Title: The Wicked + The Divine.
Volume: 1.
Story Arc: The Faust Act.
Writer(s): Kieron Gillen.
Artist(s): Jamie McKelvie.
Colourist(s): Matthew Wilson.
Letterer(s): Clayton Cowles.
Publisher: Image Comics.
Format: Paperback.
Release Date: November 12th, 2014.
Pages: 176.
Genre(s): Fantasy.
ISBN13: 9781632150196.
My Overall Rating:
Everyone has dreamt of becoming a divine entity at least once in their life. Imagine all the power that one could wield upon entering the domain of gods. Imagine how the mundane responsibilities of everyday life could be turned on their heads and shut behind a closet that you’ll never have to open again. Imagine what you’ll be able to achieve among mortals as others fear and show reverence upon your sight. That is until your obsession for godlike abilities leads you into a realm of drama that you never could’ve foreseen. Teamed up with artist Jamie McKelvie, writer Kieron Gillen (Star Wars: Darth Vader, Young Avengers) delivers a contemporary fantasy comic book series published by Image Comics with the first volume collecting the first five issues and introduces readers to Laura and her obsession with the Pantheon.
What is The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act? On January 1st, 2014, in Britain, the young Laura attends a musical performance by Amaterasu and is invited by Lucifer to meet members of the Pantheon backstage. A tragic incident, as Lucifer has fun with a couple of assassins who busted in uninvited, paves the way to a murder mystery where Laura finds herself entangled in a web of conspiracy and inner politics, having her team up with reporter Cassandra in hopes to elucidate the case before gods fall at the hands of human justice. As her journey allows her to meet several other members of the Pantheon, ordinary humans who are reincarnated as deities for two years in a 90-year cycle known as the Recurrence, she’s forced to believe that many of them hide secrets that she has yet to grasp.
“You will be loved. You will be hated. You will be brilliant. Within two years, you will be dead.”
— Kieron Gillen
The premise is a goldmine for story-telling but writer Kieron Gillen barely notices its potential as he offers readers an uninteresting protagonist, presented as that innocent youngster who drools at the sight of these gods, serving as a vessel to follow along in this dull murder mystery. Page after page, readers watch as uncharismatic characters talk to each other, revealing some lore elements here and there, never properly fleshing out these ideas in a vain attempt to keep readers hooked. The monotony of the dialogue is ultimately what drags the story to its grave as readers must ponder ways to connect with these deities who are all annoying, despicable, and careless in their own ways. While diversity in these characters is all great, there’s no purpose to it, and clearly isn’t what was going to save this story arc in any way whatsoever.
Where the narrative’s forte might be in its high concept, it superficially dances with it. However, its artwork does keep things afloat. Artist Jamie McKelvie showcases his best stuff when panels only contain expressive and well-drawn faces or in dialogue-less splash pages where he unloads his artistic touch. Unfortunately, most of the time, the volume feels empty, lacking details, and too concerned about focusing on the ineffective story. Take the pages filled with heads talking, for example, and you’ll quickly notice that they’re all drawn over a blank monotone colour, further emphasizing the story’s one-dimensional nature. While the volume does end with a predictable plot twist that could potentially make for some great stories in future volumes, this will be my end of betting on this series’ potential to keep me going.
The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act is an underdeveloped and unconvincing tale with an intriguing premise of gods living among humans but suffers from its questionable execution.
Roars and Echoes 
Usually I enjoy anything that includes Gods and immortals but this doesn’t sound very interesting. Fair review!
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Yep, I don’t think you’ll have the dose of mythology that you’ll like from this one. Maybe with a couple of more volumes, it’ll cover more grounds but I’m not that excited enough to get to them right now hahha Thanks for reading! 🙂
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This was the one comic book I wanted to get because of the cool art and premise. Sad it didn’t work out for you. I’ll pass on this one! Great review, Lashaan!
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Hahah I’m so sorry to put it off your list! It might work out better for you though. You’ll just have to go in with fewer expectations. The artwork is nice though! 🙂 Thanks for reading, Nikola!
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2 years? So it’s a death sentence with massive power attached. Can’t see how that could possibly go wrong * epic eye roll *
So you mention Lucifer playing a part in this. Does God play a part or is the typical “Satan’s just a misunderstood guy who’s not really that bad” storyline used? or something else?
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Tell me about it. It’s a recipe for disaster. I wish it had been explored more originally.
Lucifer is a feisty and impulsive chick dressed in white that does a bunch of things recklessly and, by the end of the volume, is cut out of the story. Tragically. It might involve exploding heads.
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It was interesting looking at the sample artwork after reading your review. The style of art does have a very one dimensional feel to it, which is fine in and of itself. It gives it a more classic comic strip feel, I suppose. But when paired with a one dimensional story it had me wondering if it was a form of silent commentary by the artist on the story. 🙂
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Absolutely. I really did want to enjoy this and see how the series evolved but I never found any reason to care. Even if it was just for the artwork, I’m convinced I can find better somewhere else too. Thanks for reading, Todd.
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I’m such a sucker for a negative review — even for a series I like, lol. I enjoyed reading yours and agree that the art is great. Much as I love this series, I do kinda agree with your critique of this volume. I didn’t get on with it the first time I read it and have since forgotten why, but I remember reading Tran’s review of it, which sparked my curiosity enough to make me return, and I ended up liking it on reread and enjoying each volume after this one. The mystery became more interesting to me with each volume, but I do wish that mythology of each god played more into the plot.
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Hahahaha I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but I just know that once I got to the end, I had no real reason to push forward and try more volumes. It’s good to know that you did enjoy later volumes though and maybe someday I’ll innocently pick up volume 2 and see if I can get a reason to keep going hahah Thanks for reading, Zezee! 😀
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I have a copy of this book. It reminds me of the Sandman comics.
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I do prefer Gaiman’s Sandman way more than this if I were to pick! 😛
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This was a very challenging series, for it dropped you into a world with very little explanation. I enjoyed the art, which is why I finished it, but I almost quit it sevearl times.
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Maybe if I find myself daring, I’ll try another volume in the future but, man, nothing in this volume really made me want to keep going…
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