(I started this commentary 2 days after the last issue was released, and seeing how the latest issue was released on Friday and I haven’t finished yet (something extremely typical of my lax/non-existent work ethic) I’ve decided it needed to be done before I would allow myself to read issue #36. Here goes!)
SPOILERS UP TO #35
This issue was particularly hard for me to start reading. Ever since we reached the penultimate arc the idea that we had so little to go has become an anxiety-stirrer for me; I've been a fan since before Laura got her freckles, when all we had was Luci and Laura inviting us on a floor of broken glass to anticipate the next Mcklevie/Gillen chapter after Young Avengers. The idea that the past four years were almost done- well, the subtext should be obvious for anyone who's been reading. 13 hours after release, I read. And then I opened issue one and did a concurrent re-read. And then I reread yet again and promptly passed out.
Seeing that Mckelvie has reworked his first issue art- our first introduction- was marvelous to behold. Matt Wilson's recolor was also stunning (except for one instance of Amaterasu's lips!). I compared them on my second reread, and both the subtle and not-so-subtle reworking truly encapsulate the journey they've both been on: I found issue one an enthralling, gorgeous ride from the beginning; they're my favorite colorist and artist currently working in comics. Issue #35 has a level of ease and understanding of the art that was perhaps more rigid in the first one.
Minerva's rework was especially obvious here; she went from a cute little Shirley Temple gremlin to a child star a bit beyond her cutest years. Also, the difference in hair and clothing (I mean, that sleeve! I stan that sleeve! The ease! And I fixated on it every reread like a sleeve fetishist?)
I love that it kind of insinuates that the version we got on #1 was the ‘it is known’ version and this was the post-Persephone-being-alive truth, like in issue 20. I love the warmth and depth this rework adds.
Susanoo is a peach who cared too much and truly was too good for this world.
Minerva leaving the fire splattered in blood with her hands in fists- iconic and quintessentially WicDiv!
Ananke never cared about the gods. She was crying for her own approaching expiry date. Everything we learn about her adds more to this pathetic and yet unrelentingly cruel force of selfishness. I love how the last turn of Minerva is treating the old Ananke the way she treats the gods- and then assuming her place. Fitting.
JOSEPHINE BAKER AS 1923 PERSEPHONE #DEAD #GAGGING
Set- even as a talking head, ever the bore.
Face-flaying issue #11 powerup!
I love how the pixelated effect still shows up a bit less clearly. It reminds me of the 'tattooing of reality' aspect of the deal between Ananke and her sister. They're resources she can translate- here, for 'eternal' life four faces must be shorn from reality.
The colors and general atmosphere of being somewhere underground and laden with arcane implications is so apparent- I love the warmer tones, they remind me of those heady spiritual moments when you’re somewhere religiously/arcanely significant (those places are always smaller than you’d expect) and the gravity and headiness of the energy seems to make everything a bit more vibrant and hard to explain.
I love jewel tones. This is the quality discourse you’ve been looking for!
The art on the transformation scene, and the purple skull eyes: shivers. How they achieved the transformation effect so much more subtly and yet just as profoundly as the usual God transformations- Mckelvie/Wilson, you're just bragging now.
Present Minerva is a cold snake and if I was even remotely on her side of the equation I would be so proud of my evil maidenr/future manipulative crone!
I love how gradually she was transformed into this punk-y, calculating creature; with her hair down you can really see how the red is a callback to previously blood-splattered Anankes and Ananke (Maiden Edition With Minerva Mask) and yet it’s been peeking out at us from Imperial Phase.
Such an accomplished actress, a veritable Shirley Temple! (Dakota Fanning?)
I wish I could go back to meeting McKelvie/Gillen last year and make a clever quip about talking heads and evil Minervas. That’s my baseline for an excellent twist: I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING!
In the present, Laura makes me sad. The warmth between the gods has seemingly dissipated once and for all. Everyone's either looking out for themselves or isolating. Laura's idea that if they were truly friends Cass wouldn't be screaming at her- hogwash.
Oh, Jon. I love you. I also truly think you’re our always-captured/suffering proxy princess. I can’t wait for him to do something other than be forced to build Woden another contraption that removes consent from the conversation. (He does have a pattern!)
Again, Minerva, you (literal!) snake! That expression on her face when she’s setting Baal up is DELICIOUS and I’m pretty sure I’ve made that expression before, most recently when I convinced a friend to eat coffee grounds I pretended were healthy brownies. (I know! I’m an awful person. But at least I stopped her from taking another bite. By laughing. Still.)
I loved how in the Writer’s Notes Gillen says this was supposed to be more pages+no words, but I think it works perfectly for what he’s going for even with the words. I can almost hear suspense music reading Laura/Persephone’s thoughts, and the insight into her feelings feels earned after so much with nothing further elucidating her thoughts. I mean, we all thought she was pretty horrible to Baal, no? A bit indifferent.
