Wicked + Divine #1 Review

[crimsonspider89]

Aright first time doing one of these.

So quick synopsis

spoilers:

First couple panels are set in 1923 around a table with four filled seats and rest are skulls. The four seats are the remaining gods. Include asian male holding wine glass, female wearing a sun dress with a classic sun sign, black male with finger pyramid and shadow hands forming below it and a smaller girl with a day of the dead makeup style. An old lady wearing a mask asks if any remaining gospel. No reply so seen as no. Then the remaining gods snap there fingers and boom goes the building. Then moves to modern day and shows the protaganist Laura donning shinto style makeup and going to a concert by Amateratsu. Shows Amateratsu singing though noone understands what she is saying and is done in a constant high pitch. THe audience passes out with Laura being last. Laura then wakes up to Luci, you know who. WHo then lights a cigarette with her finger. They move into the same room where Amateratsu is performing an interview with Sekhmet on a couch. Love how they gave her a Rhianna like look with a female and male on either side of her. The interviewer is being disrespectful and calling the Gods liars. Red light appears and Sekhmet goes after it on each of the gods. Luci then mentions Sekhmet is in heat. Then the interviewers are shot by hitmen throught the window. Luci then steps in front of the fire on the balcony and...snap there heads go boom. Trial then occurs with Luci pointing out she didn't commit murder and if did she is a god. Proceeds to grandstand and performs a fake snap but Judge's head blows up anyway. WHo did it in order to frame Luci?

end of spoilers

This book has great imagery and reflects the world's current dismissive nature when it comes to Gods and afterlife. The art is fantastic and Gillen is doing his job through and through that we are used to on his YA and his UXM.

And art, is to be expected. Fantastic. Just makes you feel like these teenagers are truly god and be inspired. Each god has there own look that is reflected of who they are god wise.

[Factor]

Really enjoyed the first issue. Surprised there isn't much talk about it here.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

This was basically the shit.

I'm really not entirely sure there's anything else to say. Buy it.

[El Sombrero]

I thought this was good but not great. Gillen clearly has experienced many life-affirming moments with art, which I can relate to and appreciate, but he has a bad habit of applying this level of worship and enthusiasm to his own work which can be kind of off-putting and overhype things way too much.

On the plus side I thought the art was extremely good. The colors were the best I've seen on McKelvie and elevated his work in the same way that the best colorists do for Quitely. The designs of the different gods were great and helped create instantly memorable characters in the same way that Staples did / does for Saga.

I think the concept of the book is fantastic and is perfect for Gillen and McKelvie's style. As a first issue though, I thought this didn't really achieve that much, and felt like it went by too quickly for an oversized #1 issue. There weren't that many scenes and nothing really floored me. The book has loads of potential but it didn't really deliver on its potential in the same way that Image's best first issues (Saga, Southern Bastards) have done. A lot of that probably has to do with hype, and you can partially blame that on the Internet and the way we as a comics community get excited for projects. But as I said earlier, Gillen himself built this thing up like the second coming and really needs to deliver if he's going to treat his projects like this.

In terms of particulars I thought Luci was the standout character and the Bowie design is a great choice for someone who is going to blend larger-than-life, godlike qualities with a pop star. The "1-2-3-4 finger snap" thing was catchy and a nice way to further the musical metaphors at play. The conversation between the disbelieving journalist and the gods featured easily the best dialogue of the issue, but kind of hit too close to home at points and felt like Gillen was unintentionally (or maybe intentionally?) making fun of his own style-over-substance type of comics.

On the negative side I thought most of the other gods were underwhelming. Amaterasu didn't do much for me and the "cat god" thing felt extremely stupid. The opening scene lent a sense of history and mystery to what was going on, but was a little too confusing for its own good and I don't really think it added any intrigue to a series that already has a very intriguing concept going in. The cliffhanger with the judge dying didn't really do much for me as I'm much more interested in learning about the gods and the nature of fandom that will be explored in the book than some frame-job.

