Gabriel Agbonlahor, who suffered cuts to both knees in midweek against Ajax, was Villa's wounded hero setting up two of the goals and scoring his fifth of the season to make it a miserable afternoon for the Latics at the rainswept JJB Stadium.
Agbonlahor won the penalty for Gareth Barry to open the scoring, and in the second half hit the target himself before making number three for John Carew, with Steve Sidwell completing the demolition job two minutes from time.
Wigan had England star Emile Heskey back after his recovery from a hamstring injury and he also took over the captaincy from the sick Mario Melchiot. Emmerson Boyce filled in for Melchiot at right-back.
Villa had the first sniff of goal when a free-kick broke kindly for James Milner but he dragged the left-foot shot wide.
Chris Kirkland had no problem holding Martin Laursen's header and at the other end Olivier Kapo blasted one over the bar.
Villa grabbed the lead after 22 minutes when ref Mike Jones pointed to the spot after Agbonlahor went down under the challenge from Titus Bramble.
At first it looked harsh on the Wigan defender but a replay of the incident showed that the official's decision was correct. Kirkland guessed the right way, but Barry hit the spot-kick perfectly into the right corner.
It fired Wigan up and they went close to an equaliser when Heskey's header was blocked by Brad Friedel and then scrambled clear.
The Villa keeper did it again keeping up a fierce strike from Wilson Palacios and Kapo failed to hit the target with the follow-up when he should have done better from six yards out.
Friedel saved Villa again tipping one round the post from Jason Koumas and from the corner Paul Scharner headed over.
But Villa struck for the second after 57 minutes from an Ashley Young corner. Carew, who had come off the bench to replace Barry got in the header and Agbonlahor got the touch to steer it into the net.
Four minutes later the points were in the bag, Agbonlahor providing the cross and Carew scoring with a simple header from close range.
Friedel dampened down hopes of a Wigan comeback with another save to deny Heskey and Daniel De Ridder hammered another chance wide, before Sidwell wrapped it up with the fourth on his Premier League debut for Villa.