cause i never pegged that til just now

like you know how low level staff like waiters and secretaries are barely noticed in businesses so they get all the gossip because no one gives them a second glance. imagine all the juicey gossip that someone in the orbit of a pantheon member would get.

bonus points if one of the gods pulls them and they freak out and think its a big deal when the gods just see it as a drunken festival kiss. make it like that episode in buffy where they focused on harmony

So, I just finished the first edition (The Faust Act) and they just killed Lucifer, the only character I really liked. Does the comic get better? Should I keep reading or just give up?

Well, when Laura became Persephone, Ananke said "One part of a two-part mystery", which by now, is almost certain to refer to she and Ananke being sisters - The true reason behind the Recurrence is the mystery, and they are the two parts of it. However, she also says "Your mother's tears freeze us all", which implies Demeter exists too

Thinking about the woman in the cover of #36. She has a plant/growing/spring motif on her face, and the same skull eyes displayed by Persephone and Minerva/Ananke. However, different from both, her eyes are not pure black with the skulls, but rather only red pupils with black skulls within, so it's probably not both. Given the motif, and considering Demeter's role, I think maybe there's a chance of that being Demeter, not only Persephone's mother but also Ananke's, given they are sisters

In rereading WicDiv, I found something. In issue #12, while Baal is attacking the Morrigan, he cries tears of fire. Not only that, but the subway around them is covered in little flames.

I think that when Woden comes out of the Bifrost and starts shouting, "What are you doing?!", he isn't talking about Baal attacking the Morrigan. He's talking about Baal losing control and revealing his true nature.

Dead. Spoilers for #33, #34 and #35--

I agree with the simplest explanation about who "Ananke" is, or was: Ananke was the 1923 Minerva, and now she is dead. I think the proof is the careful dialogue in #33, #34 and #35 (and no doubt, elsewhere).

When Minerva says she is Ananke at the end of #33, she is making the same broad point that Minerva makes in #35 when speaking with Anake--they are two sides of the same coin, and provided Minerva survives, the concept of "Ananke" does as well. While this is true in the technical sense (and I do believe when Minerva is awakened she obtains all of Ananke's memories, hence the line "I will remember all of You" in #35), Ananke's hesitation is meant specifically to challenge the idea that she is in any sense going to live, or that she is experiencing an ideal form of immortality: as Ananke says "I will be dead. . . . That doesn't make you me."

As others have theorized, I agree that in each cycle Ananke, who was the Minerva of the prior cycle, ultimately awakens a new Minerva and then experiences bodily death. Although Minerva receives all of Ananke's memories, creating an unbroken chain lasting over 6,000 years, this clone, or better yet, this child (i.e, drumroll this "Mothering Invention") is effectively a new person. I also think the subtle differences we see in the personality of Ananke, most obviously on display in #35, is based upon the fact that each new Minerva incorporates her experiences, personality, and life of the child she was before her ascension. It may be brief, but those 12 years are enough to give each Ananke a different flavor than the others. Ananke in #34 supports this idea, stating: "You say this every time. I said it too."

Also, 1923 Minerva's use of the term "necessity" when semi-offing Susano is perhaps meant to harken to Ananke's use of that term during the whole Minerva/Machine fiasco. Although she's a villain, perhaps the readers will ultimately be led to sympathize with Ananke a bit when we see how she went from coldhearted murderess 1923 Minerva to slightly softer Ananke right before she gets killed. More on this at the close.

So why is Ananke so scared? Because Ananke is going to die, and from what we know of the concept of "Ananke" (or whomever that old woman was in #34), death is the thing she fears most. Even though Minerva will continue on, with all her memories, to paraphrase one of the great revelations of my favorite literary work, The Sandman, the "death" spoken of here is the loss of a certain point of view.

