Mike Isenberg recommends The Wicked + The Divine Vol.1: The Faust Act
One day when I was in college, my friends and I drove two hours into Boston to see David Bowie. As the trip started, we began getting giddy over the fact that we were in the same state as David Bowie. As we arrived in Boston, excitement grew with the realization that we were in the same city as David Bowie. Filing into our seats, we were practically ecstatic to be in the same stadium as David Bowie. And then David Bowie appeared on stage and played some songs for us. Aladdin Sane, the Goblin King, Ziggy freakin’ Stardust himself. It was a transcendent experience.
This is because David Bowie is not a man. David Bowie is a god.
With The Wicked + The Divine, Kieron Gillen (kierongillen) and Jamie McKelvie (mckelvie) have created a world in which the lines between divinity and stardom are similarly blurred, in a very real way. Every ninety years, in this world, twelve young people are transformed into twelve ancient deities. These gods then walk among us for two years before granting their hosts an untimely end and disappearing for another ninety years.
With the most recent cycle of divine rebirth happening in the age of instant mass media, the gods now play the role of mega-stars, using unearthly charisma and celestial rock-n-roll to grow their audience and blur the lines between “fan” and “disciple.”
One such super-fan, a young woman named Laura, serves as our viewpoint into this world. When Lucifer violently foils an assassination attempt, only to then be framed for the murder of a judge, Laura finds herself making a deal with the devil in order to uncover the truth.
The mystery is compelling, and serves brilliantly as a device for introducing us to the players in this divine tragedy. Like the gods of ancient myth, as well as the teenagers they inhabit, the modern pop-deities Laura encounters are fickle, impulsive, and ever at one-another’s throats. The characters are all fascinating, and McKelvie’s crisply-rendered and fashion-conscious art makes them beautifully larger-than-life.
Recommended for fans of modern fantasy comics like The Sandman, or Gillen & McKelvie’s earlier series Phonogram.
Also recommended for anyone who likes to freak out in a moonage daydream. Oh yeah.
[Read The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1: The Faust Act]
Mike Isenberg is an Associate Production Coordinator at comiXology, and the co-writer of First Law Of Mad Science. He lives in Harlem with his cats, Tesla and Edison.
