The Wicked + The Divine Explained

Schedule:Monthly
Ongoing:y
Publisher:Image Comics
Date:June 2014 – September 2019
Issues:51 (45 regular and six specials)
Writers:Kieron Gillen
Artists:Jamie McKelvie
Genre:Dark fantasy, contemporary fantasy
Colorists:Matt Wilson
Letterers:Clayton Cowles
Editors:Chrissy Williams
Creators:Kieron Gillen
Jamie McKelvie
Tpb:The Faust Act
Isbn:978-1-63215-019-6
Tpb1:Fandemonium
Isbn1:978-1-63215-327-2
Tpb2:Commercial Suicide
Isbn2:978-1-63215-631-0
Tpb3:Rising Action
Isbn3:978-1-63215-913-7
Tpb4:Imperial Phase (Part 1)
Isbn4:978-1-53430-185-6
Subcat:Image Comics
Sort:Wicked + The Divine, The
Isbn5:978-153430-473-4
Tpb5:Imperial Phase (Part 2)

The Wicked + The Divine is a contemporary fantasy comic book series created by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, and published by Image Comics. The series is largely influenced by pop music and various mythological deities, and includes the themes of life and death in the story.[1] The comic has received positive reviews, and was the winner of Best Comic at the 2014 British Comic Awards. It has also been noted for its diverse portrayal of ethnicity, sexuality and gender social roles.

Premise

The narrative follows a young teenage girl, Laura, as she interacts with the Pantheon, a group of twelve people who discover that they are reincarnated deities. This discovery grants them fame and supernatural powers, with the stipulation that they will die within two years as part of a ninety-year cycle known as the Recurrence.

Publication history

The series was announced on 9 January 2014,[2] and the first issue was released in June 2014.[3] As of March 2019, there have been 42 single issues released, four one-shot specials, one Christmas issue, and one comedy issue. The single issues, excluding the specials, are currently collected across seven trade paperbacks, and three hardcover trades. Prior to the series conclusion, a trade collecting the one-shots, Christmas issue, and comedy issue was released, considered the eighth volume.[4] The series ran for 45 main issues[5] and complete in eight trade-paperback arcs, (plus one for the Specials), bringing the total to nine trade paperbacks.[6] A one-shot crossover, entitled I Hate Fairyland – I Hate Image, was released in October 2017.[7]

Writer Kieron Gillen's original and core inspiration for The Wicked + The Divine was his father's diagnosis with terminal cancer. For this reason, Gillen considers the story to be "about life and death." Further inspiration for Gillen comes from pop music and various pop idols; the Pantheon is based on pop idols, and Gillen has created a playlist of songs to accompany the comic book.[8] [9]

In 2015, it was announced that the television rights had been optioned by Universal TV,[10] but, Gillen confirmed that the rights had returned to the creators and were once again being shopped around.[11] In June 2024, for the tenth anniversary of the series, Gillen and McKelvie launched a Kickstarter to produce a hardcover art book titled The Wicked + The Divine: The Covers Version. This book will contain the original 126 covers in a super-sized format along with extra material from Gillen and McKelvie such as bonus Sahkmet head cover.[12] [13]

Plot

See main article: List of The Wicked and The Divine story arcs.

The narrative focuses on a group of people with superhuman powers known as "The Pantheon". Each member of The Pantheon was at one point a normal person before being chosen to merge with the spirit of a deity. It is said that each cycle of The Pantheon will not live past two years from the start of the series, and that every 90 years the Pantheon is reincarnated. This cycle is known as the Recurrence. It would also appear that the person who is the next reincarnation of a particular god does not get the opportunity to refuse becoming one.

Characters

The Pantheon

Every Recurrence, 12 separate gods/goddesses reincarnate into bodies of any gender. Lucifer has had the most reincarnations, appearing five times in the issues and six altogether. Minerva has appeared five times; Baal, The Morrigan, Dionysus, Inanna, Set, and Woden have appeared three times, and Amaterasu, Mimir and The Norns have appeared twice, with every other god/goddess having at least one known reincarnation. The 2010s Recurrence features the mysterious appearance of a 13th goddess, Persephone. However, it was shown during the 1920s Recurrence that Persephone also appeared, her head having been removed prior or during the events of the Recurrence. None of the other gods seemed to recognize her, which indicates either she has been killed immediately by Ananke in the past, or has been hidden by Ananke from the other gods. It has since been revealed that Minerva is not a proper god, automatically created shortly before the next Recurrence begins and working with Ananke the whole time. Thus Persephone is the proper 12th member.

