Spotlight Review of Hexed #1 from BOOM Studios

Hexed #1 (of 4)
Publisher BOOM Studios
Writer: Michael Allan Nelson
Art: Emma Rios
Colors: Cris Peters
Coming this December

So BOOM Studios is putting the full court press on this book. I have seen Mark Waid conducting an in-house interview on Newsarama, which is always a fluff piece when the EIC is interviewing the book’s creators. I mean how hard hitting is that going to be? Then I see an early review is up on CBR and I know that Marketing and Sales director Chip Mosher is making the pitch to eveyone, and even small sites like this one to get reviews of Hexed out in the public as much as possible.

I have great empathy for BOOM and other small press companies, because for the most part every new comic they release has to be promoted to the hilt to try and get it noticed. You seldom have a built in audience and you are still establishing a core audience for the writers and/or artists as you usually do not have the “big name” talent on these books. But still I feel like there is an extra push and an extra emphasis being put on Hexed.

After reading issue #1 I know why I feel that way and it is because BOOM has a book that by all rights should be a hit comic series. Listen ever book BOOM puts out they try and make it the best they can, but we all know in our jobs, when playing sports or meeting a certain girl, when it all clicks, when you start the swing and you know you have hit the ball spot on. It is that type of feeling that Hexed generates. The writer has crafted a great story and the artwork not only captures the essence of the character and the story, she defines it and makes a great story even better.

Emma Rios has a fluid style and a light line that has a real natural quality to it. It is not heavily realistic, but it is not in the animated cartoon style either. She conveys both the underside and darkness that inhabits this book and still conveys the beauty and charm of the lead character Lucifer. She gives life and personality to everyone she draws. Check out the couple pages of art to see what I mean. She has the technical skills to tell a story and the artistic skill to make you want to stop and just admire the art.

The story is also excellent. I know Lucifer (full name Luci Jenifer Inacio Das Neves) from the Fall of Cthulhu books, but in reading this book I did not need any of that background. She is a thief and a con artist who has a dark and mysterious past. She has had to be on her own for a long period of time and has done things that most people could not have done or come out alive or sane on the other side. Some of this I intuiting from Fall of Cthulhu, but its all here in issue #1.

The magic type material in both Marvel and DC has been on the back burner or just doesn’t seem to work anymore. Ellis has been trying with Gravel as a combat magician, but Hexed gets it right and brings magic back into comics. Lucifer has to make deals with various devils to try and get by in the world and the first deal we are getting a glimpse of is a pretty nasty piece of work. What she has to do to just get started on her task at the end of this issue is enough to make your skin crawl.

Overall Grade A

Hexed is a four part mini-series and hopefully just the first in a series of mini-series. You better make sure you tell your store to order it as it is due out in December and you don’t want to miss it. Lucifer is a magician for the 21st century and this book is well worth the price of entry.

In fact I’ll give this book the Comics And… guarantee. Buy issue #1 and if you don’t like it mail it to me with a receipt from your store and a 50 word essay on what was wrong with it and I’ll send you the cover price of the book. GOOD ONLY FOR THE FIRST 25 CUSTOMERS AND ONE TO A CUSTOMER!

Hexed is what Dr. Fate and Dr. Strange could only hope to be, young, sexy and dangerous and living in an unseen world.