02/08/2026
THE WICKED AND THE DIVINE REVIEW
Years and years ago, when I was getting into comics for the first time, I came across the writer Kieron Gillen. I was looking for a new Marvel comic to check out, and he was co-writing Angela: Asgard’s Assassin with Marguerite Bennett. To be frank, I wasn’t completely blown away by the series; Stephanie Hans’ artwork was as stunning as her work always is, but I struggled a little to get into the story…at least, until the final issue. The majority of stories, I find, will start better than they end; this is particularly true in the sort of serialised storytelling that is common in comics. The storytellers need to attract the reader’s attention as quickly and strongly as possible, because if they don’t the series won’t sell enough copies and will quickly be cancelled. But the stronger ending of Angela made me pay attention to both of its writers, whose work I’ve followed ever since. Marguerite Bennett is no slouch, her work has been consistently strong across her career, but today I’m looking closer at Gillen. Building stories for their endings is a common trait across Gillen’s career, in his Marvel work as well as his creator owned stories. Gillen has maintained a creative partnership with the artist Jamie McKelvie since the mid-2000s, when they collaborated on Phonogram, a series that functioned mostly as a platform for Gillen to share his opinions on Britpop and its surrounding culture. They then worked together on Young Avengers for Marvel, before returning to Image for The Wicked and the Divine. I’ve read through the entire series and I’d like to write about it now.
Young Avengers was a story about a group of young super-powered individuals, their various traumas and backstories, and their relationships. WicDiv is much the same, except because these characters are not owned by Marvel, they could swear, express political opinions, have s*x and die. Through the course of the series, pretty much every major character does all of the above. It’s clear, partly through the series' nature, but mostly because Gillen has talked about it fairly openly, that WicDiv is an opportunity for Gillen and McKelvie to explore ideas they were not able to at Marvel. There is a free-wheeling spirit about the series, an air of genuine unpredictability to its plotting and character writing. WicDiv explores ideas about music, about culture, about religion, and finally about the nature of life and death, all while maintaining genuine dramatic tension in its main plot and a snappy, comedic tone from its sharp dialogue.
Gillen’s writing through the series is incisive, precise and streamlined. The 9 main arcs that make up the story are plotted at a relentless pace, and make for great binge reading. There’s always a new plot twist or cliffhanger to keep the reader engaged, but what is perhaps most impressive across the series is the way that the various mysteries are built up and paid off. The central conceit of WicDiv, that every 90 years 12 young people are possessed by the spirits of Gods, that they live as celebrities or major figures before all dying within 2 years is left unexplained for much of the series, and the eventual reveals of how everything works is not only narratively satisfying, but thematically resonant, allowing for an ending to the series as a whole that provides both answers and emotional closure to its reader. It’s a difficult balancing act to master, yet Gillen pulls it off with seeming ease.
I don’t want to write too much about the plot of WicDiv, as its various twists and turns are best enjoyed without much foreknowledge. Instead, I’ll touch a bit more on the series’ characters. The heroes of WicDiv, if they can be called that, are not so much classical heroes with one fatal flaw, but closer to a collection of flaws and problems that occasionally show some redeeming qualities. The various ways that the characters, even the ones we’re supposed to like, fail, treat each other badly or are otherwise cruel can make them difficult to like at times, but it does make them very compelling as a whole. Someone is always double-crossing someone else, or lying about the way they feel to hide some part of themselves, or hurtling head-first down the path to self destruction. The web of connections that develops between the characters makes for fascinating reading, and their unpredictability makes for some truly unexpected twists and turns. As strong as WicDiv’s plot is, the series is, at heart, firmly character driven, and the series has some of the best characters that Image comics have to offer.
Jamie McKelvie, the series artist, shines like few others when it comes to character design. The cast of WicDiv have defined and consistent designs, with McKelvie drawing on a variety of celebrity influences and contemporary fashion to create distinctive looks for each character. The consistency of design is what is so impressive; where often the reader must forgive minor inconsistencies between designs in different issues, McKelvie’s characters always stay on model while still retaining the expressiveness that makes them seem so human. The art is powerful, and beautiful to look at, though it is rarely truly stunning. McKelvie’s storytelling is brutally efficient in its simplicity, but that does mean that there’s not much room for experimenting with interesting panel layouts or moving away from the series’ naturalistic colour palette…that is, outside of the Commerical Su***de issues. Between #12 and #17, a series of different artists took over to tell stories in their own style, which gave the series a nice burst of idiosyncratic, creative energy. It’s great fun seeing the creators mix it up while still maintaining the quality and the tone of the series; the historical specials have a similar feeling, breaking up the plot and filling in the details of the world and backstory perfectly.
The Wicked and the Divine is one of the most consistently enjoyable series that Image Comics have produced. It reads very well in its collected editions, being nine volumes (or one compendium) which makes it a fairly quick read. It’s compelling, confounding, occasionally genuinely moving and, like much of Gillen’s work, builds towards a satisfying conclusion. WicDiv was in fact one of the first Image series that I started reading, more than 10 years ago, and I only got around to finishing the complete series earlier this year by reading through the compendium. It felt good to finally get around to closing that loop. I have, in the years since, followed Gillen as he has gone on to great successes throughout the comics industry, including his spiritual successor to WicDiv, The Power Fantasy, which I named as one of the best ongoing comic series of last year. One day, I imagine that future readers will be able to look back on The Power Fantasy, when it too is completed, the same way that I do with The Wicked and the Divine. So far, it’s been a worthy follow up.
