Week / Book 19: Hexware
2024/05/09
Hexware
Written by: Tim Seeley
Art by: Zulema Scotto Lavina
Synopsis:
“In a corporate-ruled world where class inequality is greater than ever, a desperate, lonely populace is drawn to neo-spiritualism and hedge magic. When their teenage daughter is murdered, the Marks family is left asking the gods what they did to deserve this. But their android maid, Which-Where, has a different approach. Perhaps if she asked the Devil…”
The class divide. Rich on the top, in the towers and skybridges. The poor on the streets. The haves and have-nots. Tale as old as time.
That is the overall themes with Hexware. The story starts with a rich family and their family android becoming the victims of a terrorist bombing attack. The class divide has become violent, and there is a small group of anarchists trying take down the rich, make them fearful, through these attacks.
As a result of this recent attack, the Marks family was too close to the bomb when it went off, and the daughter was killed. The android, who is basically the family maid educates herself on some pagan rituals, and attempts to buy the soul of the lost daughter back from the afterlife. After making a binding agreement, the soul of the girl is then bound to the android. The cost: hunting vampires, werewolves and demons, while being hunted herself.
At this point, Jesi, the daughter, is starting to realize that she has been brought back by the android and slowly starts to remember who she is. She decides not to tell her parents until the deal has been fulfilled, and pretends to just act like the robot maid.
The comic touches on few areas related to grief and loss; how the parents individually manage their emotions.
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I picked this book up mostly because of Tim Seeley. I’ve read a lot of his work, including Hack/Slash, Grayson (with Tom King), and Superman vs. Lobo. And this work certainly feels like his other works, but I did have some concerns.
Overall, I felt the book was just ok. There was a lot of ideas all kind of jammed into it, which made it a bit tricky to follow at times. Had a manga feel to it, but without the runway to really explore each idea. Instead everything just felt rushed and crammed into the six issues.
The art was ok. The character design of the robot / witch just bordering on the sexy-maid look, which was fine. One of the demons was both male and female, and would change their looks without explanation, which was confusing at first, as I thought they were two separate characters. The design of the city worked well, with a very clear difference between the high-society buildings, and the low-level streets. But my overall issue was the line art was not very good. Very loose, which I was not a fan of.
A fun idea none-the-less, I just wish it had a little bit more room to explore the concepts.
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Ok, bonus time. Sadly I didn’t actually get time to read Hellboy Vol 1 as I wanted to, and mentioned in my last post. But as next week is week 20, a nice round number / milestone week, I try to tackle a larger book. And Hellboy fits the bill - normally. But after back-to-back fantasy with Fafhrd and Hexware, I’m not going jump into another fantasy book right away. Gotta mix it up. I’ll add it as another bonus in a few weeks, or maybe week 30. Instead, my next read will be science fiction, with The Incal.
Also, while on the subject of bonus material, I will start adding my fan art to these weekly posts. Just as a little something extra. Gives me a reason and subject to draw each week. Something quick.
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Next read: The Incal - Jodorowsky & Moebius
Previously read:
Week 18: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Week 17: Superman: Men of Tomorrow
Week 16: The Sherrif of Babylon
Week 15: Injection Vol. 1-3
Week 14: Neverlands / Justice League: No Justice