By Alex Batts — After a brief hiatus, we’re back with another installment in The Wicked + The Divine Re-read Project. This issue artist Jamie McKelvie and colorist Matthew Wilson are back on art duties as we take an in-depth look at one of the most secretive members of the Pantheon, Woden. Let’s get into it…

The Wicked + The Divine #14

Here’s the official solicitation text for the 14th issue from September 9th, 2015:

Behind the music, Woden's stayed back from the spotlight. But in this issue? We look beneath the mask. Shall we say it's the most audacious and experimental issue of WicDiv yet? I think so.

The solicit highlights pretty much exactly what this issue is going to be about. It’s a lot of character exploration for Woden, which we haven’t gotten too much of yet. We have gotten a sense of his personality based on how he interacts with others, sure, but we don’t know what he thinks about everything. That certainly changes this issue. As for it being the most experimental issue yet? It may be. It certainly does something that is one of my favorite things this series does multiple times over the course of its run —recontextualization.

The Cover: We’re greeted with another body portrait cover this week, this time of Woden, of course. His Tron-like aesthetic is always eye-catching and this cover is no different. The negative colored sections in the circle in the center and the border on the outside also serve as a nice visual balance. He seems very calm and collected, with his hands clasped in front of his body and his head slightly tilted as if he knows more than everyone else (which he pretty much does).

The First Page: The first page is three almost identical horizontal panels. The panels are all close-ups of Woden’s masked head, with the difference between panels being that he appears to be moving forward slightly as if leaning. We get some speech bubbles from him mentioning that Tara is dead (which happened last issue) and that he thinks he knows what happens next. He then says he needs to explain because it’s a long story.

The first page does a couple of things. Firstly, it contextualizes a timeframe, we now know that Woden is talking after Tara’s death, meaning this is the present. Secondly, Woden alludes that he has more information than us. How does he think he knows what happens next? And how does what he knows about past events inform that statement and conclusion? Thirdly, Woden appears to be talking to someone, unless he is just completely breaking the 4th wall. Which, to be fair, the remainder of the issue does feel like he’s breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the reader. So, what’s going on?

On-Page Action: Flashback issue! But don’t worry, it is far from a boring recap of the key plot points in the story thus far. We relive some of the key elements from the story, the Judge murdered at Luci’s trial, Luci and Baal’s battle, Luci’s death, the party at Dionysus’ warehouse, and a few others, but this time all from Woden’s perspective with his added commentary.

The first flashback we get isn’t the oldest one as far as the timeline goes. It’s when Kerry (the rage-fueled ex-Valkyrie) tried to kill Woden at the massive fan convention. Woden’s commentary reveals that he was petrified, and part of him thought he deserved to die right then and there. His fear and admission that he probably deserved to die at that moment humanizes him in a way that we haven’t seen so far, and his admission of guilt also solidifies just how terrible of a person he knows he is.

After this we see Woden reporting back to Ananke, and with his commentary garner just how intimidated he is of her. We also learn that he is, more or less, Ananke’s faithful servant. Multiple times throughout the issue we see him cleaning up Ananke’s murderous messes and helping her spy on the other gods and keep tabs on all the chess pieces on the board.

They mention Laura (who we now know was intended to be a goddess and was briefly) and see Ananke’s interest in her. We also see that Woden is the one who told Cassandra that Ananke wanted to be interviewed. A moment that we actually saw Cassandra fist-pump at during the rave issue. But here we get the full context of their conversation. Woden goes on quite the tangent about how the patriarchy hurts everyone, not just women, and it’s quite the tangent. The entire conversation further serves to flesh out his character and while it does a great job at doing that it also further crafts him as an enigma that is difficult to completely figure out.

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On the surface, he seems incredibly vile and shallow, which he is, but he’s also so far from unintelligent and knows that he isn’t the good guy. We learn that he has a crush (to keep it in PG terms) on Cassandra, and also see some of his other vices. But perhaps the biggest bombshell in the issue is when it’s finally fully revealed that Ananke was the one who blew the judge’s head apart and framed Lucifer.

She and Woden were using a piece of jewelry that Woden made for Amaterasu to scry into the courthouse (red flag, don’t trust any of the jewelry the Pantheon are wearing). During this Ananke decided to escalate the situation and kill the judge, saying it would all work out. Woden remarks in his head that it worked out if she meant her end goal was killing Lucifer.

One of the funniest scenes in the entire series shortly follows this when we get recap pages of the battle between Baal, Sakhmet, and Lucifer with Woden’s “new and improved” text for their speech bubbles. It’s quite comedic but also serves to show they had no idea what was truly going on in the situation and how much they were being played by Ananke.

We see Ananke right after the murder of Laura (Persephone) and she instructs Woden to move a body. Woden, against his better judgment, makes a snarky comeback and immediately regrets it. She puts him in his place (verbally) and references that she has some form of dirt on him which we have yet to discover, but she degrades him and says he is worth than filth.

From here we see the 1-2-3-4 motif brought back for the first time in a while. Woden is narrating that the murders are escalating as we see those that have been killed so far, Lucifer, Inanna, Tara, and a missing fourth (Woden doesn’t know about Persephone). Woden says he doesn’t know who’s next but that the tempo is picking up. The final page mirrors the first, except this time the camera is moving out to reveal the head of who Woden is talking to.

It’s someone who has a speech bubble extremely similar to Woden’s, except a different color and wearing a helmet that is also similar to Woden’s. And so the mystery deepens…

Deeper Meaning: As I briefly mentioned this issue touches on some of the problems with the patriarchy and the systemic problems it causes. It also deals with themes about whether or not anyone inherently “deserves” anything, or if people just do and take things simply because they can.

As I said towards the beginning of this article this issue also does one of my favorite things, recontextualization. It hammers home the idea that there are many sides to every story, and the way you look at the story changes as you gain more information. Just as Woden’s perspective has now shifted our understanding of the events to this point, another perspective shift would be sure to garner new information and a further recontextualization of events that have transpired.

It’s one of my favorite storytelling aspects and something this series does exceptionally well. There are inherently plot twists, but there aren’t there for the sake of being plot twists. They’re built into the fabric of the story from the beginning and one of the main reasons I can endlessly re-read this series.

The Art: The classic WicDiv art team is back, baby! As much as I’ve loved the guest artists we’ve seen so far it’s just perfect seeing McKelvie and Wilson working on this book. It makes sense that they did this particular issue as well, given the important revelations it has.

As always, their work is top-notch. Great panel layouts, incredible character expressions, and vibrant colors. This issue does something super neat with it’s overall aesthetic though. Since it focuses on Woden, there’s an electronic/digital effect present throughout the pages. It’s sort of like an electronic distortion or TV tube style interference type effect, but it works wonders to fully bring home the tone of the issue and is a unique visual flair on all the pages. There are so many little details in each panel on every page that keep me staring for much longer than needed.