This all began in the late 19th century when, while on an archaeological dig in Greece, Kenneth Irons discovered The Witchblade gauntlet. Curiosity about the mystical artifact soon led to a quest for knowledge, which would later become a true obsession with the Witchblade, and controlling the power it holds. Kenneth Irons has researched every bearer of The Witchblade, read every ancient tome that might refer to its capabilities, and attempted to find that one person whom it would accept, and reveal its secrets to.
Kenneth Irons was an international businessman and criminal mastermind who was the person behind many of the evil deeds in the Top Cow universe.
500 B.C. Myrene: Although the origins of the Witchblade remain under speculation, Witchblade Watchers have traced it's use back through ancient history. Most certainly its first great wielder was the Gorgon Amazon's mightiest queen, Myrene. Myrene succeeded in raising a cavalry of 30,000 women and conquered a stupendous amount of territory including parts of Syria and Egypt. Depending upon the source, she is described as a benevolent conqueror or an incredibly vicious warlord - which is consistent of a Wielder who may not be able to control the Witchblade's penchant for bloodlust. When Myrene died, she was buried near Troy with the Witchblade still on her wrist.
480 BC Artemisia: It is believed that the Witchblade was later exhumed by Artemisia I, the female advisor to Xerxes, ruler of the Persian Empire. With the help of the Witchblade, Artemisia lead successful naval attacks on the Greeks in 480 BC.
45 BC Cleopatra: The Witchblade was next attained by the Romans, where it resided until Caesar deigned to present it to the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra VII around 45 BC And though she wore the Witchblade with great success, making her irresistible to men and invincible as Queen, the fickle weapon betrayed Cleopatra in the end and fell from her wrist in her greatest time of need, just as Octavian demanded her surrender. For the next 100 years, the Witchblade was most likely on display in Rome along with many of Cleopatra's treasures. But as the Roman Empire expanded under Claudius, surely the Witchblade played it's part, though no true wielders have been identified during this period. It is thought that Claudius himself may have tried to wield the Blade, and we know that it traveled in his possession on his conquests to Britain.
61 A.D. Boudicca: It was in ancient London where the Celtic warrior Queen Boudicca acquired the Witchblade when she sacked the city in 61 AD Queen Boudicca tried and failed to wield the Witchblade, but understanding it's powers - - at least in part - - she resolved to keep the strange gauntlet in her possession until the time when the rightful wearer would appear.
70 AD Cathain: Many a Celtic maid of brave and true disposition tried to stir the interest of the Witchblade, but it was not until the Harvest time (now believed to be November 11) that a beautiful and bold young woman named Cathain came before the court of Queen Boudicca and asked to try on the Gauntlet. To the amazement of all, the Witchblade melded perfectly upon her wrist and there is stayed for decades. Cathain became a great defender of the Celts and was heralded as a Goddess in song and legend. Her lover was the Celtic prince, Conchobar. It is a point of argument among Witchblade Watchers that upon Cathain's death, the Gauntlet was passed along through the women in her bloodline. It is thought that Cathain's great granddaughter - - either by consent or through blackmail - - assisted the Romans in attaining their vast empire. It is said she fell in love with a Roman soldier and fought by his side in the campaigns to take the Middle East, and that while battling the Syrians, the Witchblade was taken from her wrist by her opponent the great warrior queen Septima Zenobia.
250 AD Septima Zenobia: Septima Zenobia governed Syria from 250 AD to 275 AD and was known to lead her armies on horseback wearing full armor. During the reign of Claudius II she defeated the Roman legions so decisively that they retreated from Asia Minor. So great was her power and reputation after acquiring the Witchblade that Arabia, Armenia and Persia allied themselves with her and she claimed dominion over Egypt. Claudius II's successor, Aurelian, sent his most experienced legions to conquer Septima Zenobia, but it took almost 4 years of battles and sieges before her capital fell and Septima, along with nine other martial queens of allied provinces where paraded through the streets of Rome in chains. It is thought that rather than have the Witchblade fall into the hands of her enemies that Septima gave the gauntlet to a eunuch in her court with the promise that he would bring the precious bracelet to her once the Romans were satisfied that she had been conquered. But instead the eunuch, having seen the powers of the Witchblade, sold it to a Chinese trader who did not believe in it's magic but valued its unusual gem, thinking it was a large ruby. In-turn, the trader sold the Witchblade to a prominent Japanese merchant.
