Vertigo’s Hex Wives is a dark and brilliant comic debut

With the past year all but wrapped, we’re looking back at our favorite entertainment things of 2018. Today, the dark brilliance of Hex Wives.

2018 was a great year for comics, with the debut of some of the best titles fans have seen in a long time. And every now and then there comes a title that shines above the rest because it’s so original and so different that it sticks with you. It haunts you. It makes you think. One such comic book was Hex Wives from Vertigo. Hex Wives debuted in October but it has already left an indelible mark in comics. Ben Blacker’s story, coupled with Mirka Andolfo’s striking art, are a match made in comic book heaven.

At its core, Hex Wives is a story about a coven of witches and a group of men known as the Architects who have been trying to bring them to heel. Their efforts have spanned centuries, with multiple generations of men trying and failing, miserably. Left alone the witches would live peacefully, but as the men interfere the women have no choice but to defend themselves, and they would rather die than be subjugated to the men.

Witches Isadora, Nadiya and Rebekah are incredibly powerful but they aren’t immune to death, though they are able to return via reincarnation. Soulmates Isadora and Nadiya have a way of finding each other in every generation but the Architects always manage to ignite a battle that leads to death and devastation, and the lovers are torn apart as a result.

From 1690s Salem to 18th century New York to the present, the witches have been battling the Architects, including members of the Gabriel family, and with every new generation of Gabriel men there is more rage and anger over the centuries of embarrassment they have “suffered.” Aaron Gabriel, the present day member of the family, has finally found a solution, and for these fierce and independent women it’s a fate worse than death.

Aaron casts a spell of his own on the women and makes them into mindless housewives. They live in cookie cutter houses on a cookie cutter street that they never leave, thanks to the threat of wildfires in the distance. The women have all been married off to the men who persecuted them, and they dote on the men’s every need. They have no idea who they were or how powerful they are because all that matters is making sure their husbands have everything they could possibly need.

What Hex Wives does is so dark and sinister that the result is absolute brilliance. Blacker takes being a housewife and weaponizes it. It’s a curse, a punishment, and for the women who were once all-powerful it’s a prison sentence that they’re not even aware of…yet. The forced submission of the witches to the men who have pursued them over the course of centuries is absolutely chilling, and that’s why it works so well.

It’s important to note that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a housewife or a homemaker. It can be a badge of honor. But that’s a choice you make. Stay-at-home moms and dads choose that life and they love it. Blacker’s story makes everything so much more sinister by taking away the coven’s ability to make decisions on their own. The spell that was cast upon them is like a free will lobotomy. Seeing the once powerful women go to such great lengths to please their husbands is positively jarring given their shared history.

Only two issues of Hex Wives have been released in 2018, with Hex Wives #3 arriving Jan. 2, 2019. In upcoming issues the women will start to remember who they are, and it’s going to be a lot of fun watching all hell break loose in this superficial suburbia. The Architects think they have won the war, but it turns out the battle is just getting started.

With its fresh concept and the promise of so many more thrills in this twisted tale, Hex Wives has become one of our favorite new comics of 2018.

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