Hex of the Widow part 4: The Widow Becomes A Bride

March 06, 2025

Hex of the Widow part 4: The Widow Becomes A Bride

In Part 4, Gordo, under the guileful glamour of double-crossing Cha Cha Cabot, hangs the bait for a deadly deception -- by proposing to the Widow!

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Magic and menace aside, the Widow has set even more byzantine schemes into motion in an effort to nab Gordo. At the beginning of this arc, readers were introduced to Artemisia's tactics with the tiger pit, and also to the Widow's Weed -- a carnivorous plant with an apparent instinct for in-ring wrestling. But, in many ways, those are some of the ardent Ms. Gonzales' tamer moves.

The Reverse Potion

Her first scheme to ensnare her portly prince is launched during a series of Sunday strips in 1943. While "entertaining" Gordo at her home (he's tied up in the front room) the Widow is approached by a passing curandera, selling folk remedies door-to-door. Although the potency is limited to a four-hour window, the healer offers the Widow a potion guaranteed to turn love into hate -- for a modest four hours.

Pepito overhears the Widow plotting with the curandera

Gordo's nephew Pepito, overhearing the scheme, arranges for the Widow to be fed her own potion. Suddenly overwhelmed by a seething disgust for her one-time loverboy, the Widow ejects Gordo and his nephew from her home.

When Gordo returns to a daily schedule in 1946, Artemisia is hot on his heels. She spurs a lengthy roadtrip for Gordo and friends when she descends upon Del Monte in 1947, and is still there when they return in 1948. From that point on, The Widow Gonzales

The Star Widow

Following both The Widow's Weed (1950) and Hex of the Widow (1955), the Widow returns once again in 1957 -- in a UFO! Her business contacts have made contact, it seems, with super-advanced space aliens!

Once again abducting Gordo, this time she absconds with him into the upper atmosphere and forces him into marriage. Luckily, the usually-canny Widow overlooks one simple procedural note:

Judge Robles is once again summoned to (almost) oversee the Gonzales/Lopez wedding.

Any attempts to re-kidnap Gordo are put on indefinite hold when the scientist who built the Widow's spaceship apologetically steals back the technology which the Widow's wealth financed and disappears into deep space.

The Inescapable Widow

When the Widow returns in 1968, she's sporting a teleportation device which allows her unlimited access to Gordo, no matter where he happens to be. Since Gordo is in the middle of a career change, from farmer to tour guide, the Widow takes advantage of his "Dormi-tutor" -- a tape machine which plays history and art lessons for Gordo while he sleeps -- by slipping her own laudatory recording into the playlist.

The Widow hijacks Gordo's Dormi-tutor

The subliminal suggestion turns Gordo into a devoted and willing bridegroom. However, the Widow's own tricky technology proves her undoing. At the wedding, moments before the fateful "I do," the Widow's veil becomes tangled in the teleporter wires. Yanking the fabric free, she vanishes -- possibly forever!

Well, forever is shorter than expected. The Widow is discovered to still be in one piece, and in fact is discovered ruling a undiscovered pre-Colombian tribe in the densest part of the Selva Lacandona. Rescued by Gordo, Pepito, and adventurer Al Galante, the Widow's return to her business affairs after a three-year absence precluded any attempt to force Gordo to the altar. Likewise, while the Widow's Weed returned in 1964, there was a period of a decade before the Widow's next plan.

The Widow's Double

In 1968, a cold and dispassionate Artemisia Gonzales returns to Widow's Peak. Her sudden disinterest stokes Gordo's curiosity, and before long the pudgy paramour has not only proposed to the Widow, but gone through with the marriage of his own free will! The only problem seems to be that he didn't marry Artemisia at all...

Gordo realizes that he married a robotic lookalike for the Widow.

Death of the Widow

The Widow's most macabre scheme comes in 1972, following reports of her death. Gordo, having seemingly inherited Widow's Peak from its former owner, wanders guiltily around the premises when he's surprised to find -- the Widow's Ghost! A softie at heart, Gordo honors the ghost's final wish, "marrying" her in a midnight scenario.

The Widow's ghost appears for her wedding.

Naturally, the Widow reveals that her astral form was a technological accomplishment, as is the key component of her plot in 1976 -- in which she breaks out a time machine!

The Widow Wins

This time, the Widow tries using both the carrot and the stick -- she threatens to strand Gordo in the distant past, but also dangles the "ultimate tour bus" in front of him. Playing along gets Gordo brought back to the modern day and to freedom, but the Lopez family nonetheless gives up one of its own to the Widow...

The ambitious Pepito receives the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Widow once again disappears from the feature, this time for almost the entirety of its remaining years. Returning in the final two weeks, the Widow is the antagonist who drives Gordo to finally give up bachelorhood and get married (to his loving housekeeper Tehuana Mama).

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