Tales of the Witchblade Issue 6 is the sixth of nine part Witchblade comics series, which focus on other wielders of the Witchblade.
Synopsis[]
The story of Samantha, the Witchblade wielder in the Roman times.
Characters[]
Plot Summary[]
The town of Cecilia is under control of Roman Empire. The towns elder, Horace asks an audience with the leader of the Roman forces, Lord Marius. Although at first hesitant in the end Lord Marius decides to meet with Horace, believing that this would be fun. When Horace comes, he expresses worries about the new taxes Marius has deployed. The taxes has driven most denizens of the town to poverty and people are too weak to even work.
Lord Marius rejects to cancel the tax, saying that this will prevent people from planning treachery against him. One of the Romans than throw a tomato at Horace and Marius orders him to dance for his entertainment. As Horace complies the Roman laugh out him and begin throw fruits at him. The guards then throw Horace into a nearby river.
Moments later, Horace is saved from drowning by a cloaked woman. Horace thanks for saving him and then asks the woman as to where she came from, as they don't see many outsiders in their town. The woman dodges the question when suddenly they hear a woman scream.
As they run to check out what is happening, they find three Roman guards harassing a couple. While two guards hold the man, the third one decides to rape the woman. Horace tries to stop them, but instead is beaten by the guards. Seeing this, the cloaked woman decides to step in. With the help of the Witchblade, she quickly kills the three guards.
The townsfolk are impressed by the mysterious warriors skills. The cloaked woman says that the townsfolk should have dealt with the Romans years ago. Horace answers that the people are too weak to resist the Roman occupants. He then offers to give anything the woman wants if she helps to defeat their occupants. The woman refuses saying that they barely have anything.
The cloaked woman then has a warm bath, when a young girl approaches her, saying that there are guards outside the house. The woman quickly gets her clothes on and escapes through the window in order to avoid the guards. Unfortunately, the guards notice her and proceed to surround her. Afraid to burn as a witch for using the Witchblade, she lets the guards to knock her out.
Two days later, the cloaked woman wakes up in a prison cell with a woman she saved earlier. The woman named Cecilia, reveals that they have been implicated with the murder of those three guards, the cloaked woman killed and are set to be executed in an hour. She also reveals that Horace was killed by the Romans to quell the possibility of a revolt. Cecilia then asks what will the cloaked woman do now. The cloaked woman, revealed to be Samantha, says that she's will kill every Roman she finds. Samantha shows Cecilia the Witchblade, which was given to her by the druids and tells her life story.
Samantha was born in Cecilia. When the Romans came, they violated and slaughtered her people, while Samantha herself was taken as slave to city far away. For half of her life, Samantha served her lord needs, who would abuse and neglect her in return. One day, her mistress stepped between Samantha and the lord as he was about to hit her. The lord then proceeded to beat to death Samantha's mistress with her cooking pot.
With her mistress dead, Samantha bribed a male slave into taking her letters to her lost family. Unfortunately, they were discovered and the slave was killed. When the Romans found the letters, they accused Samantha of espionage as they assumed the letters contained the information she heard during many government meetings. Samantha was locked in the dungeon. Eventually, the dungeon was set on fire and Samantha managed to escape into the countryside, with no food and no means to find any. Eventually she was found by group of druids who believed that she was the professed warrior, that was said to get rid of the Romans and return the land to its Celtic roots.
In the present, the women are taken for the execution. Cecilia is horrified to see her lover, Gerald about to be executed. As the new governor orders the executioner to cut Gerald's head, Samatha unleashes the Witchblade. Although Samantha manages to get out of her bonds, she fails to save Gerald and he loses his head. Samantha then kills the executioner, frees Cecilia and then tells her to get out of the town. Cecilia refuses, saying that she can't abandon her home and instead joins the fight. Samantha then rallies the townsfolk to rise against the Romans. As the Romans fight the townsfolk, Samantha sets on fire the building the governor is residing and then the rest of the buildings.
The governor manages to escape the building and sneaks up on Samantha. Although he manages to subdue Samantha, the Witchblade shreds him into pieces. Cecilia then blames Samantha for destroying their town and letting the townsfolk to be killed. Samantha explains, that just before she came across Horace, she found about what became of her parents years before. Her father tried to organize a revolution and free his town from Roman influence. The townsfolk gathered under him, but when he was discovered they quickly distanced themselves from him. Most even cheered when they watched Samantha's father and mother be executed.
Cecilia tells Samantha, that the townsfolk were just weak and scared and needed someone to rally them. She then asks her if this what her father would have wanted. Samantha says yes and then leaves with tears running down her cheeks.