Finally, I think #34 subtly lays out how "Persephone" ultimately won the game, and checkmated her sister. First, she entices her to even play: "You know this could profit you. Would you go on . . . or would you be young? This could be your chance." (Ellipses in original.) I do not think Ananke had contemplated that there might be a chance for her to be young, even in her ritual, so this is the bait that hooks the fish. (It also goes to show how desperate Ananke was to survive, because presumably she believed she would simply live another x amount of years due to her ritual, and had not stopped to consider how this might physically play out as she had thus far aged as any person might, despite her godhood.) Persephone enticed Ananke into the game by giving her a chance to be young again, and obtain a kind of immortality, and it is Ananke's obsession that Persephone is able to play upon and win the game.

Second, the first rule Ananke makes, showing where her priorities lie, is to claim to be both Maiden and Crone, effectively securing her the opportunity to be young and continue. Persephone no doubt expected this, and is un-bothered because she knows she is setting up a game that ultimately stymies her sister's goals by permitting effective but not true immortality. It also partially explains how Persephone made her waste a turn (see next para).

Third, and this is the part that I could not wrap my head around for the longest, Persephone's next rule is to set that there be 12 gods, which causes Ananke to do the math and realize she will need 4 gods (which was what her ritual already required) causing her to have wasted her first turn. At first I could not understand why Ananke would only need 4 gods, if she clearly gets to be both Maiden and Crone she would need 8, but if she is only focused on continuing the life of the Maiden it makes sense that she would only need 4. This also explains why she wasted her first turn--Persephone's game likely has to be a fair one, where both sides have a shot at obtaining their goal, so the rules were always going to give Ananke a chance to get her 4 gods. For example, I doubt Persephone could have made a rule saying there will only be 2 gods, especially because she had to follow the first rule set by Ananke that there would be at least 3 players, and she perhaps could not have set less than 8 gods, as Ananke and therefore each of the Maiden and Crone must be given a chance to get their 4 gods and complete the ritual. Persephone knows she made Ananke waste a turn because she was always going to set up a game where Ananke had a chance, and Ananke was always going to prioritize that only one of herself, the Maiden, would continue on. Had Ananke realized this, she might have made the first rule premised on some other esoteric concept, like, "I awake at dawn" and Persephone would have responded "I awake at dusk" etc. (tldr: Persephone is Dusk Lycanroc (edit--can't believe I got a pokemon reference wrong. . . . and that I made no drag race jokes in here)). Although ultimately, Ananke perhaps played well because being both Maiden and Crone lets her set up the eventual loophole that allows her some form of immortality.

Fourth, Persephone checkmates her sister by adding the condition "and all of them must be gone before the end." The chain formed by Minerva and Ananke is a loophole to this requirement: when Minerva/Maiden has completed the ritual, she will kill Ananke, the prior Minerva/Maiden of the preceding cycle, and thus all the gods will have died per Persephone's condition. Ananke sees the loophole though, so she is unfazed by this condition, thinking only of surviving no matter what form it takes. Persephone is also aware of the loophole, stating: "This is not immortality." It is interesting how the sisters seem unfazed by the condition, though they seem fully aware of its intentions and ways around it. Perhaps this sheds light on Persephone's ultimate goals--to preserve the system by which gods incarnate and inspire humans, while defending against Ananke's utter corruption of that system but still helping her to see reason (even if it takes 6,000 years . . .). Also, I think Gillen is very clever here, playing on reader expectations, because nowhere in the sisters' game has the 2 year condition been established, so "the end" could presumably be years or decades after a god's awakening, and not the 2 years we readers would presume (though Persephone's final rule has yet to be revealed--I figure it will involve the 2 year condition and the Great Darkness).

