The Wicked + The Divine #10
Image Comics
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
These little godlings have been through a lot, but the end is nigh — the end of the second arc of Image Comics’ new hit The Wicked + The Divine, that is.
Ragnarock, for all its terrible implications, is a giant convention; a revelrous celebration of these young deities and their fleeting power, a pseudo-religious Coachella that fades into obscurity after the last of the new gods has died. It’s here that Cassandra and her assistants make their first appearance as the final of the twelve, the trio of goddesses known as the Norns.
This month sees Baphomet take a dark and unsettling turn in the wake of the Norns’ arrival, and his friend and sometimes lover the Morrigan try her best to turn him down a better path. Cassandra struggles with her newfound purpose, and we end on an ominous note — there are dark days ahead, and Baphomet obviously intends to light them up in the worst possible way.
Wicked + Divine is deliberately fantastical, but not outlandish. Each of the twelve is vulnerable in their own way, from Minerva’s youth to Inanna’s search for the truest version of himself, and Laura serving as an intermediary between the civilian and celestial spheres helps ground a very otherworldly storyline.
Laura is the most real of everyone, and as someone who’s traversed through several fandoms with varying degrees of passion over the last few years, it’s interesting to see her shift from a die-hard fan at the peak of her passions to someone with a more personal and intimate relationship with this group she’s idolized for so long.
She cares, but differently, the way I and I imagine any of us have seen our fandom priorities shift from the source material itself to cultivating friendships that will last beyond cancellations and final novels. Her moment with Cassandra in the final panels will make you cry, or at least make you feel an awful lot, and her story is probably what I’m most interested in seeing through the next arc later this summer.
TL;DR: Feels level maximum, but it’s obvious Baphomet is about to blow everything to hell — literally, knowing Baphomet. There’s nothing quite like WicDiv, which is why you should pick it up, especially if you liked Gillen’s run on Young Avengers or his creator-owned comic, Phonogram.