Have You Read This? Hex Wives

I have seen and read pieces that talk about “elevated” horror, as though implying that the genre as a whole has relied simply on the evisceration of victims and the trashing of taboos for the sake of shock. I find this critical snubbing of horror ironic considering that even gory films like Friday the 13th and its glut of sequels were analyzed for their sociopolitical commentary as Jason Voorhees killing mainly teenagers who engage in premarital sex, drug use, and other so-called deviant behavior. Perhaps the term is more in vogue now because movies like Get Out and books like Micah Dean Hicks Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones are simply deciding to forgo a lot of the subtext and firmly establish the true sources of their terrors, whether from domineering social and economic classes, race relations, or the current political climate. One such story is Ben Blacker’s graphic novel Hex Wives.

The story involves two warring factions that have been fighting for hundreds of years. On one side is a coven of witches whose dark magic allows them to reincarnate and gives them X-Men like superpowers. The other is the male hunters, known as the Architects, who have tried to subdue them. Since killing them just means they reincarnate into a different form and since they have shown they can be dangerous, the Architects somehow capture these women and brainwash them into behaving like ‘50s housewives, complete with daily regiments of cooking, cleaning, and simply taking care of their men. The story’s dramatic tension is maintained through the women slowly discovering their identities and their legacy. When they finally and emphatically embrace their supernatural powers and rise up, the moment should give the reader a little satisfaction after all the buildup.

Forcing these women to act like stereotypical ‘50s housewives automatically sets up a conflict between these women and the patriarchy represented by the Architects, which may send many who use the phrase Social Justice Warrior as a pejorative straight to their keyboards, and the art style actually leans into this. The art style of Mirka Andolfo, which is very reminiscent of housewife/assassin tale Lady Killer, lends a ‘50s art deco authenticity to the book. The art also gruesomely depicts the carnage that these women create upon realizing what was done to them. One thing that does seem odd about this story is that this first arc seemingly wraps up the main conflict, and (SPOILER ALERT! DON’T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS!) that leads to a road trip narrative as these witches search for more answers that they have forgotten, but it seems like a difficult task to keep up the tension that made this initial collection such a quick read.