Name: The Wicked + the Divine
Rating: 3.981746031746032 (630 reviews)
ISBN: 9781632150196

Kieron Gillen

Every ninety years, twelve gods return as young people. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are all dead. It's happening now. It's happening again.

The Wicked + the Divine

Jeff James

The Wicked + The Divine takes celebrity worship to an extreme and imagines a world where the gods reincarnate in human form once every ninety years, oftentimes as the biggest stars of their generation. They are always young, beautiful, famous (or infamous) and dead within two years. Our window into the lives of the “pantheon” is Laura, a seventeen-year-old Londoner with a fan-girl crush on nearly every member.

When Laura faints at a concert performance given by a god named Amaterasu, Lucifer – incarnated here as a blonde girl with an androgynous Bowie look – takes her backstage and irrevocably tangles her life with the affairs of the gods. Laura’s time backstage ends quickly thanks to an assassination attempt on the gods, which Lucifer foils by snapping her fingers and exploding some heads. This results in Lucifer’s arrest and trial, and Laura decides that she has to do everything she can to help her idol, no matter the danger.

Before I get into the writing, I think I should state for the record that I absolutely love Jamie McKelvie’s art, which the best part of this book by far. The lines are bold and strong, and his style is so distinctive that I can identify it immediately when I come across his work. Combine McKelvie’s lines with Matt Wilson’s vibrant coloring and you’ve got a book that is absolutely gorgeous to behold. That said, The Wicked + The Divine isn’t just a pretty face; it’s also exceedingly British and peppered with Kieron Gillen’s wicked sense of humor throughout. The problem is that the story is a bit muddled and the plotting occasionally feels rushed.

Laura’s introduction to the world of the gods feels a bit arbitrary; Lucifer picks her out of a pile of fainted teenagers and then she’s neck-deep in weirdness and danger. I never quite bought into the idea that a seventeen year-old super-fan could do anything significant to help a group of supposedly all-powerful gods or that any one of them would ever rely on her for help. Lucifer reads more as a teenager play-acting the part of a butch bad girl and not the Lord of Darkness, but it still rings a bit false when Laura keeps insisting that The Devil Herself desperately needs her help.

Despite these hiccups, I did enjoy reading the first volume of The Wicked + The Divine, and I do think I’ll check out more volumes in the future. I just hope that the story gets a little tighter as the series continues and that Laura has a more active, crucial part in events as they unfold.

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley.

"OKAY," Conclusion Thanks for reading. WeÕll miss you.

The Wicked + The Divine #45

Abi Baker

I think an evil old lady put it best... I love you. I love you all. I'll miss you.


god i'm gonna miss wicdiv so damn much

The Wicked + The Divine #33

Raphaëlle

END OF STORY ARC. "RISING ACTION," Conclusion A little extreme violence never hurt anyone.

The Wicked + The Divine #22

NOVEMBER 26 FOR ISSUE #23?????????????
That will simply not do!

The Wicked + The Divine #18

The Wicked + The Divine is BACK to its former glory. I loved everything about this issue: the action-packed plot, finally seeing Persephone in action - as expected, she's badass -, the tone it's setting for this arc, the developments it's foreshadowing, the pomegranates (!!!!!!), the gorgeous art we've come to miss during the Commercial suicide arc, this ending (talk about a cliffhanger), errrr'thang I'm telling you. 

I might be biased though because Persephone/Proserpina has always been my favorite divine figure, all myths considered. (view spoiler)[I can't wait to see which direction they will take with that Destroyer persona, and what exactly it entails. (hide spoiler)]

On a totally different note, Minerva's parents physically make me sick. 
(view spoiler)[Also, even if I enjoyed that plot "twist", I'm kinda mad that Baphomet cheated on Morri. I mean, he's already a murderous asshole, does he really need to cheat on the only great thing in his life to top it all off? 
Moreover, Ananke knowing about this one night stand strikes me as odd. Considering they can't reach the underworld Gods when they're underground, it's quaint & convoluted that she'd know of something that presumably happened underground. 
I'm very intrigued by that machine Ananke has Woden build, and what its purpose is.  (hide spoiler)]

My baby Ananke is as cryptic & dodgy as ever, I'm love it. (view spoiler)[ But as the plot moves further, there's almost a shift in paradigm and I'm wondering if Ananke's the evil character that she's been portrayed as in Commercial suicide. (hide spoiler)] I guess we'll have to wait & see. I'm so excited for what is to come next!

The Wicked + The Divine #14

Hmmmmm, this arc is slow burner BUT the plot thickens. Overall, we got a whole lot of insight about the two previous arcs in this issue. Which is great. But which also raises so many more questions.
Character wise, (view spoiler)[Ananke is definitely on a premeditated bat shit crazy murderous roll (hide spoiler)], which now officially makes her my new favorite character. Tied with Morry - for a lot of different reasons though -, whom we unfortunately haven't seen in a while... Woden I despise so much. He's the creepiest character by far, and I won't dwell on it too much because that dude makes me hella uncomfortable. 
I still miss Laura, Luci & Inanna though ;'( I still love this story but Laura's absence is strongly felt, IMO we need a new center protagonist real soon to "ground" the story. Even better, just bring Laura back. We never saw her corpse and in a supernatural story, every single time you don't see a body, it usually means said character will be back in some capacity. I just hope this is the case with Laura. (view spoiler)[My theory is that she's the girl in the Valkyrie helmet at the end of the issue. (hide spoiler)]

It's time for a private audience with Anake, she who has protected and judged the Pantheon for thousands of years. Yes, it's time for an interview... with an umpire. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Also: Baphomet being all goth and having a nice little mope.

The Wicked + The Divine #9

The end of Fandemonium. The end of Ragnarock. The end of the arc. The start of something else. Everything's going to be okay.

The Wicked + The Divine #11

WTF JUST HAPPENED? WTF HAVE I JUST READ?????????????? 
I did not sign up for this. 
They said it'll be fun they said.

The mystery is solved. But does pop-god Lucifer like the answer? The answer is a word that rhymes with "Go", "Blow" and "Pro". If you think the answer rhymes with "Cow" I applaud you for your unconventional nature. It's good to experiment. We're experimenting with being Awesome for four issues in a row. JOIN US.

The Wicked + The Divine #4

We're all in agreement that Baal is basically Ye' right?

Emelie

Besides from the constant cursing, it wasnt that bad!

sophia n

luci if you read this im free on thursday night and would like to hang out. please respond to this and then hang out with me on thursday night when im free

realistically 2 stars bc really not much happened in this and it was weirdly disjointed/felt like a barrage of filler eps, but it gets a whole extra star bc i’m in love with morrigan, thanks

rips open shirt to reveal undershirt that says “i would die for persephone”

did ... anything even happen in this volume, i just finished it and i've already forgotten

The Wicked + the Divine

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