The gods renounce themselves in The Wicked+The Divine No. 43
The Wicked+The Divine answers an important question.
If you haven’t been following along for the last five years, The Wicked+The Divine has been a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions, chock full of gods, powers, child sacrifice, music, abortions, violence, passion, decapitation, and love. With forty-five issues planned, this is the third-to-last one readers get, and it gets to the heat of the meat by bringing to light a question that has been on everyone’s minds since the beginning: “how did this all start?” Writer extraordinaire Kieron Gillen, immaculate artist Jamie McKelvie, auteur colorist Matthew Wilson, talented flatter Dee Cunniffe and master letterer Clayton Cowles are wrapping up a story that pulled out all the stops, and it turns out there’s still a few stops to pull.
Image Comics
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Gods battle and minds are released in The Wicked+The Divine
At the end of the last issue, Baphomet/Nergal used his powers to sacrifice his life to bring Dionysus, who was brain-dead in a hospital, back to life, joining the rest of the surviving gods as they revolt against Minerva, who has been revealed to be the split consciousness of Ananke, who is big-time evil. This issue starts with Minerva mind-controlling the Valkyries, ordering them to set up a device that will scramble everyone on the planet’s brains, and also to fight the incoming gods. There’s a showdown, and everyone dukes it out, eventually allowing Dionysus to shut down Minerva’s machine. The Valkyries, their minds freed, choose to leave the fray and abandon Minerva, and Cassandra sends the other two Norns away. Tender moments are shared in The Wicked+The Divine as we learn how deeply the Norns cared for each other. The gods confront Minerva, who reveals she no longer has the power to tell tales, which is what all the god’s powers let them do, to varying degrees.
Image Comics
Minerva reveals her origins in The Wicked+The Divine
Laura, who was once the goddess Persephone, uses the remnants of her powers to help Minerva tell her origin story, and we learn that Ananke and her unnamed sister, who may have been the basis for Persephone, developed powers as children, then found more people like them. Years later Ananke’s sister shows them all her “three-in-one godhood”, and Ananke begins to want more power. In their forties, the sisters start discovering the limits of their powers, and the two-year time limit on godhood.
It is around then that Ananke reveals her idea to tell a story that allows her to cheat death, by creating a child that would have her mind, split between two bodies. Ananke’s sister is appalled by the idea that Ananke proposes, when Ananke is sixty-seven, and shortly after that she murders her sibling, meeting up with Minerva for the first time and beginning the whole cycle.
Next. Willas mother has her own adventure in Skyward No. 12!. dark
Now the truth is revealed to all the gods; the power was inside themselves, all along. How inspirational. As they humble themselves and forsake their godhood, we witness them transform back into regular old humans, except Lucifer, who is super angry. The issue ends with big big flames, and there’s sure to be something gnarly in store from Lucifer in the penultimate and final floppies themselves. McKelvie’s art is really astounding, and the real reason to check the story out, not that Gillen can’t write a hell of a story; The Wicked+The Divine might be his magnum opus. 10/10, crucially recommended. Let us know what you thought in the comments section below.