“And every demon wants his pound of flesh.”–Florence + the Machine

“Forgot that inside the icon, there’s still a young girl from Essex.”–Lorde

Until I read Kieron Gillen’s newsletter last week, I couldn’t believe that it had been ten years since The Wicked + the Divine was released and basically changed my life. It, and Gillen and artist Jamie McKelvie’s other collaboration Phonogram, heightened my interest in indie and pop music (Mostly of the British kind because I’m an incorrigible Anglophile.) and transformed me from a Netflix/Marvel comic binging wallflower to a black lipstick wearing, nonbinary Goth degenerate who was closing out bars and dance floors across the South/Midwest/Mid-Atlantic. This might be a bit of an exaggeration because I’m started writing this article at a laidback, very heterosexual brewery while wearing a football top and finished writing it on my bed next to a stack of Amazing Spider-Man comics.

I felt beyond seen in WicDiv‘s cast of characters, especially Laura/Persephone, Inanna, and just a touch of Baphomet. (The whole none more Goth thing.) When the first arcs of the series were released in 2014-2016, I was definitely still a wayward youth working in retail, trying to graduate university (I wrote my undergrad thesis on WicDiv and Paradise Lost when only the single issues were out.), and doing freelance pop culture writing gigs, However, by the time the series wrapped up in 2019, I had found my calling as a librarian and the trade paperback of “Faust Act” was one of the first books I cataloged. Today, I’m legitimately a pop music librarian, and my life has come a little bit full circle so I can write about the series from a new perspective. “Once again we return!”

Because, plot twist, I never actually reviewed The Wicked + the Divine #1. When the book dropped in June 2014, I was busy studying Jane Austen in Bath, England, sinking too many pints while watching Germany dominate in the World Cup (Today, I’m hoping they do the same at the Euros.) , and soliciting old gay men on OK Cupid for help with my paper on British television over the decades. My first review was for WicDiv #2, and it was already my favorite thing helped by my love for Gillen and McKelvie’s Tumblr-era queer pop superhero masterpiece Young Avengers as well as a positive interaction with Kieron Gillen at my first ever comic convention, C2E2 2013. This passion was also fed by the John Milton seminar course I took at university later that year as well as my first read-through of Grant Morrison’s Invisibles because I read somewhere on the Internet that the intro to WicDiv was an homage to The Invisibles #1 sans bald men and John Lennon. With a few gaps, I reviewed the other 50 issues of the series persevering through moves and career changes to actually stay current with the series. But I never wrote about issue one so here are my (Definitely not long awaited) thoughts on The Wicked + the Divine #1 ten years after its release.

Re-reading The Wicked + the Divine #1 in 2024 makes me realize that it was one of the most prescient pieces of pop fiction in the past decade. Influencers, stan culture, aggressive relationships between fans and journalists (E.g. Paste’s review of the latest Taylor Swift album was released sans byline.), it’s all there in this first issue. Hell, even the rise of nostalgia culture is encoded in the character of Luci, who dresses like David Bowie, got her government name from a Beatles song (Eleanor Rigby), and quotes the Fab Four, Rolling Stones, and Philip Larkin like they were born yesterday. She would definitely fit in with the Tik Tok girlies that dress like they’re a character in Almost Famous or standing in for Patricia Morrison from The Sisters of Mercy, circa 1987.

But, with the exception of Cassandra’s utter roasts of the various Pantheon members (“Kids posturing with a Wikipedia summary’s understanding of myth” is an all-time one liner.), Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie treat fandom as a normal part of growing up in WicDiv #1 beginning with our introduction to Laura where she adjusts her look in the mirror trying to look like her new favorite god, Amaterasu. It’s the first in many aesthetic (and later name) changes for Laura and gives off a cosplay vibe, which makes sense because Young Avengers and later WicDiv was famous for its cosplayers thanks to McKelvie’s fashionable, yet functional approach to character design. The Wicked + the Divine is a coming of age comic, and especially this first issue, hones in on Laura trying to figure out who she is through her relationship to the Pantheon between the flashbacks to 1923, court cases, and exploding heads. She wants to be a Pantheon member, but is far from as she stammers her way through the green room and ends up continuing to spend time with Lucifer and Amaterasu because she witnessed a couple murders not because she made some kind of impression on these radiant beings.

And speaking of radiance, Matthew Wilson’s colors are still as vibrant and awe-inspiring in 2024 as they did in 2014, especially that first splash page of Amaterasu’s gig. Gillen and McKelvie go from the restricted grids of Laura getting ready at her family flat in Brockley before turning the page on a double page spread that nails what it’s like to be wholly enraptured at your favorite artist’s show. The afterglow continues in the following pages as Laura (Through Kieron Gillen’s captions.) processes the performance and tries to connect with Amaterasu before fainting in a white gold flurry. This sequence is a stand-out moment for Wilson in this first issue, but he provides some early bisexual lighting for the Pantheon green room to show that the gender and sexual fluidity of these gods as well as utilizing bright, flat colors accompaniment to Jamie McKelvie’s utter demolition of the human figure when Luci kills the assassins and when the judge mysteriously dies in court.

Moving from the micro to the macro, The Wicked + the Divine follows a pattern that the great comics of the past used, such as The Sandman and Watchmen, which is introduce a rich world with complex characters and universal themes through a simple, accessible plot device. In WicDiv‘s case, it’s the murder mystery. Who killed the judge doesn’t matter in the long run of the series, but it does the job in getting you to pick up WicDiv #2. Gillen and McKelvie introduce the power of the finger click in the opening, absinthe-soaked love child of Sandman and Invisibles flashback and also demonstrate it in present times with inset panels showing Luci kill the fundamentalist Christian gunmen in self-defense. Cassandra’s skepticism aside, the Pantheon members have the ability to kill as well as inspire in an beautiful, abstract way that I’ve witnessed from audience members in the front row at Ethel Cain shows. (I wonder if she’s read WicDiv ; one of her big influences Florence Welch inspired the look for Amaterasu.) The ending of WicDiv #1 and the surprise on Luci’s face creates an air of danger to go with the “necrotically glamorous” (To quote Gerard Way’s blurb on the back of the trade paperback.) tragedy of being a god for two years and then dying, which definitely isn’t a PR line for Amaterasu. I was hooked in 2014 and am still hooked in 2024.

The Wicked + the Divine #1 uses the power of fandom and one’s favorite music and art to explore what it feels like to think that you’re immortal and also about to die, or basically a young adult. Jamie McKelvie and Matthew Wilson’s visuals marry a heightened pop star aesthetic to fundamental, rhythmic storytelling of grids and face and body acting while Kieron Gillen’s caption and dialogues add humor, subtext, and personality to this unforgettable cast of characters. It’s fitting that I’m writing this review while listening to Lorde and Charli XCX’s long-awaited and surprisingly vulnerable collaboration “Girl, so confusing” because I was definitely bumping Pure Heroine, Sucker, and True Romance while writing my first WicDiv reviews in 2014. Sometimes, the things that were great a decade ago are still great plus you have the beauty of hindsight and self-awareness to appreciate them with new eyes and be happy that you’re alive.

Story: Kieron Gillen Art: Jamie McKelvie
Colors: Matthew Wilson Letters: Clayton Cowles
Story: 9.4 Art: 9.8 Overall: 9.6 Recommendation: Buy