I get the feeling that I’m at the start of something special. It’s easy to picture this as a future TV series or film. Like Buffy, but with an ambition equal to her comics rather than the TV series, Hexed is smart and entertaining.

It’d be easy to let a concept like this get out of hand, or lose its focus, but writer Alan Michael Nelson knows when he’s on to a good thing and wisely keeps the spotlight on her. Hexed is a new four issue mini-series from BOOM! Studios that follows the supernatural adventures of a girl named Lucifer, (real name Luci Jenifer Neves) and her thieving career choices. Last month’s delayed debut ish ended with Luci diving into the guts of a corpse. However, as we discover in this issue’s opener, the corpse’s stomach is bigger than it seems, just like the TARDIS.

After an intro which sees two men in 1857 running from an unseen baddie, it’s obvious this issue will delve straight into darkness. There’s no sense of playfulness here like there was in last month’s offering. The two running men soon come to a brutal end, with one’s head exploding. His brother then takes a small golden globe and whispers their killer’s name into it, before the artefact flies to the heavens.

Cutting to the present, Luci is swimming in a foul crimson sea inside the corpse, hunting the golden item, which we discover is called the carasinth. She fights off a sting-ray type creature, grabs the orb and gets out of there, landing in an autopsy room in front of an understandably stunned pathologist. Luci has managed to please Dietrich, her former boss who forced het to steal the item, but at the same time enrage her current employer, Val. And with good reason, as one whisper of a person’s name into the carasinth means they become a deadly target.

Continuing her streak of attracting antagonism, Dietrich and his goons invade Luci’s home to take what they believe is there’s. Luci puts up a fight, namely biting a nose off a goon, but to no avail. Dietrich forces Luci to take him to a “harlot”, which they do via a magical mirror. Arriving at a mansion, they meet the ageing woman who calls Luci darling and welcomes her home.

The pace is quick in this second issue, since the series is half way over and there are a few more questions that need answering, such as what’s the deal with the mysterious “H” tattoo on Luci’s back, and just what is the relationship between the ghastly old woman and our magical heroine.
Emma Rio’s art is again top notch. It may be too sketchy for some, but coupled with Cris Peter’s luscious colouring the energy crackles off the page. Rios draws Luci like a normal young woman, and gives characters such as Val and Dietrich a definite look. The page design remains driven and the action seems violent, but not shockingly so.

This is a good series. The Buffy comparisons will continue, and I’m sure Nelson is probably sick of them by now, but that is a worthy compliment. There are well rounded supporting characters and genuine human interactions with unique supernatural tones. This series can only continue to become more engrossing.

February 8, 2009
Categories: Comics, Reviews . Tags: BOOM!, Cris Peter, Emma Rios, Hexed, Michael Alan Nelson . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment