Note: This review is part of the 2016 Summer Reading Diversity Spotlight.
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1 The Faust Act
Written by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson (Colorist)
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Publisher: Image Comics
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 978-1632150196
Source: Comixology
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Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead. The team behind critical tongue-attractors like Young Avengers and PHONOGRAM reunite to create a world where gods are the ultimate pop stars and pop stars are the ultimate gods. But remember: just because you’re immortal, doesn’t mean you’re going to live forever. Collects THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #1-5.
First off, the art. It is dynamite. This art is so stunning! Hypnotizing. Dare I say I’m a fangirl for the art like the humans in the book are for the gods. It’s so colorful and bright and captivating and emotionally charged. It’s absolutely stellar.
Second, what a diverse cast of characters! Bravo on this front! I also absolutely loved how every character already stands out on their own for such distinct reasons that tie into the god they represent so perfectly. There’s so much more to learn about these characters though and I can’t wait to find out more. I love the pacing of the character development here. Good work!
Third… what a killer concept! I love, love, love this, that just because you’re immortal, it doesn’t mean you’ll actually live forever. As for the execution of that concept? Well, there’s so much good here and there’s so much left unexplained. I understand that this is only the first five issues of the story so the story is only just getting started and there’s plenty that still needs to be revealed. That said, the world building made me unsteady.
Given the complex world that’s been created here, I really would like to see how this world and how these characters will become more fleshed out and I’m willing to stick around to see that. But I’d be lying if I said I was more than satisfied with what I read in the first volume and didn’t almost give up.
While exciting to read in the beginning, I quickly became underwhelmed and then at the end, excited again. While I love the characters introduced, there seemed to be too many introduced early on. Also… there was not enough explanation of important details and no true payoff for what is shared with us because it’s almost clumsy in how it shares those small pieces.
Obviously there’s foreshadowing and set up for what’s to come but sometimes the story structure was simply put, not fluid and the writing expects us to just go with it and believe xyz even though we haven’t been given a reason to believe what’s happening on the page and the writing hasn’t earned that “Just go with it” attitude at this point, with such a huge concept that’s being presented. Just a bit more stability, a bit more solid ground could have been great here.
There was a point where it felt so disjointed that I had actually made up my mind not to read the second volume… and then I got to the end. Now of course, with that ending, I have to.
But I’m hoping the “just go with it, all will be explained, it will be worth it” approach really pays off here because we’re given just enough to actually want to move forward in the series here…and not “just enough” in the typical good way but “just enough” in the barely scraping by way. Like, if the ending had not been that thrilling, I wouldn’t be interested in picking up the second volume which is a shame to say since the concept is so fantastic. With this kind of concept, you need to go big or go home on every page.
The difference between the pacing of the character development and the world building here is that this is a concept driven story so while the character development can move at a slower pace, the world building has to be much more carefully laid out so that the reader doesn’t have to suspend belief and simply trust the writer (especially if they’ve never read that writer before) for 5 or 10 or 15 issues ($ and so much time spent by the consumer) until they get concrete answers. So.
While I was definitely underwhelmed here and not all that impressed, there was enough good here to decide to move onto volume two. I’m not completely sold but at least I’ve made it to the next volume! And that’s worth talking about.
Finally, I’m really curious to know if you’ve read this and the volumes ahead and what you think about this story. What did you think?
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1 The Faust Act written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Jamie McKelvie, and Matt Wilson (Colorist) is available today.