Ananke appears to act along with the Pantheon, serving as their representative to the public, but is also outside of them. Unlike the others she is not a teenager and has aged, but still is able to function. She functions almost as a parent, and reveals that she gave up her divinity during an earlier cycle of The Recurrence to protect future members of The Pantheon. Although she is stern with the deities who are resurrected, she seems to have a genuine maternal connection to them, saying that she will miss them before she kills them, and crying after she does so. It is revealed she, working with Minerva, has been removing the heads of gods in the previous cycles in order to prevent the coming of the Darkness by completing a ritual using the intact heads of four gods. The gods who have had their heads removed previously do not remember having it occur in past Recurrences.

Flashbacks show that Ananke is the aged form of a previous Minerva; using the ritual, Ananke dies and Minerva takes her place (remembering every previous Recurrence in the process and taking the name Ananke). Further brief flashbacks to every Recurrence throughout history show a variety of outcomes for an Ananke awakening a Persephone. In most Ananke or Minerva kills Persephone; in several Persephone escapes or kills Ananke. A Minerva has never been shown dying so therefore the cycle of Minerva performing the ritual and replacing Ananke can continue. In one Recurrence, Minerva attempted to complete use ritual using herself in place of the forth head; the ritual turned on her sending her into ninety years of Darkness, until the next Minerva appeared swearing to never let that happen again. The 2014 Recurrence with Laura Wilson is the first time a third party has interfered with Ananke/Minerva and Persephone's encounter.

In the final arc, Minerva reveals the truth. Ananke and her sister were part of the first group of twelve with minor talents similar to the descended Laura. Her sister discovered that labeling themselves as "gods" gave them great power, a shortcut. Though "godhood" kills one of their group after two years, Ananke found a way to cheat death by creating the Minerva role and sacrificing four heads of each generation of the twelve. All of it just to prevent the Darkness of her permanent death. She traps each generation in a story, giving them "godhood" with the name of a deity specific to each individual's flaws allowing her to manipulate and sacrifice them; while also preventing them from discovering their true power as regular humans. With no heads sacrificed in the 2010s Recurrence, and both the Ananke and the Minerva having been killed, the cycle is finally free from her corruption and cannot be repeated by anyone else. Laura and her surviving peers go on to commit to a lifetime of work, using their powers without godhood to better the world. Once they all pass away naturally, the future will be a blank slate of possibility for future generations.

2014 Recurrence

Reception

The Wicked + the Divine has received generally positive reviews. The review aggregation website Comic Book Roundup reports that the series holds an average score of 8.6 out of 10.[26]

Awards

The Wicked + the Divine was the winner of Best Comic at the 2014 British Comic Awards.[27] The series has also been nominated for the 2015 Eisner Awards in three categories: Best New Series, Best Cover Artist, and Best Coloring.[28] In 2018, it was nominated for the Eisner Awards in the Best Continuing Series category.[29]

Collected editions

The entire series has been collected as nine trade paperback (TPB) volumes, and also as four deluxe hardcovers (HC):

TitleMaterial collectedRelease dateISBN
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 1: The Faust ActThe Wicked + The Divine #1–5November 12, 2014
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 2: FandemoniumThe Wicked + The Divine #6–11July 1, 2015
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 3: Commercial SuicideThe Wicked + The Divine #12–17February 3, 2016
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 4: Rising ActionThe Wicked + The Divine #18–22October 5, 2016
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 5: Imperial Phase (Part 1)The Wicked + The Divine #23–28June 7, 2017
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 6: Imperial Phase (Part 2)The Wicked + The Divine #29–33January 10, 2018
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 7: Mothering InventionThe Wicked + The Divine #34–39October 9, 2018
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 8: Old is the New NewThe Wicked + The Divine 455 A.D., 1373 A.D., 1831 A.D., 1923 A.D., Christmas Annual and The FunniesMarch 12, 2019
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 9: "Okay"The Wicked + The Divine #40–45October 2, 2019
TitleMaterial collectedRelease dateISBN
The Wicked + The Divine Book OneThe Wicked + The Divine #1–11April 6, 2016
The Wicked + The Divine Book TwoThe Wicked + The Divine #12–22July 12, 2017
The Wicked + The Divine Book ThreeThe Wicked + The Divine #23–33December 11, 2018
The Wicked + The Divine Book FourThe Wicked + The Divine #34–45, 455 A.D., 1373 A.D., 1831 A.D., 1923 A.D., Christmas Annual and The FunniesMarch 11, 2020

