The Wicked + The Divine Volume 7: Mothering Invention

by Kieron Gillen

[Quirky Cat]

I can’t believe that The Wicked + The Divine is already on its seventh volume. It feels like just a few months ago that I picked it up. Oh right, I found it when it was a few volumes in and binged the whole series. Still, we’ve come a long way in a very short period of time.
So here’s the good news/bad news about having us already at seven volumes. The series was intended to only last for about eight volumes, nine if you count the extra volume they’re going to do to collect all the special and one-shot issues. The good news is that we’re finally going to truly know what’s going on in the next volume. The bad news is that we’re going to learn all of it because the next volume will likely be the last. I’m very conflicted about this, but I suppose that’s to be expected.
Thanks to the Wicked + The Divine I’ve officially hit the point where I’m willing to read anything that has Kieron Gillen or Jamie McKelvie involved in it. And I’m not ashamed to admit it. I actually really love it when I become attached to creators – it gets me to try new series that I wouldn’t have otherwise, simply because I trust the creative team. It’s an interesting feeling, and realistically I don’t need to be adding to my reading list…but it is what it is, right?



I think this might have been my favorite volume so far, save for maybe the first. That’s a bit of a tossup. This volume revealed so much about what was going on, while raising even more questions. What truly made it my favorite though? They took risks in the storytelling style and structure. It made you think. Some of the information was spoon fed to us…but not all of it.
There are two sequences in particular where they used repetition to tell a story. It’s up for debate on what that story is, since they didn’t lay it all out for us. But I’m sure we all have theories about it. I personally really loved looking at each panel, flipping back and forth between the pages, trying to spot minute details and analyze what was being said (and more importantly, what was being left unsaid).
They’ve been hinting at it for quite some time, but I swear every issue has made this one fact so much clearer: nothing is what it seems. I feel like lately they’ve been running with that for their premise; turning things on their heads left and right. Characters aren’t who they seem; backstories don’t mean what we thought they did, and so on and so forth. It’s intriguing, and gotten to the point where an already unpredictable series has become even more so.
I hope they release the collection of special issues before they release the final volume. I know I’ve been missing a lot of those (I think I’ve only caught one of them so far and obviously there’s quite a bit more than that) and it would be really nice to see what little details and secrets they reveal. I’d even settle for just a little extra context. I’m not picky.
I’m both looking forward to and dreading the next volume. Since it’ll be the last (probably) it’s going to be a bitter sweet moment. On the one hand we’ll get to see everything the creative team has been working for all these years…on the other hand we’re going to have to say goodbye.


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