prison. At some point, Dannen managed to escape from her prison and sought revenge against the scientists. With a new identity as a police forensic scientist she started to hunt down the scientists, one by one. Selena also adds, that Dannen takes her victims appendages in order to show them what she went through, while being in complete sensory deprivation. As she tells this story, Selena by using the Witchblade, takes Chimu's gun from his hands and destroys it. She then proceeds to kiss him.
Together with Selena, Chimu goes to Dannen's apartment. As they enter the apartment, they confront Dannen. Dannen reveals that she manages to kill another scientist, Rajiv Siva, while they were searching for her. The woman decides to peacefully give herself in for the corrective therapy. Chimu instead shoots her in the head. Knowing that Chimu now faces corrective therapy, Selena offers to join her in Downtown. Understanding that he's now under the influence of Selena and overwhelmed with all the violence he witnessed, Chimu decides to take his own life. Selena then decides to cover up this and replace Chino as the new detective for Manhattan.