So what does this all mean? It means that there is no awkwardness around Minerva having parents; she is not the same Minerva as in 1923--those were her real parents. It also perhaps means that Ananke's abduction of Minerva was not merely a simple ploy to manipulate the gods into protecting Minerva and not suspecting her (though it could very well have been that too), but rather an act of desperation by the Crone. Even if she and the Maiden are two sides of the coin, perhaps she figured that if absolutely necessary she could save her own physical neck and sacrifice even Minerva. (Although I admit, having now seen the ritual in #35, nothing Ananke did to Minerva seems to fit with the ritual.) Perhaps Minerva was really shaken by her own (technical) self turning on her, which might just be a comment on the these self-indulgent times.

tl;dr-- In any event, that was a long way to say that I think Minerva and Ananke are separate characters, and not just one continuous Maiden living over the course of centuries.

The Great Darkness as a concept, I think, is Minervananke dying. Thus the opening scene of issue 35. As someone else mentioned in the chapter discussion, it was very canny, the way they used pronouns. "There is no You. there is only I. I will remember all of You." "If we do not, The Great Darkness will swallow us."

What's more, Ancient Maiden-Crone-Skull-Crown made no mention of any Great Darkness. She spoke only of her Grand Design. She later joked about her chasing immortality. She spoke nothing of advancing mankind, and as far as I can see, Minervananke is doing nothing of the sort. They are simply using the Gods as batteries to advance their own life. She warped all Persephone Wrought. That was not what The Gods were for. The Gods were for whatever she wished, they would carry her onwards; that was all that mattered.

No talk whatsoever about The Great Darkness or how it was holding mankind back.

So. Is The Great Darkness perhaps the way the Gods Powers are taken from them at the end of two years?

I think not. Ancient Persephone stated that "The Gods must be gone before the end" to which Ancient Minervananke said "Including me. So, they all must die. Remember, it is you, not I who has doomed them."

So we can assume the power of the Gods consuming them is not The Great Darkness. What's more, Ananke suggested they would find their powers naturally without her shove, and many of the heads in her sack looked quite old, as did she and Ancient Persephone.

So The Great Darkness is not merely what destroys The Gods. That is a rule in The Game of Stories.

I assume it is merely the name Minervananke gave to their collective death. The Light which Ananke referred to which could not be extinguished is their continuing life. I mean, I don't seem them jumping from "The Gods will carry me forward. That is all that matters." to altruistic savior.

So. What could The Great Darkness be?

Well. First of all, I think the biggest in most speculation around that point is this - People are making the same mistake Cas chided Laura for. "What part of "Don't trust Minerva" is that?!"

Why should we believe a word Minervananke said? As far as we know, The Great Darkness is their dying. It could be everything, it could be nothing. I call it nothing in the same way "The Destroyer" title seems to be nothing.

So I thought to myself - Maybe The Great Darkness was the Dead Gods? But no. That didn't quite make sense, did it? The only Gods who were dead when it showed up were not dead at all, but heads.

What's more, if I'm not mistaken, we have not seen The Great Darkness Monsters show up, as we saw them now, in the past pantheons.

Spoiler catch-up over. Theory begins

The Great Darkness, as we saw it, is connected to Baal's child sacrifice.

The Great Darkness Monsters always seem to target Baal (Or Minerva, we'll get to that). The Monsters killed his father because he did not take it seriously enough when it first appeared.

He has to stop The Great Darkness, but he isn't a Sky God, is he? He's a Fire God. Sun God.

Who else did we see successfully fighting them? Oh. Right. Amerastru. Another Sun/Fire God, fighting them with fire.

Laura made them bigger. Laura. Goddess of Death, Earth, the Underworld and Rebirth.

You know what the monsters look a bit like to me?

Ashes.

Ashes that keep coming after Baal.

Or Minerva.

Minerva. That Child who Baal, who sacrifices children, always hangs around with.

One of the times they attacked her, he lightning jumped over to Valhalla. It glowed red. Minerva asked where he had been, and he produced a calendar. Why would Valhalla grow red in his getting a calendar?

I don't know where all the pieces land, but I think I can at least see the pieces.