1199 AD Itagaki: There is little documentation of Witchblade activities for almost a thousand years. One theory suggests that the Witchblade spawned the Samurai sect. An alternate theory supposes that the emergence of the Samurai masked the use of the Witchblade, making it impossible to determine when and if it was used during this period of time. However, the next true Witchblade wielder was a Japanese woman of the Saurai sect named Itagaki. Beautiful, strong and brave, Itagaki led a charge of 3000 warriors against 10,000 Heike soldiers. When Itagaki died in battle - betrayed by the Witchblade in her hour of greatest need - the gauntlet came into the hands of Chinese loyalists who presented what they thought was a great talisman to the reigning Khan. In this way, it later came into the possession of the great Kubla Khan and was given to the Italian explorer Marco Polo during his tenure in China. Polo returned with the Witchblade - though it seems that he never understood it's powers and thought it was only another lovely trinket.
1428 AD Joan of Arc: Back in Europe the Witchblade may have changed hands as many as a dozen times before it came into the possession of a 16-year old peasant girl named Jahanne La Pucelle - Joan of Arc - in 1428. It is believed that the Witchblade was held by the exiled Dauphin of France, who knew only a fraction of the truth behind it's powers. When Joan presented herself to his court requesting that she be put in charge of his army, the Witchblade sprang to life in her presence, and on her wrist became the fearsome broad sword. The Dauphin was so amazed by the transformation of the gauntlet that he granted her request. Though Joan claimed that her victory in Orleans came from divine intervention, it was documented at the time that she was wearing a strange piece of armor unlike anything ever seen before - no doubt - the Witchblade. Witchblade Watchers were established around this time and therefore we have firsthand accounts of the Witchblade and it's use. The Watchers first believed the Witchblade was an instrument of God but then - perhaps fearing it's power or sensing it's menace - became convinced that it was instead, the handiwork of the Devil. At any rate, the Watchers documented that the Witchblade failed Joan in 1430 allowing her capture by the Burgundians during her attack on Campeigne. Joan's captors sold her to England where she was convicted of an ecclesiastical court of sorcery and heresy and burned at the stake. Before her death, the Witchblade was taken from her by a Bishop who had been seen sent to her to hear her final confession. He carried the Witchblade to the Vatican, where the Pope instructed that it be buried deep within the catacombs. For the next 500 years, the Vatican called upon the Witchblade during times of great danger, plague and upheaval. It is also thought that the Witchblade was used to forward the Catholic cause and root out evil. Because it's wearers were not "true" wielders, they often did not affect the desired results dictated by the Vatican, but some achieved great good. The gauntlets usage has been well documented by Witchblade Watchers who have kept a vigil throughout the centuries, recording it's whereabouts and Wielders. At first it was the opinion of the Pope that the Witchblade was the instrument of the Devil. But over the years, the opinion of the Vatican softened as the theologians argued that the Witchblade was the ultimate weapon against evil and it was the Devil who wished it to be kept under lock and key. Swayed by this argument, the Pope formed an inner-sanctum of Cardinals to make recommendations for how this powerful gauntlet might be used to the benefit of the Church.
1481 AD The Spanish Inquisition: In the late Fifteenth Century the Witchblade was put to use in Spain when a monk named Tomas de Torquemada wrote to the Pope on behalf of Isabella and Ferdinand to support their proposed inquisition. He suggested that the Blade, citing it's desertion of Joan of Arc, would be the perfect tool to sort out the true Christians from the nonbelievers. The Pope agreed and in 1481 sent the Witchblade to Spain as a token of his support for Torquemada's project. Torquemada became well versed in the Blades' powers and began a publicized search for a wielder. His scheme was to catch pretenders to the Blade as heretics, hoping that a true Wielder might be found that could use the Blade in the service of the Inquisitors. Not surprisingly, volunteers for the test were less than forthcoming. So an Aragonian noblewoman named Miribella Avila, whose family had fallen on hard times, was brought forth as a proposed Wielder. Miribella was forced into the charade by her distant cousin, Ferdinand, who believed that if the Blade didn't destroy her as a pretender straight off, she could be controlled for a time. Miribella Avila survived her attempt to wear the Blade, but refused to be a pawn in her cousin's political game. She tried to escape with the bracelet, but was killed in the attempt. It is suspected that the Witchblade was worn in secret by Queen Isabella until her death in 1504.
