Hex Wives
Ben Blacker, writer; Mirka Andolfo, art; Marissa Louise, colors
DC Vertigo, 2019
There is a strong Stepford Wives feeling to this story, but instead of secret robotics it is underlain by secret magic. The narrative opens with history: witches in Salem, Mass. in 1692; Pawling, NY in 1777; South Pass City, Wyoming in 1873; and finally New Orleans in 2005. All along a group of men called the Architects wage war against a coven of perpetually reincarnating witches. It seems endless, and ultimately unwinnable, but a young Architect proposes a plan.
Next thing we know, everything has changed. Coven leader Isadore is a happy wife in a quiet cul-de-sac in the town of Desert Canyon. She has no memory of her past lives, or her membership in a powerful coven and the power they possess, or the endless war with the witch hunters. The other housewives in the neighborhood are the same. All of them have a daily pattern they don't fully understand, especially the wildfires that surround them and prevent travel outside of the town. Yet their husbands are able to get to work through the fires.
Their domestic lives are a delicate balance, full of daily routines to keep the women occupied. Things start to unravel, slowly at first. The witches practice blood magic, so something as simple as a small cut can cause mysterious magical effects. The big triggering event happens when one of the sentient cats that populate the neighborhood (one of the witches has the power to speak to cats) sacrifices himself. His decapitation sends one of the witches up into the air in free flight, which completely freaks her out. And at first her friends do not believe her, looking for non-magical explanations instead.
But they begin comparing notes, and testing their powers. The Architects meet during the day in their underground bunker beneath the neighborhood, monitoring everything through a network of cameras. Suspicions of magical activity triggers a visit from the home office. The witches try to maintain the illusion of normalcy at first, but they get caught using their powers. The men make the mistake of threatening them, and all hell breaks loose. The final panel show the newly-empowered coven walking through the flames that ringed their neighborhood. The caption reads "The Beginning."
This was initially announced as an ongoing series, which probably explains the open-ended conclusion. I would welcome a continuation of the story--probably from Image at this point--but suppose it is unlikely. But this is a nearly self-contained first chapter right up until the very end, so it was a satisfying read. Blacker has written for the TV show Supernatural and wrote comics for Marvel and others before this, so it's not surprising that his dialog is sharp. I especially enjoyed the cat dialog: just how I imagine a cat would sound. Mirka Andolfo is an Italian artist and writer, who has worked for DC, Marvel and others; her series Unnatural is published by Image. She has an easygoing naturalistic style that I could see in a YA story. It works well here, too, especially her skill depicting facial expressions.
Replies
Mark, you probably have the most diverse and eclectic tastes of anyone on this board.
Thanks! Have to confess to rarely reading superheroes anymore, although they aren't completely off the table.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
I tried Hex Wives, Mark, but I just couldn't get into it. I think I made it to about 4 issues. I liked the idea of the series, I just wasn't a fan of its actual execution.
Maybe that had something to do with how it played as individual issues. It's been so long since I read anything that way that I couldn't say. I was still fully onboard by what would have been issue #4, but I read the collection in one sitting.