Hexware #4: In Bed With Monsters

Hexware is a series that continues to mix the supernatural with the technological. A constant question of what it means to be human. This issue, #4, takes us along another step of Jesi’s journey to save her soul and keep her humanity. Only this time, she has to fight alongside those she’s been hunting!

Tim Seeley continues to craft a world that is engaging, yet also confusing at times. It’s clear to this reviewer that the world is in the state it’s in due to the greed of the rich and the power of the few. The part that is somewhat confusing is which supernatural and religious mythos the book draws from. It appears to be all of them, if any. A bit of Abrahamic religion, some Greek and a few others sprinkled in. It’s not bad, just a little confusing. As all the monsters in this issue and the last refer clearly to a singular Hell. 

Aside from that bit of confusion, this issue is very obviously about how money and power corrupts. How a single capitalist can basically run a city — and control its people. How business is business, even if it means killing to keep it going.

It all plays into the continuing discussion and them of the book, “What makes us human?” Is it a soul? A want for love? A constant grasping of power for survival? Every issue I’m left more and more interested in how far Jesi will lose herself inside Which-Where before she can save herself. Will she be whole again? Will she be a meld of soul and soulless? Which leads to the question…If a machine can bargain for the soul of a human, is the machine itself truly soulless?

While the book itself may not outright be asking you these questions, it certainly envokes them.

Scotto’s art also needs to be mentioned. It continues to be dynamic and gritty issue to issue. Creating this sense of uneasiness in a world destroyed and rebuilt by man. It’s like looking through a funhouse mirror of horror at times. The colors drip right off the page and the linework’s unkemptness makes it all feel almost out of focus. It only works to enhance the story being told.

With this month’s issue leaving us in a very perculiar situation, I’m both excited and intrigued to see just how the story decides to answer the proposed questions and how our venture farther and farther down will look.