1504 AD Lucrezia Borgia: The Witchblade passed into the possession of Lucrezia Borgia, who was part of an alternate and evil bloodline, only for her to lose it again. Becoming a timewalker, she spent the next five centuries hunting for it.(1)(2)
1519 AD New World Exploration: In 1519, when Hernando Cortes set out from Spain to Latin America, he was given the Witchblade to use as a way of suppressing the local population. Cortes' wife, Marie d'Estrada, accompanied him on the journey in the hopes that she could wield the blade. When the Spaniards arrived, Motezuma welcomed them warmly, not because Cortes was believed to be Quetzelcoatl incarnate, but because the strange gauntlet d'Estrada wore matched the ancient Aztec cave paintings that told of such a weapon. The Blade, in fact, did not move against the Aztec people, and Maria was frustrated in her attempts to use it. In the end however, Montezuma was defeated and Maria reluctantly relinquished the Witchblade when they returned to Spain. It was passed back to the Vatican along with treasures taken from the Aztecs.
1690 AD The Salem Witch Trials: In 1690 it is believed that the Witchblade accompanied a delegation from Rome who had been sent to the New World on a mission to bring Catholicism to the natives in America. In the group was a young priest named Father Joseph Salerno, who had learned everything there was to know of the Witchblade and was determined to see it's powers. Salerno took the Gauntlet from it's hiding place in the Vatican's catacombs and concealed it underneath his robes. After their long voyage, the group of priests arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, in the fall and decided to winter in the small town. It is speculated that the mere proximity of the Witchblade was enough to cause hallucinations and mass hysteria that erupted in Salem that winter. Some believe that Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams actually came in contact with the Blade, which caused the classic Witchblade visions and paranoia. In the Spring Salerno had left Salem, but the damage had already been done. Twenty innocent people would be tried and executed because of his folly.
1854 AD Florence Nightingale: Over the next 100+ years - perhaps because of Father Salerno's debacle, there is no record of Vatican missions with the Witchblade. It was not until 1854 during the Crimean War between Britain and Turkey that the Witchblade again appeared outside the sacred grounds of the catacombs - and then it was issued for a much different purpose. A groundswell of support for the Witchblade had surfaced among the Pope's inner sanctum of "Witchblade Advisors". They believed that the Witchblade's powers were greatly misunderstood, that the Gauntlet was not so much a weapon as it was a tool that could be used for purposes beyond warfare and mayhem. The advisors determined to test their theory on a young Italian woman who dedicated her life to healing. Over the years, the advisors had observed Florence Nightingale and had seen that she was an outstanding woman of great heart and strength. The Witchblade was sent to her as a gift when she received word that she would be allowed to take a unit of 38 nurses to Turkey to administer to the wounded and dying. With no previous knowledge of the Witchblade, Nightingale seemingly used it's powers to intuitively surmise the nature of bacterial infection long before it was identified as a cause of disease and death. She was able to save thousands of soldiers and went on to establish improved nursing standards throughout England. Before her death, the Witchblade was taken from Nightingale's bedside table and returned to the Vatican.
1900 AD Marie Curie: Pleased with the outcome of this benevolent experiment, the Vatican Advisors proceeded to look for other potential candidates who would wear the Witchblade with positive results. It was not an easy task to identify "worthy" women in these times, as most were relegated to the typical gender roles of the day. However in 1900 the Vatican Advisors ruled unanimously that the Witchblade should be bestowed on a brilliant young female scientist from Poland named Marie Curie. Again, the Gauntlet came into the possession of it's unknowing recipient as a gift. It was feared that Curie - known for her frugality - would sell the bracelet and sell the proceeds for her research, but even Curie was not immune to the Witchblade's spell and she wore it during the following years when she and her husband made their discoveries about radioactivity and radium. It is noted that Curie wore the Witchblade when she received the Noble prize in 1903 and then again in 1911.
1934 AD: The gauntlet was retrieved from the exhausted scientist's deathbed and returned to the Vatican. Vatican scholars found that design work on the bracelet predated the use of iron in the Persian region by nearly 1000 years.
1936 AD The Brink of War: Unfortunately the Vatican's future plans for the Witchblade were irrevocably altered by the next turn in world events. A force of evil was growing in Europe and by 1936, the world was poised on one of the darkest moments in it's history. Adolf Hitler was an avid collector of objects of power, a fanatic of the occult, and learned of the Vatican's possession of the Witchblade, vowing that it would be his. Before the year was out the "Digitabulum Magi", under circumstances still surrounded by controversy and rumor, was in his hands.
1940 A.D. Elizabeth Bronte: A linguist working in the State Department, Bronte was sent to Europe on the eve of America's entry into WWII. She was assigned to U.S, operations in Budapest, where she was given an extremely dangerous mission: to infiltrate the German SS for code information, using any means in her power. Bronte's superiors referenced Mata Hari in delicate terms. Fluent in German, she was positioned by German operatives working with the US at the Nazi Bureau of Communications in Berlin, as a translator. It was there that she made the connection she had been hoping for - a high ranking SS Officer, Lieutenant Rolf Germer. He was a ladies man and fancied himself an intellect. Elizabeth captured his attention - and his heart - immediately. It is hard to say if Bronte ever felt anything for him beyond her duty. But Germer gave her everything he had. A fool for love, secrets tumbled from his lips with the endearments he showered on her. To prove his passion he took a tremendous risk and stole one of Hitler's prized objects from under Reichstag lock and key - the Witchblade. Elizabeth was sincerely flattered, but more than that, she was now able to complete her mission - and better than she ever imagined. With the powers of the Blade, Bronte helped break the Enigma Code and escaped Germany unharmed. There is little documentation of Bronte's postwar years. It is known that she had a daughter (Sharon Bronte's mother) and that the Witchblade was in her possession until the day she died - while on an exotic vacation with a man named Kenneth Irons.
1950 AD Kenneth Irons: Little is known about the origins of Kenneth Irons. Born to European money and power, he reportedly spent his youth in the finest schools, in the salons of the wealthiest homes, and most often, in the company of the most ruthless and decadent he could find. As a young man, Irons encountered the Witchblade for the first time in the pages of an ancient text in the library of a well-traveled friend. He became obsessed with the existence of the Blade and consumed years searching for it, following trails that went cold, grasping half-remembered fragments from the heads of aging witnesses, growing hungrier for its supposed powers. A few years after the war, Irons struck gold. While researching at the British Museum, he found a wartime newspaper clipping of Elizabeth Bronte. Her photograph accompanied a story about her brilliant work on the Enigma Code. On her wrist, Irons spied the object for which he had been searching. The article listed Bronte's home as a small town in upstate New York and Irons was there within 24 hours. He seduced her and invited her to travel the world with him. Their affair was brief and intense and for all his brutality, Irons loved Bronte dearly. But he loved something else more. While the two were exploring the Okovango swamps in Botswana, he finally asked her to let him wear the Blade. She refused. Bronte was crushed in a massive embankment slide the following day. When the blade held fast to her wrist even in death, Irons cut it off of her. Finally able to fulfill his decades-long dream, Irons tried to place the Blade on his own wrist and the excruciatingly terrifyingly yet visionary moments that followed left him scarred for life. His contact with the Witchblade radically slowed down the normal human aging process and connected Irons indelibly to the Blade. Maniacally determined, Irons cast about for the next woman who could wear the Blade - and whom he could control. Irons possessed Friar Bellamy's missing WWII journals.
1959 AD Dominique Boucher: By the early '50's, Kenneth Irons was in possession of the Witchblade and searching for a Wielder whom he could control. While living in France, Irons moved in the upper echelon of Parisian society and consorted with the creme of money, power and beauty. One member of this desirable pack, an ambitious former model named Dominique Boucher, was especially intriguing to him. Irons promised her wealth and power beyond her wildest dreams if she would wear a piece of jewelry for him. Dominique put the bracelet on and tasted it's mystical gifts and - because she was chosen by Irons as a Wielder and not the Blade itself - it's horrors. She wore it anyway, addicted to the power it gave her and believing that Irons would love her as long as it was on her arm. It was no secret that Irons amassed tremendous wealth during the period Boucher wore the Blade, and the traveled the world together, tasting it's rarest riches. But Boucher suffered unknown torment while she and the Blade were one. At last the Witchblade discarded her as a pretender - in Irons words "like a damaged doll". By then, she and Irons were through, and he took the Blade back from her, determined to find and control a "real" wielder.
2000 AD Sara Pezzini: On November 11th, NY Police Detective, Sara Pezzini, acquires the Witchblade. While investigating the murder of her childhood friend, NYPD Detective Sara Pezzini comes in contact with an ancient gauntlet, which melds onto her wrist and protects her from harm - forever changing her destiny. It is the Witchblade, an ancient weapon that heightens her powers of perception and transforms into a formidable sword that is one with its wearer. With an arsenal of amazing powers - and a mind of its own - the Witchblade is both a blessing and a curse. Now Sara must learn its secrets in order to master its mystery before it masters her. As she struggles to discover the truth about her past and the legacy of the ancient weapon, Sara finds herself entangled in the growing mystery of the Witchblade.