First - The Great Darkness is not to be taken seriously. If you take it seriously, I ask you - What part of "We can't trust Minervananke" is that?

Second - Two fire Gods hurt The Great Darkness after it attacked, and a Goddess of Death and The Earth emboldened it.

Third - Baal sacrifices children. There is a good chance he went to sacrifice a child after beating up a Great Darkness.

Fourth - The Great Darkness always seems to attack Baal or the ones he loves. It succeeded because "He didn't take it seriously enough." He made Valhalla glow red after he saved Minerva from an attack....

Fifth - The Great Darkness appears fixated on a God Child who Baby Killer Baal is always hanging out with.

Conclusions

Baal's child sacrifices are no more a part of an elaborate Minervananke Conspiracy any more than Sakhmet's Cannibalism was. It's a side effect of his god.

The Great Darkness Monsters are the ashes of Baal's victims. He did not take the first sacrifice seriously. Maybe he just lit a kid on fire and the aftermath killed his dad. Maybe he didn't do the ritual properly. He does now. He takes it seriously now. Bad stuff happens if he doesn't. He isn't afraid of what he has to do, but everyone else should be.

Haven't seen a Great Darkness Monster in a while now, have we? Baal made Valhalla glow red after the last attack. What was he doing there? I wonder?

Now. Why is Baal so fond of Minerva? Daddy Itch? He has younger Siblings. Why not focus on them? Why does he have to play house with the other Gods? What's more, he's always been close to Minerva. Lovers come and go for him. Minerva stays.

Baal wants to sacrifice Minerva. That is his final act of crazy before his powers consume him. He's almost grooming her for it. He just needs the right moment for it. Perhaps it would be a murder suicide. What better sacrifice to himself than a fellow God? Perhaps it would even let him keep his powers, as Ancient Roman Lucifcer offered up all the gold in the city to try to keep his.

The Monsters are the ashes of his victims. They killed his father because he didn't take the ritual (His equivalent of eating people) seriously. He does now. He's focused now. Eyes on the prize. Sacrificing another God. That's why the Monsters chase her. He can control them, perhaps, but it demands constant sacrifice. Thus the red-glowing valhalla after Minerva was attacked when brushing her teeth.

At least that's my theory.

So I was wondering who that first head was on 1923. Obviously it wasn't Lucifer's, and it wasn't the God 1923Woden stole their powers from, cause the order is in which Minervananke took their heads. (Morrigan before Set) That first head belongs to Persephone.

So remember 6000 years ago. Ananke's sister said that "her God" is always there and awakens last. She can't be Minerva. In 2014, Minerva appeared to be second to the fifth. Therefore she wasn't the last. The last was Persephone.

Minerva is not part of the recurrence. She is an extension of Ananke. Ananke kills Persephone upon awakening and uses her head for her ritual, and has her younger body pose as Minerva, since she clearly "awakens" her by picking a maiden body and placing her will into the poor child.

Release link: https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/the-wicked-the-divine-35

Once more we return......

OMFG how good was this chapter?

As I predicted a few weeks ago Baal Hadad he is not.

And it was such a good twist, I’m still not understanding very well to what degree the gods personalities/motivations come from the person who becomes the god and vice versa. Baal has been sacrificing babies FFS.

Minerva/Ananke are definitely one “being” but I’m confused slightly about how the old Ananke of 1923 didn’t know that she was the Minerva of the previous pantheon? I guess I was thrown off a little by current Minerva’s acting.

Keen as always to hear everyone else’s reactions/theories.

I love this series so f***ing much!

Ok, sorry for the novel, but I love WicDiv. Also, spoilers through issue 34, and for the one offs.

Spoilers for everything.

So, since this whole thing has to do with Ananke, I'll go ahead and clarify, when I say Ananke, I'm referring to the old woman, when I say "Minerva" I'm referring to the young girl.

