Wicked + Divine #4
More wicked and less divine. Not that it's a bad thing.
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Publisher: Image
Heeeeeeeeere's Kanye! I mean Baal! Oh, and also, here's everyone else pretty much. Welcome to the Pantheon.
Wicked + Divine 4 ups the ante with Lucifer and Laura and the other gods are none too pleased. Baal welcomes Laura, and only Laura, to the inner sanctum of godliness where these godly teens, young adults, and global super-stars sit in their thrones and discuss their inevitable demise as well as what impressions they hope to leave on mortals. Lucifer is betrayed much like you would expect Lucifer to do to others and the general mystery and mystique of this issue picks up just where issue 3 left off. The character's actions are getting more and more wicked with every issue but this comic remains completely divine.
Gillen's writing continues to be a great blend of real-life parallels and an engrossing and entirely fictional mystery surrounding the nature of these human-god hybrids. This issue introduces us to figures we should indentify with but keeps them foreign too. Baal, a character who looks, talks and, acts exactly like Kanye West (Kanye fans will note quite a few references in this issue) is featured heavily in this issue and we begin to get a better sense of not only the who these gods are but also how they see themselves. All of these gods, still mortal in a way, going through their own crisis are both terrifying and sympathetic. Readers may be left feeling confused by motivations and actions but that's the nature of a slow burning comic like this, things are revealed slowly and overtime in the manner that they're meant to and when the situations warrant it. Ultimately, learning new things and shining new lights on events keeps things rewarding and exciting even when it's just pages of talking. Lucifer is coming.
McKelvie's art is a force all to its own. The action scenes near the end of this issue are supremely well done and enthralling. The characters feel alive, relatable, human even when they're merely existing in a human shell. Even panels of mere discussion are kept interesting by realistic expression and movement. The art is fluid and tells a story equally as good as this issue's writing. It's wicked when necessary and divine when welcomed.
We're wading into a mythology here. One I can see extending for quite some time. This book, with its lofty premise and confusing motivations and conversations, is kept grounded by its ties to real life superstars, gods, peoples and religions. It's a familiar story told in a fantastical way and that's what keeps it so good. I don't know where it's going. I doubt anyone but Gillen and McKelvie do. But, you need to catch up on this book if you're not because it's definitely going somewhere. Somewhere divine. Somwhere wicked. Somewhere interesting and rewarding in a new way.
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Publisher: Image
Heeeeeeeeere's Kanye! I mean Baal! Oh, and also, here's everyone else pretty much. Welcome to the Pantheon.
Wicked + Divine 4 ups the ante with Lucifer and Laura and the other gods are none too pleased. Baal welcomes Laura, and only Laura, to the inner sanctum of godliness where these godly teens, young adults, and global super-stars sit in their thrones and discuss their inevitable demise as well as what impressions they hope to leave on mortals. Lucifer is betrayed much like you would expect Lucifer to do to others and the general mystery and mystique of this issue picks up just where issue 3 left off. The character's actions are getting more and more wicked with every issue but this comic remains completely divine.
Gillen's writing continues to be a great blend of real-life parallels and an engrossing and entirely fictional mystery surrounding the nature of these human-god hybrids. This issue introduces us to figures we should indentify with but keeps them foreign too. Baal, a character who looks, talks and, acts exactly like Kanye West (Kanye fans will note quite a few references in this issue) is featured heavily in this issue and we begin to get a better sense of not only the who these gods are but also how they see themselves. All of these gods, still mortal in a way, going through their own crisis are both terrifying and sympathetic. Readers may be left feeling confused by motivations and actions but that's the nature of a slow burning comic like this, things are revealed slowly and overtime in the manner that they're meant to and when the situations warrant it. Ultimately, learning new things and shining new lights on events keeps things rewarding and exciting even when it's just pages of talking. Lucifer is coming.
McKelvie's art is a force all to its own. The action scenes near the end of this issue are supremely well done and enthralling. The characters feel alive, relatable, human even when they're merely existing in a human shell. Even panels of mere discussion are kept interesting by realistic expression and movement. The art is fluid and tells a story equally as good as this issue's writing. It's wicked when necessary and divine when welcomed.
We're wading into a mythology here. One I can see extending for quite some time. This book, with its lofty premise and confusing motivations and conversations, is kept grounded by its ties to real life superstars, gods, peoples and religions. It's a familiar story told in a fantastical way and that's what keeps it so good. I don't know where it's going. I doubt anyone but Gillen and McKelvie do. But, you need to catch up on this book if you're not because it's definitely going somewhere. Somewhere divine. Somwhere wicked. Somewhere interesting and rewarding in a new way.
A Look Inside
