The Wicked + The Divine Volume 1: The Faust Act

by Kieron Gillen

[Nessa Luna]

In 2015, I decided to start reading graphic novels. I'd been wanting to do it for ages, but I had no idea where to start. Eventually, I got myself a couple of Marvel ones and loved them to bits. Then, I went and looked for other cool ones. One that caught my eye immediately was The Wicked + The Divine, mostly because of some incredible artwork that I saw. When I saw the first volume on Bookdepository for relatively cheap (under 10 euros is cheap for a graphic novel), I decided to buy it.

The Wicked + The Divine is about a group of people who become Gods. They are destined to be loved and hated, and to be dead within two years. This happens every ninety years; the last time being in the 1920's. Laura unwillingly gets pulled into their world after Luci kills a couple of people. Together, Laura, Luci and Cassandra must find out the truth behind the last murder (the one that Luci admits was not her doing).

I didn't really know what to expect when I started this, because the only thing I knew about the story was the short description from Goodreads, and that was it. I'd leafed through it already and saw the amazing artwork. That was really the part that I loved so much about this novel. There is a great diverse cast in this novel; a black main character, a bisexual god, a transgender and much more. And no one makes a big deal out of this, which is - in my opinion - the way it's supposed to be.



I was very intrigued by the whole 'Gods among us' part of the story, because that is honestly just one of my favourite thing ever - it's why I love Rick Riordan's books so much, and shows such as The Almighty Johnsons. To see Gods from certain mythologies (in the case of TW+TD it was all kinds of mythologies, not just the 'popular' ones) walk around on earth pretending to be humans, yes give me all of these stories!

As for the storyline in this comic, well, honestly I didn't think that was the strongest part in this novel. I felt like I had missed something while I was reading, and that we were just thrown into the story right in the middle, instead of at the beginning. I mean who were those two guys that Luci killed, why were they there on that roof, and why did they shoot at the people in the room? I guess that maybe they're christians or catholics who think that there is only one God, but you know - we don't find out in this volume. Maybe we'll get more background information in any of the upcoming novels, but I don't know I just didn't really connect to any of it with this one.

I did like the whole mystery of 'who killed that judge', but that was about it. The Gods fighting each other and Laura meeting all of them didn't do much to me. The only part that I really liked was the ending, even though it was quite sad, and cliffhanger-y.

So yeah, I did really like this graphic novel, but it was mostly due to the artwork and the characters. The story wasn't that great in my opinion, but I am planning on picking up the next two volumes very soon! If you're looking for a graphic novel with diverse characters, great artwork and a relatively good story (that hopefully will be even better in the next two volumes), you should definitely pick up The Wicked + The Divine.

My opinion on this book in one gif: