Written by: Kieron Gillen
Art by: Jamie McKelvie
Publisher: Image
It’s rare, even in this era of comics, to pick up a book as interesting as The Wicked and the Divine is. If nothing else, it succeeds in being an anomaly, built from the ground up for people looking for something totally different. For some, it may work. It can be very easy to let oneself sink into the world of The Wicked and the Divine (herein referred to as WicDiv, because typing out that name is not fun). At the same time, it could be very easy for others to write the book off as a pretentious rag that buckles under its own weight. That isn’t to say that you’ll either love it or hate it, because there is a middle ground to be had here.
Looking at it from a completely objective (well, maybe not completely) standpoint, volume 1, like all comics, has its ups and downs. The story of gods being reincarnated every ninety years and taking on the roles of pop stars for two years before their inevitable deaths is a concept that one would expect of the likes of Grant Morrison. It is, in more ways than one, out of the comfort zone of the creative team. It’s more high concept than any of their past works, and seeing them wrestle with it is great. Even when the cracks in the story begin to make themselves known, it’s hard to not be at least appreciative of the work that Gillen and McKelvie are doing with this book.
The book starts out with a bang, and the first fifth of this volume is a tantalizing, albeit fleeting, look at the full potential that this series has. The angst is kept to a bearable level, and even if it’s all a bit hard to grasp initially, it introduces readers to a vibrant cast of characters, and at least some of the rules of the world. It’s also in this issue that we’re introduced to some of the biggest themes of the book – nothing can possibly ever be permanent, and even if it could, would we want it to be? Pop stars are the perfect avenue to explore this, as, like the quality of the first issue, they blow up for a brief period of time, before receding, and the status quo taking over again before another of their ilk does the same thing.
After the stellar introduction, the charm just begins to wear off, as parts of the series are designed to pander to a specific audience. Barring the issue starring The Morrigan, none of the five issues collected here reach the standard set by the first issue. This isn’t to say that the other three issues are terrible, or even bad – but when read in tandem with one another, there just seems to be a massive disparity in terms of quality. Some of the issues meander into the realms of the pretentious, and fall victim to an attempt to appease a very specific audience, which, unto itself is not a problem. It is, however, something that must be mentioned, because this is a series that is very clearly not designed for the so-called “traditional” comic book reader. Again, not inherently a bad thing, it just cuts out a certain audience.
Of course, if you’re on the fence, it’s not like this is a $20 Marvel trade. When it comes down to it, WicDiv is far from a bad series, actually. It’s a book that some will be able to fall in love with very easily, and, if nothing else, at least it’s different. It’s a massive experiment, and the fact that it even exists is a small miracle. Whether or not it falls apart completely remains to be seen, but the first volume provides a decent enough start to the series. It has a lot of potential, but definitely has a long way to go. As interesting as the plot may be, most of the characters – especially the human characters – fail to be all that interesting. So proceed with caution, but don’t write the series off completely.