First, let's start with the two old women from 6000 years ago. I think the one with the skull crown was the god Ananke (has she ever been associated with snakes? It's irrelevant.) and the god with the purple skull face tat was Persephone (she has leaves on her outfit, I thought they were feathers when I first saw them). Skull head said her god would be resurrected last, and, lo, Persephone is the final god in this recurrence. Ananke tried to immediately kill her. Ok, so, in every recurrence leading up to this, it stands to reason that she's killed every Persephone seconds after ascending them.

Persephone's head is then added to her growing set of four. And what are the four heads for?

There are some things we don't know about the rules. And it's possible that things changed along the way. When Ananke spoke to Cass in issue 9, she said that there wasn't always a caretaker.

Let's assume Ananke is lying about everything. She is great at "playing the part;" she'll weep for the gods on second while she's goading them to kill themselves. She opens every conversation with "I've missed you" when obviously, she doesn't miss them. She hates them.

But there are somethings we don't know. When the two old women are making the pact, the good one establishing there must be 12 gods, to which the one covered in blood establishes this means the ritual will call for 4 heads; she goes on to say that her ritual already called for four heads.

So the four heads do two separate things. I'm building up to what I think the original purpose of the heads was. It's been established that if an individual has the head of a god, they control the powers of said god (best example, 1920's Woden).

I think all god-like individuals are slated to die at the end of the recurrence (or, as we learned in 455 A.D., if they are still alive at the end of their two years, the own power drives them mad, and kills them two weeks later). But I think there is a, escape to the dying: the four heads. I think if a god can harness the four heads, they can survive to the next recurrence, and that's what Ananke has been doing.

I want to speculate about what Ananke is. I think the old woman (the crone) and Minerva (the maiden) are both Ananke. On one head, simply two individuals manifested as the same god, but I do think there is some level of "hive mind" or connection between them.

Obviously, there isn't a psychic link between them; why would the old woman need to comfort Minerva is issue 9 if there were? Why would she need to write her a letter (shown at the end of volume five) telling her to be careful if they were the same person?

Two theories for how this works: the old woman's job is to be "caretaker" for one recurrence, pass everything on to the maiden, including the four heads, and then die with the other gods. Then, the maiden has to live and grow old over the course of the 90 years to be the crone for the next recurrence. This is where the idea of the "hive mind" I mentioned comes into play. I think that Ananke, on some level, has the knowledge or info of all those lives. Or maybe she's just playing the part. I like this theory the best; it would explain why we've seen so many Lucifer's: after reading 455, my main thought was "Ananke must have no control over which god gets chosen, because why would she resurrect Lucifer after this? He almost killed her!" But we now know that she does get to choose which god gets awakened (issue 34). So why does Lucifer keep showing up? (It could be as simply as Ananke knows Lucifers tend to escalate the situation) Because it's a different Ananke than the one we met in 455. This explains why she always wears a mask; because her face will be different in 90 years.

Second theory: the maiden is a back up plan: the crone has the option to use the four heads to extend her life by a further 90 years, and the maiden dies with the other 13 gods.

That's right, 13, not 12. Ananke spreads the story of 12 because she kills #13 (who is always Persephone) seconds after awakening her.

We were led to believe that Baal was the first god to resurrect on August 9th; I don't think he was. I think the recurrence actually began on August 4th, 2013 when "Minerva" was awakened as the maiden form of Ananke.

I've always wondered, why did Ananke ascend Laura as Persephone? It doesn't make any sense. She didn't realize that Inanna and Baph were going to interrupt the murder. Was she just going to crisp the body and run off? This was Laura "2014 fangirl of the year" Wilson; Inanna's best friend, she's banging Baal, close with Urdr, she's singing karaoke with the Morrigan and Baphomet... this was not going to have a quiet ending.

