By Alex Batts — I’ve got a feeling these intro paragraphs are going to keep getting shorter and shorter. But we’re back again with another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-Read Project! This week I’m tackling one of my favorite issues in the series and we’re introduced to my favorite character in the book. With that said, let’s get into the issue!

The Wicked + The Divine #3

Here’s the official solicitation text for the third issue from August 20th, 2014:

Laura has no choice. She has to go underground to find the goth-goth-gothity-goth of the Morrigan. Is this the most illadvised underworld-related decision since Orpheus decided to see how Eurydice was doing in the back seat? To find out, read the comic that people are literally calling "The one by GILLEN/MCKELVIE/WILSON with the very long title."

The Morrigan had me at “goth” and never let go. This solicit keeps up the meta-humor the series established and hits some great comedic beats here. Points for the Greek Underworld reference, and though I wasn’t actually pulling this book when it originally released (trust me, I still beat myself up for it) one of the first thoughts I had when I heard about this book was, “Wow, that’s sort of a long title and a bit of a mouth full.” So yeah, they definitely knew their audience.

The Cover: I’m just going to go ahead and get this out of the way, The Morrigan is my favorite character in this series and this cover is my favorite that was published. I actually got a tattoo of this cover like, a month ago, and while that’s not needed information for this article, I just couldn’t talk about this series for 45+ articles and not mention it at least once. I’m 100% biased because The Morrigan is completely my type, but she’s illustrated beautifully here. The contrast between her eyes and her makeup, and her skin and her hair is striking, and the soft and vibrant green hues around the cover pull everything together perfectly. The portrait covers continue in style.

The First Page: Oh hey, the splash page is back. We pick up where last issue left off, with Baphomet holding The Morrigan’s severed head. Yep, you read that right. And while it’s certainly a gruesome and shocking image, the gore presented in this book always skirts closer to clean than grizzly. Is it weird to describe a decapitated head as being drawn in a tasteful fashion? This opening page is also a stark contrast to the cover we just saw. It’s the same angle and framing as the cover, but rather than looking lively and inviting The Morrigan is quite dead here. You’re immediately concerned and intrigued. The narration boxes present from our main protagonist Laura help re-establish the setting and set up a killer punchline for the page turn to follow as well.

On-Page Action: We’re introduced to Baphomet, a new Underworld god who uses the head of The Morrigan to entertain the gathered crowd before the Underworld Queen arrives. When The Morrigan does arrive, initially in the form of Badb (The Morrigan is the triple-form goddess, Morrigan, Badb, and Annie), sparks and insults fly. We get a taste of the relationship between The Morrigan and Baphomet and to say it’s volatile and vulgar is a massive understatement. I don’t even feel comfortable sharing screenshots of their early argument due to profanity, but I must admit it is ridiculously entertaining to read.

The reason the two finally stop bickering rest upon our leads shoulders as Laura steps up and saves the day. Her idea is foolhardy and desperate, but it works and makes an impression on both the gods. From then we see the two gods both perform at the same time, and the difference in the underground god's performances compared to the rest of the Pantheon is night and day (heh) and I’ll dive more into it when I discuss the art. The cops finally arrive to bust up the party and manage to royally piss Baphomet off.

Baphomet retaliates by setting one of the officers ablaze, killing him, only for us to be introduced to The Morrigan’s third personality, Annie, who notes that the officer is only sleeping and brings him back to life. So over the course of the issue, we see substantial displays of power from Baphomet and all three of The Morrigan’s varied personalities. The underground sequence ends with Laura seeking out The Morrigan pleading for help with Lucifer. The Morrigan offers friendship to Laura, gives Baphomet an alibi for the murder of the judge, and regretfully informs Laura that she can’t help Lucifer.

The following scene is short, only a single page, but it’s excellent and important character work for Laura. We see her at home, arguing with her parents, after she’d been arrested. The scene contains no dialogue, just narration boxes from Laura describing the emotionally draining fight, and six panels illustrated with incredible emotion by McKelvie and Wilson. The lack of dialogue makes the scene all the more powerful, as your mind is able to insert whatever you think fits, and the emotion is carried over all the same.

Oh, before I get into the final scene of this issue there’s something I probably should have mentioned earlier that completely slipped my mind. There are title pages in-between certain scenes, that have fancy symbols representing each god in a circle around the text, and under the title text is a date, giving the reader a solid timeline of events as the book unfolds. The series started on January 1st, 2014, and the final scene in this issue takes place on January 10th, 2014.

So, the final scene is a meeting between Cassandra and Laura as they exchange updated information on the Pantheon and try to narrow down their suspect list. The exchange makes great use of the page as Cassandra asks Laura what Lucifer said about each god, which segues into a brilliant back and forth between Cassandra asking questions and panels of Lucifer’s answers. It’s a great storytelling technique that the two appear to be conversing directly, and for all intents and purposes they are, even though in reality the information is traveling through Laura.

We get some name-drops of a few gods we still have yet to meet and a little more contextual information about them, Tara, Minerva, Woden, and Inanna, namely. We learn that Baal and Inanna are a couple and that Lucifer has been recently intimate with Inanna, which most assuredly rubbed the hot-headed Baal the wrong way, making him a suspect. Cassandra notes that there are multiple Baal’s in mythology, but is betting that he’s Baal Hammon, the sky god who has a history of child sacrifice and a close relationship with fire. Just when the pair think they’ve got a break in the case, the issue ends with a splash of Baal standing to greet them.

Deeper Meaning: Well the Underworld gods are dramatic beyond belief (which I love) and much of what they say can’t be taken wholly at face value, but I can’t quite get into why exactly yet. As a matter of fact, there are quite a lot of layers built into this issue that will be peeled back later in the series. A more obvious touch is the return of the 1-2-3-4 motif during the Goth gods duet. The scene with Laura’s parents serves to further illustrate the detachment she feels from the rest of the world as she delves deeper into the world of gods and pop-stars, and the brevity of the scene highlights the emotional power beyond the interaction, but also the priority Laura holds the argument at in relation to the rest of the events unfolding.

The Art: McKelvie and Wilson continue to bring their best work to bear in this issue. Emotion? Check. Ridiculous displays of godly power? Check. Vivid colors? Check. Dynamic and intuitive panel layouts? Check. It’s all there! Something of note when it comes to panel layouts in the pages of this issue is the use of color. For most of the series the panels are divided by white borders, but for the sequence in the underground that white border is replaced by black, helping set the mood for the scene and creating a feeling of emptiness and oppression giving the setting.

There’s a stunning standout double-page spread that shows The Morrigan turning into a murder of crows while swarming Baphomet that you can’t help but gawk at. Another standout sequence is when the pair of gods begin to sing. Laura is caught in the middle and the black begins to envelop her as tendrils of dark mist spread into the page, closing her in, until another double-page spread reveals her falling through the void. It’s powerful visual storytelling that works wonders for both the mood and to display the power of the gods. As usual Wilson’s colors are as spot-on as ever, elevating McKelvie’s already brilliant characters and backgrounds. If this book is nothing else, it’s a looker.

Check back next week for The Wic + Div Re-Read Project Part 4, and in the meantime, checkout the Saga Re-Read Project here!

Alex Batts is from Texas. A lifelong comic book enthusiast and movie lover, if he’s not talking about comics, he’s probably not talking. You can find him on Twitter by following @BatmanFiles