By Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie (Artist), Tula Lotay (Illustrator), Kate Brown (Illustrator), Stephanie Hans (Illustrator), Leila del Duca (Illustrator), Brandon Graham (Illustrator)
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: February 3rd, 2016
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 4/5 Stars
This was a really interesting volume. Things are a bit different here, as we explore the other gods in this strange ‘pantheon’, in most instances getting a glimpse into their ‘pre-god’ lives. By this point, there’s a few different threads to follow, but Volume 3 does a good job of keeping them fresh in your mind while we take a little ‘detour’.
For some characters, this volume gives you a much, much deeper dive into their lives, revealing them – as a god and person – piece by piece, while in others we see more ways in which various plans are working out, or the dynamics between these people who never, ever would have chosen to be in the same room together.
Generally, The Wicked + The Divine isn’t the lightest of graphic novels, and there’s some tough topics tackled here, so I’d recommend preparing yourself before picking up any of the books in the series, and checking out trigger warnings if you feel you need to. There’s a lot, and not all of it is an easy read.
It’s something I so appreciate about the medium as a whole, though. It’s the variety in the types of stories, yes, but the fact that through the art, graphic novels can completely draw you in differently than prose can, and make you part of the world in a really vivid way. It’s the beauty of them, but it can make some of the ‘darker’ sides a touch more difficult. I do think though that here, those darker elements are handled well.
This volume is different than the previous two, and has a combination of guest artists featured throughout. Unfortunately, occasionally the art does suffer a little, but mostly I still enjoyed it and found the volume as a whole quite good. I can see why others might decide to drop off at this point, but as for me, I think I’m going to go back and read the first three volumes while I wait to get my hands on volume 4.
If you’re invested in the series by this point, I think you’ll like volume 3, even though it’s fairly different from 1 and 2, but I’d still suggest picking it up.
Unwrapping Words 