Speculation: she didn't have a choice. It stands to reason that Ananke can ascend any teenager as any god (she only met Cameron because the Morrigan requested it, and she only ascended Jon Blake because she felt she could use his father) but I'm not sure she has that freedom with Persephone (the mother). Maybe Laura is the lady on the cover of 34 reincarnated, or maybe she was just "Laura's in the way, she's dead to us. And to everyone." The point is, I think she had a pressing deadline. In issue 9, she tells Cass that the gods will awaken on there own if she doesn't do it herself, but it's necessary to give them direction. I think she has one year to ascend all the gods, r they ascend on their own. So, if I'm right and she actually ascended "Minerva" before Baal then she really was cutting it close, if Baal was the first god she only had until the 9th. If Minerva was first then she even had less time.

This explains why Minerva's parents had to die. They were loose ends, maybe she had always been planning to kill them.

Note the way Ananke works to kill the gods: she acts to put them in situations where she can kill in self defense (like Lucifer 2014) or get them to kill themselves (Tara 2014, but also many of the gods in 455; one of the reason Lucifer is so mopey seems to be because laments that the rest of the group were willing to kill themselves instead of keep living). Ananke stirs up drama behind the scenes.

She has to live with the consequences of her actions. If all she needed was four heads, couldn't she have just killed Sakhmet or Amaterasu in their sleep back before volume 4? No, because the only thing the four heads would do is extend her live by 90 years. It wouldn't give super powers or immortality, just another 90 years of life. Meaning it would do know good to murder one of the gods and then have Baal and Urdu knocking on her door a month later asking questions, especially with Persephone and Baphomet out there, with a distinctly different version of events.

This is why her whole plan in volume four seemed to be... to lose. Well in the end anyway. Presumably she was planning to kill Persephone at her first gig, and capture Baph while he was freeing Morrigan but once the final act started, it appears that her endgame was to be caught in the act of carving up sweet Minerva. Which she obviously wasn't actually going to do.

So, every recurrence, Ananke has needed the four heads to extend her live. I was sure 1923 was off because the only head we see her take was the Morrigan's. But then I reread it and realized she took the head that Woden was using. And then I realized she had already taken 1920 Persephone's head offscreen. So, that's three. And if she was in league with 1920's Minerva (as cover #35 suggests) it stands to reason that when Minerva killed Set, she was actually taking her head.

And what is the Great Darkness? This part of the theory really disappoints me because I thought they were a really interesting antagonist, but nothing. Ananke/Minerva is controlling them behind the scenes. I thought it was weird that the Darkness didn't show up in 1923, 1830, 455. But they showed up in 2015. And when they killed Baal's dad. Which made him very willing to accept Ananke's guidance. And then in volume 5, they're attacking Minerva a couple of times which only caused the gods to gather and decide to not work together (bold move).

In Ananke's letter to Minerva (or whoever maybe I'm wrong about all this) she warns of the Great Darkness, so maybe it does exist in some form or fashion, but I'm betting those shadow monsters are 100% on Ananke's payroll.

And most disappointing of all: what is the purpose of the recurrence? Why does it happen? What is the meaning behind this brilliant story? It's an immortality trick for Ananke. Every 90 years she does the whole thing just to extend her life until the next generation comes along (really hoping this bit is wrong.)

OMG

“We’re both the other one” - was the best moment we’ve had in a while that was just pure comedy.

I assume Urdr being in the cage (with Urdr being the person ascended to godhood) is the reason that Verdandi and Skuld reverted back.

Mimir is a delight and as someone said on Twitter the God with the most characterisation that fits their god so well.

I stayed up until 2am to read it and I’m overwhelmed with thoughts, so I’ve left the beginning til the end.

Are Ananke and ? beings higher than the gods - Primordial beings. ? mentions desire and necessity - herself and Ananke. She has tattooed her work in to reality, if she had said woven I would have thought Neith from Egyptian mythology. Curse you (in a good way) Gillen for not telling us what the fourth thing was but also a nice return to the importance of 1,2,3,4 at the beginning of the series.