So yes, loads and loads of potential, but like a star college athlete who gets picked #1 overall in the draft, this book is working against a lot of hype and may be unable to reach the lofty goals it has set for itself.

[Kid A]

I love the concept of this book, but Gillen is hit and miss and almost entirely miss since JiM ended. I'll see if I can get a hold of this issue.

[Celestin]

A good issue, but mostly a setup that was almost entirely revealed in the interviews and preview pages. The next issue should give us more to talk.

Any guesses which gods were present 90 years ago? One was Susanoo, but other three?

And what other gods Gillen plans to include? Baal, Minerva and Morrigan were mentioned in various places and that make it six revealed including three presented in this issue, leaving six more.

Though I'm a little surprised that the interviewer in this issue didn't mention that Lucifer is not a god in Christian religion making him an odd addition to other eleven gods.

[edwardsdv]

Worst 3.50 in my pull this week. And I purchased Pandora.

This was just terrible. You take a great concept and do what with it? Make as mundane as humanly possible, only two real displays of what these gods even DO (Amaterasus mind magic and Luci's head explosions) ...and then immediately into the criminal justice system and selling the realism of the concept as hard as possible which is just the opposite of what a book about literal reincarnated gods could or should be. The main character is some kind of insufferable british teenager fangirl. There was seriously no hook here at all, it just assumed you'd be invested from concept alone and im sorry but that's not me.

And with no expectation that this will change any of these with all the praise being heaped on it, this is a HARD drop.

[Sawakaze]

This was a pretty awesome read, though it was just set up, but I loved it. Its was an interesting concept. Cant wait for more, lets see how all this plays out.

[InformationGeek]

Wait, Amaterasu is singing and not painting or fighting others with the powers of art?! She's also not a wolf!?!?! UGH! FAIL! 0 out of 10!


But seriously, this was alright, but noting special. I personally found the whole concert scene unbelievably goofy with how much that girl was praising that singer. It's like she was a having metaphorical sex or something.

[Cryptid]

This premise seems to bring out the best in Kieron Gillen. He never strays far from the idea that music and youth behave like magic, whether that means the occult fandom in Phonogram or the hipster heroism in Young Avengers, so it makes sense that he would pick up the conceit that pop stars are like gods. And Gillen takes the metaphor just literally enough to create a bunch of interesting problems. For instance, it's one thing to say that music can be a religious experience (a statement not less true for being kind of obnoxious), but that idea becomes tinged with danger when the audience starts to pass out in the divine presence.

And it helps that the gods themselves are at a loss to explain their own divinity beyond a sense of total conviction that just came upon them one day. I like that this is a book that tries to capture the experience of being transported by the music or the moment or the zeitgeist but also makes that kind of experience look suspicious and even a bit ridiculous once the moment has passed. And it's especially smart that Gillen gives these reservations a mouthpiece in the story, a critic called Cassandra who may have mythological baggage to go with her name. Compared to Phonogram, this book seems much better at addressing both the true believer in the front row and the skeptic lingering back by the bar.

[Time Like Lightning]

Something I noticed that perked my curiosity:

If you look at the layout of the Jazz Gods' table, the flapper girl is sitting to the right of the black guy, who in turn is on Susanoo's right, who's on the blonde girl's right. With this in mind...



Susanoo looks left. Flapper looks right. Black guy looks straight. And Blonde girl looks right. Everyone's looking at the blond girl. Like they're deferring to her. Waiting to see what she's got to say...

Also, in the opening page's chart, Susanoo's lightning bolts can be seen. He's a Shinto storm god, right? So that makes sense. He's got cuff links and a tie pin with lightning bolts, too. That means the blonde girl's symbol is the owl...the only god I know off the top of my head to have the owl as a symbol is Minerva/Athena, but I'm sure there are others.

ANYWAY. Random musings done.

[Celestin]

I would say it's Athena since Minerva will appear in modern times (assuming that Roman and Greek gods aren't the same in this comic). Or maybe she is in both Recurrences.