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Wheeler . Andrew . Exclusive: Gillen & McKelvie Announce New Image Series, 'The Wicked & The Divine' [Interview] ]. Comics Alliance . 3 June 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150429061046/http://comicsalliance.com/the-wicked-and-the-divine-kieron-gillen-interview-jamie-mckelvie-image-expo/ . 29 April 2015 .
    Kieron Gillen: "The Wicked & The Divine was one of the ideas I had in the days following my Dad being diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s a pop book, but it’s basically about life and death."
  2. Web site: Salazar. Kat. The Gods Are ReIncarnated in THE WICKED AND THE DIVINE. Image Comics. 15 November 2014.
  3. Web site: The Wicked and the Divine #1 Review . IGN . 19 June 2014 . 28 October 2014 . Dean, Tres.
  4. Book: 978-1534308800. The Wicked + the Divine . Gillen . Kieron . 2014 .
  5. News: 'Wicked + Divine' creator talks David Bowie, Twitter hate mobs, and the TV adaptation. 2016-05-05. UPROXX. 2018-01-04. en-US.
  6. News: C2E2 2017: Kieron Gillen Talks Ambition, Fandom, Gods, and more. 2017-05-09. Multiversity Comics. 2018-01-04. en-US.
  7. Web site: Young. Skottie. Skottie Young. I Hate Fairyland – I Hate Image Special Edition. Image Comics. October 4, 2017.
  8. Web site: Guest List: Kieron Gillen on the Music Behind The Wicked + The Divine (and a Whole Lot More). Foxe. Steve. Paste Magazine. Paste Media Group. 5 June 2015.
  9. Web site: PLAYLIST: The Wicked + The Divine. Gillen. Kieron. Spotify. 7 June 2015.
  10. Web site: Andreeva. Nellie. 'The Wicked + The Divine' Comic To Be Adapted As TV Series By Universal TV. Deadline. 29 May 2015. Penske Business Media, LLC. 30 June 2015.
  11. Web site: Gillen. Kieron. 'Kieron Gillen's wordmail issue #290: Jamie drew the living. Buttondown. 18 June 2024. Kieron Gillen. 20 June 2024.
  12. Web site: Johnston . Rich . Rich Johnston . 19 June 2024 . Yes, Yes, Kieron Gillen, I Am Doing Your Kickstarter Thing Now . 23 June 2024 . . en.
  13. "The Wicked + The Divine: THE COVERS VERSION". Kickstarter. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  14. Kieron Gillen . Jamie McKelvie . Matt Wilson . The Faust Act . The Wicked + The Divine .
    1. 1
    . June 18, 2014 . Image Comics.
  15. Kieron Gillen . Jamie McKelvie . Matt Wilson . Fandemonium . The Wicked + The Divine .
    1. 11
    . June 3, 2015 . Image Comics.
  16. Web site: The Florence + the Machine. 8 August 2015.
  17. Web site: Writer Notes: THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #6.
  18. Kieron Gillen . Jamie McKelvie . Matt Wilson . Fandemonium . The Wicked + The Divine .
    1. 6
    . December 17, 2014 . Image Comics.
  19. Web site: Wicked Intervention: Lucifer + Amaterasu. 24 October 2018.
  20. Web site: Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 4.
  21. Web site: Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine #3.
  22. Web site: Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine #2.
  23. Web site: Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine #1.
  24. Kieron Gillen. Jamie McKelvie. Matt Wilson. The Faust Act. The Wicked + The Divine.
    1. 5
    . October 22, 2014. Image Comics.
  25. Kieron Gillen. Jamie McKelvie. Matt Wilson. Fandemonium. The Wicked + The Divine.
    1. 9
    . March 25, 2015. Image Comics.
  26. Web site: THE WICKED + THE DIVINE. Comic Book Roundup. 5 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170811005609/http://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/image-comics/the-wicked-+-the-divine. 11 August 2017. dead. dmy-all.
  27. Web site: BCA 2014 Winers Announced. British Comic Awards. 17 November 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20141129022553/http://britishcomicawards.com/bca-2014-winners-announced/. 29 November 2014.
  28. Web site: 2015 Eisner Award Nominations . Comic-Con . 16 June 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150613194937/http://www.comic-con.org/awards/2015-eisner-award-nominations . 13 June 2015 .
  29. Web site: 2018 Eisner Award Nominations . Comic-Con . 8 January 2019 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150613194937/https://www.comic-con.org/awards/2018-eisner-awards-nominations . 13 June 2015 .