The Wicked+The Divine No. 42: Socks will be blown off!
So many things just happened in The Wicked+The Divine!
Some comics, you read them and you get the satisfaction of furthering your knowledge of the story, and then you put it down and you read another comic. Sometimes, it’s a really good one, and you read it twice in a row. The Wicked+The Divine has, for roughly five years, been one of those comics that not only gets read twice in a row. But then you have to read all the issues again, because each issue contains so many hints and clues and self-references that it’s almost like a new experience. Clearly, writer Kieron Gillen is some kind of auteur, because this whole ride has been absolutely bananas. He deserves the highest praise possible for what he’s created with artist and visual genius Jamie Mckelvie, along with colorist Matthew Wilson and letterer Clayton Cowles. This will go down as one of the all-time greatest comics ever fabricated by mortal men, rest assured.
Image Comics
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The Wicked+The Divine pulls no punches, ever
Last issue, fallen goddess Laura managed to get new bodies for Lucifer, Mimir, and Inanna, who had been decapitated by Minerva/Ananke, because she sucks and wants to ruin everything. This issue focuses on the living gods getting revenge on her for this. The issue starts out with Laura sending a message to Baal, who had been doing Ananke’s dirty work, including sacrificing children, with the purpose of getting him to switch sides. This is accomplished by showing him what produces the Great Darkness, which killed his father and is the reason he thought he needed to sacrifice children. The human/machine that makes the Great Darkness was created almost 200 years ago by that time’s Woden, and in 1923, Ananke subverted the creation to twist the gods to her evil intentions. Baal is understandably upset, and he joins the gods in their plot to end Minerva.
Image Comics
Woden finally gets what’s coming, and Nergal makes a powerful decision
Mimir, Woden’s actual son, sends his father at text message letting him know about Minerva’s duplicity, since his father is still on her side in this battle of gods. Woden confronts her, but she takes over his Valkyries and forces them to rip him to pieces, which, while unexpected, was certainly deserved, and doubtless made a lot of readers extremely happy. Minerva sends two Valkyries to get Baal’s family, but Baal stops them and meets back up with his newly living lover, Inanna. The remaining gods learn that Woden has been killed, and Nergal seems to abandon everyone due to cowardice, but the Norns reveal that he actually went to the hospital where Dionysus’ brain-dead body is being kept alive and sacrifices his own life to bring Dionysus back, in a very powerful couple of pages. The final page shows Dionysus waking up, as Laura and Inanna arrive, with the recently dead Nergal laying on the floor, and it’s a hell of a parting scene.
dark. Next. Origins explained in Martian Manhunter No. 3!
There’s only three issues left, and then The Wicked+The Divine concludes. It’s been an amazing ride. The emotions conveyed and the experiences all the characters have gone through, not just their ascensions to godhood, but the gut-wrenching, sob-inducing life choices and incredibly sympathetic moral quandaries, have been told in such a way that one can’t help but empathize with at least one of these possibly not so doomed gods, and that’s the true magic of a good comic: to make you relate. 100/10, absolutely crucial reading. Let us know what you thought in the comments section below.