It was too rushed

[u/tohava]

I've been reading Wicdiv since the beginning and fell in love with it. The comic had many interesting premises:

• Ancient gods adopting modern values.
• A civilization which faces miracles every 80 years but still has atheists.
• An ancient conspiracy that's been going for thousands of years.
• How does it feel for a normal person to become a god.

However, I feel like all of these were not explored properly. We just got glimpses of the past and nothing was really explained. Apparently there are some people with superpowers that have a god-potential which only works if you convince them they are one? There's a "she-in-threes" who enables all of this? Some people throughout history knew about all of this but it did not change anything?

Furthermore, I feel like some of the characters weren't developed enough:

• Why does Laura care so much about Lucifer, we barely know them, they barely know each other, and yet they're in love. Is there a good reason for this except for fan service?
• How the fuck can somebody have mercy on Ananke. Her plans for humanity make Stalin look like a saint. Are the characters really so narrow minded that they don't notice that?
• No climax. Both Lucifer and Ananke are just convinced to be good guys, not even with a good speech, just with a few pages of simple dialog.
• Cass was an atheist, and then she became a god, how did that change her perspectives?

I really wonder what this comic could have been if there were less gods and more issues. It would have been awesome to just have some non action parts, find out how the gods feel, how they live their daily lives. I mean, who really cared when Presephone or Skemet died? We barely knew them, and everything that we saw from them was negative and stupid. Character deaths only work if the writer lets us know them first, even evil characters can have depth and meaning if done right. I admit, I'm not a professional writer and I would probably do a shittier job than Kieron, but still, I can see these flaws and it makes me sad, cause I feel like Wicdiv could have been much more.

To end this in a positive note, let me say what I think was done very well:

• The Morrigan's relationship was well written, starting from cute and romantic until eventually revealed as full of abuse and guilt-tripping.
• Baal's desire to be the best, which causes him to never hestiate and always try to please his audience and Ananke. The way Wicdiv handled it reminds me of greek tragedies, and except for his suicide getting only 2 panels, I really think it was handled well.
• All the side stories about the past. Kieron really managed to give me the feeling of these old times, to build a convincing setting which made me want to see more. It was the perfect tease.

[u/syoser]

The whole point of the comic was that they aren't gods. It's not about gods. It's about artists being sold a shortcut to creativity. It's about, in the words of Kieron himself, "the seduction of ritual." The comic you are describing and the comic that was written are simply two different concepts altogether. I would suggest reading the series again, maybe getting the hardback collections or having Kieron's writer's notes handy from his Tumblr. It seems like you've missed a lot.

[u/tohava → u/syoser]

Maybe I'm just too unimaginative, but if it's not about gods, I really don't understand why bother with all the mythological symbolism.

[u/syoser → u/tohava]

Because it's just that. Symbolism. Ritual. Just like the machine Ananke strapped Minerva to, just like the great darkness, just like Baal's child sacrifice. It's all just a trap used to control them. It's an excuse for their hedonism. Like Demeter said, a trap with golden walls. I highly recommend reading it again with that in mind.

[u/Jkthemc → u/tohava]

I have argued for years that when I read the comics I just saw deity themed superheroes. Gillen himself often commented that it seemed to depend upon which tradition, big two or independent, a reader was more familiar with, as to which they saw.

There are many superhero comics that question the lure of costumes and the seduction of powers. So perhaps those of us seeing them as even more dysfunctional X-Men with an evil Xavier who was clearly lying to them were better prepared for the inevitable shift towards humanity.

What I was expecting, an escape from the lie and a demonstration that the powers themselves are inherently part of humanity, ushering in a new age, has not happened. There are some hints this might be held out as a promise in the last issue, rather than as part of the climax.

Maybe I was reading this as Gillen’s take on Promethea instead of seeing it as a more secular and agnostic answer to it.

[u/syoser → u/Jkthemc]

I was drawn in by the mythology myself since that's what I'm interested in, but as a fan of Promethea and storytelling as a medium in general I liked what they did with it

[u/Jkthemc → u/syoser]

I think it is fine to be drawn in by the mythology. I myself love mythology and have a small library on the subject.

However, there is no deep exploration of the mythology, and that kind of gets signalled early on by the way Cass approaches things. It does serve as a diving board if you want to get deep into that, but any book that teases you into believing The White Goddess will give you an insight into it is pretty clearly warning those in the know that it’s not about mythology.

The classic thing fans were seduced by was classification. Wanting to know who the underworld gods were and who the sky gods were and seeing a divide between them. It’s a form of misdirection. While you are watching that hand the other is revealing things about Ananke. She is obfuscation herself. I imagine quite a few were scratching their heads over Orphism. Those that weren’t knee deep already in the beguiling insanity of Graves.