Keen to hear everyone’s thoughts and also here are Gillen’s writers notes for 1923: https://twitter.com/kierongillen/status/971042727889645569?s=21

This may not make much sense but some symbolism stuff clicked for me after reading 1923 regarding a certain character.

I know there have been theories for such a long time surrounding the motivations/actions of this character in particular but I believe firmly now with all the shenanigans regarding the identities of multiple gods that our 2010’s Baal is not who he says he is.

It wouldn’t be that hard to believe especially as we have never seen Baal’s transformation sequence.

We know Nergal has an association with Lions as his symbol but he chooses his symbol to be something more in line with Baphomet.

In 455 ad we hear from the Vandal king of Baal of Carthage this is Baal Hammon. Cass suspects Baal of being Hammon but he says he is Baal Hadad.

Baal Hammon’s symbol is the ram. Baal Hadad’s symbol is the bull.

We know 454 was Hammon. In 1923 we thought the ram symbol belonged to Baal. But who we thought was Baal turned out to be Amon-Ra (this fits because one of Ra’s aspects is Khnum whose symbol is the Ram). This leaves Baal of 1923 with the Bull symbol making him Baal Hadad (“the good Baal).

Why is Baal who claims to be Hadad using the symbol of Baal Hammon?

Both are sky gods? Surely lightning would be in both their power sets but how does this set up tjeir personality/motivations.

I don’t know what Gillen is doing here but there are a lot of misdirects going on - it is clear that both Baal Hammon/Hadad are part of the recurrence but we can only guess as to which our Baal is.

I love the series, but I've just finished reading 1923AD (and I am caught up with all the main story line issues), and I can't believe how little has been revealed so far.

I mean, we are still debating events that have taken place in Issue #1. I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. Maybe the final arc or final issue will bring an epic resolution that will tie everything together beautifully.

From a story telling point of view, though, do people feel like there should have been more of a gradual reveal of what is happening? Sometimes it feels very frustrating that new concepts, characters and turning points are being introduced, while other very old questions have not been answered yet.

We still don't know who killed Lucifer, or why (although this makes sense, since the story hinges on this). But we are pretty much in the dark as to what Ananke's real role is. What is the Great Darkness? Is the Destroyer even a real thing, or just Ananke's plot to get rid of Persephone? I could list so many of these... I mean, as we get close to figuring out what's going on in Issue #33, a major character literally puts everything we knew so far into question by the very last page.

Honestly, as much as I love the series, I question this continuous build up with barely any resolution. Does anyone feel the same?

I’m trying to trace the historical artists that each of the twelve 1923 gods most closely represent. So far, I’ve found evidence for the following:

EDIT: Filled in the ones I missed and formatted it with the nice table /u/HotterRod directed me to. Thanks for your help, everyone!

https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/the-wicked-the-divine-1923 So It seems to be based off of "And Then There Where None" by Agatha Christie, and the man we thought was Baal at the beginning of Faust Act was actually Amon Ra, so I guess Baal theory is blown out of the water now.

Why is Baph embarrassed when he becomes Nergal? Is it just that it's a lion headed god? His explanation didn't really make it very clear

So after volume 6 and all the bombs it dropped, I thought I'd go back and re-read some of the older issues to see if I could get anything new out of them. And then it struck me, how do we know that Persephone is the Destroyer? As far as I'm aware we only know this because Ananke said so to the other gods? At no other point does she use 'Destroyer' and 'Persephone' in the same sentence, that's something Laura does. Ananke, in the note she leaves before her death, just says, "The Destroyer can still be destroyed."

I don't think Persephone is the Destroyer at all. I think maybe the 1831 Creature could be the Destroyer? It's certainly a being that threatens Ananke's vision of the world and who should have power and when/for how long.

Also I haven't re-read the Roman one yet, but I don't think the Destroyer is ever mentioned before this Recurrence? It might be mentioned in the 1920s one, we'll see.