20-3C5435C-087

Wraparound cover art by Michael Turner. Untitled Witchblade story, script by David Wohl, Brian Haberlin (co-plot), and Michael Turner (co-plot), pencils by Michael Turner, inks by D-Tron. Police officer Sara Pezzini dresses to kill and engages in an unauthorized sting of a group of local drug dealers; she is chewed out by her boss for her antics and because she endangered her partner, Michael Yee, who was already undercover on the operation. During the interrogation of drug informant Drexler, Sara and Michael learn about something big going down at the old Rialto theatre on that very night, but on their way to the Rialto, Sara and Michael are called to a crime scene where the victim has literally been cooked from the inside out. Superstar businessman Kenneth Irons and his deadly bodyguard, Nottingham, begin their tournament by offering paying attendees a chance to try on a mystic gauntlet called the Witchblade. Sara has snuck in solo and watches in horror as mob boss, Cugliani, sticks his hand into the Witchblade and has it burned off; Irons' men catch Michael lurking about outside and prepare to execute him.