By Alex Batts — As we continue The Wicked + The Divine Re-Read Project we come to the end of an arc, which is really just the end of half of an arc given this is The Imperial Phase Part 1, but it maintains that signature arc ending, “Did that really just happen?” moment that WicDiv does so well. Let’s get into it…

The Wicked + The Divine #28

Here’s the official solicitation text for The Wicked + The Divine #28 from April 12th, 2017:

END OF STORY ARC. “IMPERIAL PHASE (I),” Part Six. and sex and drugs and rock and roll and sex and drugs and rock and roll and sex and drugs and end.

The pattern continues! And ends, ominously. There isn’t much more I can say about this solicit than I did the last time we got this cryptic and in-style format for an issue, so it’s time to talk about some gorgeous art.

The Cover: Continuing the warm trend from the previous issue we get the Sun Goddess herself Amaterasu in a beautiful dress with stunning accessories. Jamie McKelvie is a master at character design with a tremendous fashion sense and that’s continuously apparent in the looks of the Pantheon. The flow of the page is also brilliant with the direction of her clothing, and the movement in her hair and pose guiding the eye, while the corner box featuring a sun and just the right hues of yellow-to-green brought in by Matthew Wilson balance out the image wonderfully. The tones on display here are just so pleasing to look at. It helps that Amaterasu’s design, and in particular her face, are so strong to begin with but it’s still such a sight every time.

The First Page: This is maybe the most chill first page in the series? Without going back to check, I can’t think of one more casual. Even the “Who’s in my house?” reveal is literally “Oh hey, funny seeing you in your own home.” In the most unthreatening manner possible. All that to say this page shows David (Pantheon researcher and expert, he agreed in the last issue to help Cassandra) arriving home to find Cassandra and the Norns already there. The contents of the page itself are relatively unremarkable, though the paneling from McKelvie keeps the mundanity engaging. The character placement in the bottom panel is note-worthy though, just a great use of space and angles.

On-Page Action: This issue has a couple of reveals. One of them is an actual reveal, one is a character learning something we already knew, and the final one is adding more context to something we’d already seen, in that order. The first of those comes from the conversation Cassandra and David have in the opening scene (see above). We learn that David is a single father, his wife having died long ago. It’s then also revealed in the following scene that David is Woden’s father. The bit of backstory does a lot to add more depth to both David and Woden as characters with a pretty easy connection that makes sense in the already established narrative when you think about it. Of course, Woden being Woden is an utter ass about it when Cassandra confronts him over his past and identity, but the two continue to have some of the most interesting back-and-forth conversations in the book.

We get the reveal for Woden at a very “cult thing is… culty” party that Amaterasu is throwing with Dio’s help. Woden and Cassandra are both there to watch her, Cassandra saying she wants to make sure they aren’t going bad, which Woden laughs at. He’s seemingly there for the pure ridiculousness of it all. Woden also briefly mentions Sakhmet’s “eating disorder”, as we get a flashback panel to the murder of her parents. Let’s just say that’s some light foreshadowing.

Cassandra attempts to confront Amaterasu about how offensive and cult-like she is being but Amaterasu reacts with a threat, and though she does so with a smile on her face and is portrayed as light-hearted the threat is terrifying and sincere. It’s important not to forget that she is an extremely powerful goddess after all. We get a brief interlude from the party as Baphomet shows up, to then be quickly confronted by Persephone. Baphomet explains that he’s told The Morrigan of his and Persephone’s affairs and it’s revealed blatantly just how abusive The Morrigan is towards him.

As he leaves Dio goes after him, telling Persephone to stay. “Persephone, I love you. But you can’t help here. You can only make things worse.” We’ve heard that one before. Persephone leaves with her mood being soured, and Dio’s departure causes the hivemind for the party to crash. This leads to, well… a giant orgy upstairs with Sakhmet, Amaterasu, and the remaining party guests. 

The problem here comes when during drunken ramblings Amaterasu accidentally reveals to Sakhmet that the rest of the Pantheon was complicit in covering up Persephone’s murder of Ananke, something Sakhmet was previously unaware of, having been unconscious at the time. Now before we get to what happens next I want to highlight a bit of dialogue from the last issue. Persephone had asked Sakhmet what the worst thing she could do to her would be. Sakhmet’s response? “Don’t lie to me. Don’t laugh at me. It’d make me angry.”

Back to the present. Insert a [record scratch] “I bet you’re wondering how I got here.” moment for Amaterasu as Sakhmet, enraged, pins her against the wall yelling that everyone has been lying and laughing behind her back for the last six months. Amaterasu makes probably the smartest decision of her life and sunbeams out of harm's way. The rest of the party guests, regular humans as they are, are not nearly so lucky. In a blind rage Sakhmet murders them all, leaving behind a grizzly scene. The art is the real stand out of this sequence, but I’ll talk about that in the art section. The last reveal is the one that adds more context to a scene we’ve already seen. It features Ananke writing a letter, a tear on her face… but we’ll talk more about that reveal and letter in time.

Deeper Meaning: “Everyone’s got a backstory.” Feels like a pretty good summary of one of the themes for this issue. The David/Woden connection just goes to show that even overtly, “This guy is literally the definition of an offensive asshole” characters have something that made them that way. That’s not to excuse actions, but to explain and examine them. 

Another perhaps lighter life lesson is to be careful who you drink around if you’ve got loose lips. You might wind up inadvertently causing an eight-person homicide. Maybe that wasn’t as light-hearted… but the lesson to maybe avoid keeping secrets and the dangers they present is apparent.

The Art: We’re nearly 30 issues into this re-read and it’s honestly a blur to me if I’ve sounded like a complete broken record or not when talking about the stellar art team on this book, but they’ve created magic once again. I feel like there’s at least one “That was so cool and visually unique” moment per issue, which keeps things feeling fresh. This issue sort of has two, the overall look of the party Amaterasu is throwing and the gorgeous warm hues are done exceptionally well, and the blue alley that Baphomet and Persephone’s confrontation happens in contrasts it so well too. 

Then there’s the Sakhmet killing spree, which uses negative space and stark contrast brilliantly. We only see the beginning and then the aftermath of the violence and it’s more than enough to paint a full picture of what happened in our minds. The calmness of Sakhmet as she licks the blood from her hands is frightening and the final splash page of her surrounded by corpses, blood splatter everywhere, is striking.

Wicked + Divine #28

Wicked + Divine #28
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
END OF STORY ARC. “IMPERIAL PHASE (I),” Part Six. and sex and drugs and rock and roll and sex and drugs and rock and roll and sex and drugs and end.
Read It Collected: Wicked + Divine, Vol. 9

Click here to read past installments of the Wic + Div Re-Read.

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