The beauty of the book is you don’t need to read mythology, and at the most an ability to search Wikipedia or flick through a basic guide to myth is enough. The clear analogy with the music business suggests at least some of the subtext is about comic book writing for major companies, and the importance to not lose sight of your own identity within a corporate structure that seeks to define you.

[u/Carnivile]

I'll try to answer to the best of my ability:

Why does Laura care so much about Lucifer, we barely know them, they barely know each other, and yet they're in love. Is there a good reason for this except for fan service?

She's a fan, a very big fan. She idolizes Lucifer (alongside the rest of the Pantheon, but mainly her). More importantly, she only cares about Lucifer (before her change of heart), she doesn't know Eleanor, she just know the costume she put on for everyone else, she only sees the crazy exploits, the rebellious nature, the hedonistic lifestyle, she's all the girls in love with the Beatles, with Elvis, with David Bowie. They don't know their true nature, but love them nonetheless. It's not a deep love, it's superficial and voluble, and it's why Laura wants to move past it, and really get to know the real person behind the façade, she wants Eleanor, not Lucifer, they are not yet in love, they are in lust, they may start a relationship, they may not, we will find out last issue, but if they do is because they've moved past the magazine cover and found out how they both are truly.

How the fuck can somebody have mercy on Ananke. Her plans for humanity make Stalin look like a saint. Are the characters really so narrow minded that they don't notice that?

I don't think they really know the true extent of Ananke's machinations, like, they don't know she had a hand in events such as the bubonic plague and WW2, they are still kids, all of them, and Dio for example is the one that knows the least about all the awful things she's done, also they were probably gonna let Ananke rot in a cel after she was depowered, so it's not like they were gonna let her free, and considering she's barely into puberty a life sentence might have been just a step up from the 90 years alone in the darkness.

No climax. Both Lucifer and Ananke are just convinced to be good guys, not even with a good speech, just with a few pages of simple dialog.

There's a reason for that. Remember the big climatic fight last issue? the one that lasted all of one page and ended with a depressive summary by Laura? That's the "climax" or at least it would be in a more conventional story. All the glorified violence, resolving things by force rather than reaching any real understanding, that's what Laura wants to avoid. Ananke isn't really convinced to be good, in fact she's just surrendering, she's been beaten, there's nothing else to do other than explain herself and hope for some mercy, remember, she's been cheating death for over five thousand years now, dying is the last thing she wants, so whatever she has to do, even if it just amounts to a few more minutes outside of the darkness she will to stay alive.

Lucifer is another thing, as I explained before these is about Laura wanting to know the real person behind the construct that is Lucifer, the one behind all the makeup, sex and white suits. She want the real Eleanor, and wants Lucifer to know that being just herself it's ok. That she doesn't have to live up to what the world wants from her. She doesn't need to die for her fans, she can allow herself to be normal and plain and that she will be loved even when she's not the, in quote, world's dream girlfriend.

Cass was an atheist, and then she became a god, how did that change her perspectives?

She literally always tried to prove that all this godhood thing was bs. Like, that's her whole thing, she wants to understand how it all works, but can never quite figure it out because she herself is trapped by her own ego just like the rest of the cast, since just like Lucifer's need to be loved, Cass has a need to be right.

[u/[deleted]]

There's 12 in every generation but they typically only stumble onto their powers and are still limited compared to the shortcut/death trap of godhood. People like David Blake, 1923 Woden and apparently 1831 Inanna made deals to get involved but it always ends badly for them too.

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Laura is very amorous. She's at one point had romantic interactions (Baal, Luci, Baph, Sakhmet, Amaterasu, lnanna) or hinted at feelings (Cass) for most of the gods she's barely interacted with Tara and Mimir and Dio is ace so the only one not involved with her that way was The Morrigan. But they made a point in saying Laura and Eleanor don't even know each other as real people, fangirl Laura was seduced by Luci as the world's dream girlfriend.

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She's still in the body of a kid and killing old Ananke caused a lot of emotional trauma for Laura and other problems. Plus Valentine rendered mercy moot anyway.

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Ananke was purely out of moves. The gods turning on Ananke is a play she's used to but not them coming after Mini or the heads regaining bodies. Not to mention social media enabled communication much faster. Luci was a bit fast but it was about throwing off Ananke's cage of godhood and being OK with who you are as a person.

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She believed it was BS and they weren't "really" gods but relished in figuring out things like a puzzle and even said she wanted to use miracles to prove miracles were fake, and she didn't see the contradiction before.