The Wicked + The Divine #8 Review

 

Issue #8 of The Wicked + The Divine is a rave. Yeah, that kind of rave, complete with psychedelic colors, a fast beat, and a lot of questions to answer in the aftermath. We follow Fangirl of the Century Laura into the lion’s den as she tries to uncover clues about who murdered Luci. It just so happens that the den, where most of her prime suspects are gathered and (hopefully) feeling a little loose-lipped, is the basement rave of the newest member of the Pantheon: Dionysus, god of epic parties.

The visuals of this particular issue that really invoke the delirium that hails the arrival of Dionysus. It’s also an indicator of how plot points are fed to us this month, which is to say fast and loose. I have to give props to colorist Matthew Wilson for this issue, because he handles the transition from the glowing euphoria of Dionysus to the reality outside it with aplomb. One hallmark of this issue in particular is the numbers. The Wicked + The Divine has already been a little experimental with its layouts by replacing panels with counting in some of its scenes. For me as a reader, it both speeds up and slows down the action of a scene, depending on what’s going on.

This issue takes that idea and turns it into a full blown rhythmic experience. It was a bit confusing at first because I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to read across both pages and when the pages were split as normal, but once I analyzed it, it all made sense (and truth be told, that confusion is kind of part of the experience, isn’t it?). It’s unclear exactly how Dionysus’ power works, but imagine a room full of people — dancing, ecstatic, living in the moment — and every heart in the room is beating in unison at 120 beats per minute. That’s what this issue feels like, and I imagine that’s what partying with Dionysus feels like. If there’s one thing The Wicked + The Divine does spectacularly well, it’s pulling readers into commune with the gods right along with the fans on the page. Every god’s performance that we’ve seen so far has had its own flavor, from Amaterasu’s sunlit high to The Morrigan’s underground goth displays. The Pantheon cycle in the book is supposed to make people feel something, believe in something, to inspire something in the lives it touches. It’s why the gods appear and disappear so quickly: to inject the world with life. As a comic, there’s a little something of that purpose in the pages of The Wicked + The Divine, too.

Story-wise, there’s a lot to digest in this issue. Laura goes to this party for answers, and all she gets are more questions. Gillen dangles the plot twists in front of our faces, but the music is so loud that we can’t catch them. They’re big, fat breadcrumbs though, and it seems Laura’s got a lot more to uncover before she knows what’s going on. In the mean time, this issue does a lot to expose the dark underbelly of being a mortal-immortal god. We’ve been getting plenty of that already with Minerva’s tragically young age, Luci’s rebellion against the hand she’d been dealt, and Woden’s constant complaints about his schtick, but there’s an exchange with one of the gods in this issue that broke my heart just a little. Gillen does a wonderful job of writing these characters as both divine and human.

I’m sure there’s plenty in this issue I’m missing, as both Gillen and McKelvie seem fond of Easter Eggs, but I’ll have to save that for the re-reads. With plenty of hints dropped and just a little bit of a cliffhanger, next month’s issue — as always — can’t come soon enough.