By Alex Batts — These introductions seem to become more and more unnecessary given the lack of change in my life while being quarantined (I hope everyone is staying safe!) so with that said, on to this week’s issue, which is The Wicked + The Divine #9!

The Wicked + The Divine #9

Here’s the official solicitation text for the ninth issue from March 25th, 2015:

It's time for a private audience with Anake, she who has protected and judged the Pantheon for thousands of years. Yes, it's time for an interview... with an umpire. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Also: Baphomet being all goth and having a nice little mope.

This solicit was fairly serious right up until the umpire joke, which to be fair, is a great joke and a prime example of why I love these solicits. As for content, the solicit pretty much nails what the issue will be about. It’s primarily between Ananke and Cassandra and it gives us some juicy backstory.

The Cover: This week’s portrait cover puts the focus on Ananke, the ringleader, and the protector of the gods. Though we have seen her a handful of times throughout the series she’s still a rather mysterious figure. I think Laura put it best when she described her as “dust made flesh” in issue 4 and this cover reiterates that description. Her cover is also the most muted that we have seen so far with mostly gray tones and only hints of purple and pink in her eyes. Though it’s not the most colorful the use of hues strikes a balance between calming and uneasy.

The First Page: This is quite an interesting first page as it doesn’t focus on any of the main characters in the series. The issue opens with Laura’s parents at home going back and forth about whether Laura will be home for dinner. They see her on the television again, which is another great example of how Laura has achieved the celebrity status she so desperately wanted at the beginning of the series, and seem generally calm about the situation.

The conversation between them is rather normal, but you can feel a ton of emotion and concern between them for their daughter and what they must think about the situation of Laura being mixed in with all these gods. Her mother even comments about texting Laura again but is concerned that she might seem like she’s worrying. The father replies that she is worrying, and she says that someone has to, she looks at them all and thinks “I hope someone’s looking out for them” which segues brilliantly into the second page and the real meat of the issue.

On-Page Action: The main through-line of this issue puts a lot of focus on Ananke, who we see on the second page comforting a distressed Minerva. One can only imagine what is going through the mind of a girl that knows she’ll be dead before her fifteenth birthday. We get a biting exchange between Baphomet and Minerva as the former enters the scene, with the latter losing her temper given the circumstances. Baphomet has also come to confide in Ananke and it’s here we learn one of the most pivotal plot-points in the series so far.

Ananke brings up the Prometheus Gambit, the idea that someone can kill a god and be given their powers, and immediately dismisses it as a lie. However, she does mention that a death god killing another god would grant him a few more years of life. Talk about a bombshell. She reasons that Baphomet could’ve discovered this truth on his own and that’s why she told him but given her mysterious nature you can’t help but wonder if there’s something else at play. She also warns him that he’s the only god who knows this so if more gods turn up dead she’ll hunt him down and kill him.

This leads to a spark of outrage from Baphomet who in his own words, does some quick math and says that Ananke killed Lucifer, she just said she’d kill him. Another bombshell one page right after the other. “Do as I say not as I do”, Baphomet snidely remarks to Ananke. Ananke scolds him in return, claiming he has no idea what she gave up for him (and the rest of the gods) and once again states that she is necessity.

This brings us to the arrival of Cassandra and her crew, who are present to interview Ananke. After a quick back and forth between Cassandra and Baphomet, which again serves to flesh out both characters more, we get to the interview itself. This interview is one of the best conversations in the series and a great display of how both Cassandra and Ananke think and converse.

Throughout the interview, we get a couple of crucial tidbits about the lore of the book. Ananke again states that she’s immortal and has been there since the beginning of the god's cycles, she actually was one herself at one point. She tells a tale of the gods continuously reincarnating and fighting a great darkness but failing over and over again. Every time they failed the darkness ruled the planet, and cursed humanity to live as little more than animals. One time they succeeded, banishing the darkness for a while, but when they next returned they had no knowledge of their previous victory and failed again.

Cassandra asks if Ananke is implying that humanity has the gods to thank for civilization. “Indirectly. The gods light a match. Without them, the darkness returns. They have to burn brightly and go. That is what they are for.”, is Ananke’s response. After a few more questions Ananke even concedes that though she knows much, she does not know everything. The second time the gods won, thousands of years after their first victory, the gods made precautions to ensure their continued victory. They needed someone to be present to guide the gods. Ananke volunteered herself, she sacrificed her ability to inspire and lived on, alone. It was necessity.

Near the end of the interview, Ananke makes a jab at Cassandra being a poor critic. She comments on her pessimistic view of the people affected by the god's performances when she herself is not. “It is a poor critic who says that a lack of effect on them implies all others are insincere in their love” being one of my favorite quotes in the series. This transitions into how Ananke finds the gods, and that the first few are always easy and the last are more difficult. Particularly the twelfth (which is the last one, who still needs to be found, for those keeping track at home).

Then out of nowhere, Ananke addresses Cassandra as a god, and we get a great two-page sequence of Cassandra falling down the rabbit hole to godliness. She is Urdr, one of the three Norns of fate, and her crew members are Verdandi and Skuld, the other two. Cassandra is bewildered but still bitter about her new transformation. “It’s still… bullshit. Even if everything is true.” She vows to open the people's eyes to the pantheon.

The final scene of the issue shows Laura returning home in tears, breaking down. She doesn’t know what’s wrong, but the final splash page shows her crying, looking at her fingers, and saying that everything’s gone wrong. There are twelve gods in every cycle, Cassandra has just been unveiled as the twelfth, and Laura somehow felt it. Logic reasons that this means Laura can’t secretly be a god. So, what was the deal with her flaming finger click at the end of the first arc? Only time will tell…

Deeper Meaning: The biggest underlying takeaway I get from this issue is the mental toll knowing about your impending death must have. We all know we’re going to die, it’s simply a fact of life, but to know a finite amount of time you have left is something else entirely. Do you continue as normal? How can you? Does the thought of your impending demise debilitate you so much that you can’t even enjoy your final months? This is something that a lot of people do have to go through when diagnosed with terminal illnesses, and it’s an incredible burden to bear.

The Art: After the show that issue #8 put on the art this go-around is a lot more low-key. With that said it’s still as great as ever. McKelvie continues to make normal conversations engaging with varying layouts, immaculate and expressive facial and character renditions, and picture-perfect backgrounds. Wilson then comes over and gives the book a brilliant polish with smooth, vibrant, and form-fitting colors on every page. Two panels of note come in the form of visualizing the flashbacks that Ananke speaks of, these images are a less sharp render of characters which adds to the mystery behind them, and they feature more stylized colors. The book is just a wonder to look at, cover to cover. And we get another one of those awesome mortal to god transition sequences, which look crazy as ever.

The Wicked + The Divine #8

Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics

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