I’ve really missed her, you guys. She’s our Laura, our herald, our first guide. We lost her, we found her, she lost herself, she found (?) herself (or at least her thoughts).
I’m really curious about Jenny (Laura’s sister). I really wonder if we’ll have enough issues for anything to wrap up about that aspect of the story, or if it was a superficial lure, like Baph’s Christmas Dinner with Laura’s Family was basically a simulation of reality, and meant nothing, really.
Minerva getting pushed is really strong, in that there’s no way he’d ever do that unless he was under a crazy amount of pressure. Also, if I was woken up with news my greatest secret, a secret I’ve invested so much in keeping, was about to be discovered by a person I LOVE and CHERISH, well... I wouldn’t be that conscientious either. Reaction got, Minerva, you manipulative teenage goddess, you! (Is it obvious that if I were a 13-year old again I would choose to be Minerva? I would choose her so hard, she’s Hermione Granger but, like, with none of the redeeming qualities except maybe caring for her parents before her older aspect (?!?) literally decimated them.)
Flashback page is spectacularly done. I love the reds of the room, and the repetition of four skulls (except these are baby skulls we are set to believe and not primates! NOT THAT IT WOULD MAKE IT BETTER BUT MAYBE THEY’RE NOT INNOCENT CHILDREN... no. No. This argument doesn’t make it any better, I’m just pathologically delusional when it comes to people I like.)
‘I’m not afraid of who I am. But everyone else should be.’ It’s one of those Baal-isms you’d be disinclined to take a note of, one of those prepared one-liners like the line about how when you know someone’s bad in their guts, you don’t have to lie about your own shit. We just thought it was posturing, and here we have evidence of child sacrifice. As can happen, sometimes, never.
STORY: KIERON GILLEN
ART / COVER: JAMIE MCKELVIE, MATT WILSON
VARIANT COVER: CLIFF CHIANG
JULY 11 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99
“MOTHERING INVENTION,” Part Five
We’ll probably call this episode “In-Between Days,” just to make Jamie happy. Jamie deserves to be happy. Meanwhile, Kieron has to reread The White Goddess, as he deserves to suffer.
The Wicked and Divine #37 cover and variant cover by Erica Henderson ------------- I can't. (And hopefully the great darkness? And hopefully gentle Annie? And also is Macha the whole cover so we're technically looking at her?!)
Gorgeous issue- further (meager) thoughts under the cut:
-After Ananke kills her sister, she keeps looking up- until her sister utters the fourth secret rule we haven’t heard yet. Wonder what she’s looking at.
-The other gods are old! And seem to have really lived, with tattoos and scars and even the half-glint of The Morrigan one (icy-blue eyes made me assume) have this experienced regality to them, even as disembodied heads with sewn-up mouths.
-’I have tattooed my work into reality’; this quote gives me the idea that Persephone(?) of the past is the creator of a framework Ananke can only play on- never destroy. I really, really want to know the secret/fourth rule.
-Ananke is a snake! Our frayed threads theory have finally been stamped to dust- she is Maiden and Crone (And Serpent!)
-While the new Minerva is alive and Ananke is still in existence, who is who is what is who? Did Mini actually die off-screen- or, god forbid, at Persephone’s hand? This is not what I want, but my Jove (or Luci), might be just what we deserve! (Tara flashbacks)
Oh my baby Minerva Minerva Minerva... Issue 9 made me cry for you. But we never really knew you. Are you simply a vessel? And the irony was she was mourning her death-in-2-years- add a full 90 more on that wormfood expiry date, dear.
-Laura’s back! Laura’s back! And her facial expressions have softened back to pre-murder-attempt Laura- I think she’s clambered back out of the Underworld- and the empathy! We’ve never seen Persephone out of hell, and I think this was a simple taste of what we’ve got ahead of us. Mother, is that you?
-So two of my most-loved (and self-insert-y) gods have figured out what WE know- other than the 6,000 years ago flashback- and now Woden’s in the game too- except he seems to have found concrete evidence linking Minerva and Ananke! Whoop! Along with Blake’s extensive past pantheon knowledge, I think he might be the unexpected door to the ancient past.
-I doubt Verdandi and Skuld are getting their godhood back- and that might be a good thing? I want them to survive. (I also for some reason find it terribly funny that they look EXACTLY like they did pre-Issue #9 transformation- where do their clothes go? And where were THESE clothes and hair elastics in the months of presumably changing and showering that have taken place in the interim? MAGIC!)
-I’m so happy it’s back, but so sad I’ll have to wait a month for more. It’s more like a vice than a comic I’m a fan of at this point- I look forward to it too much!
A LOT more thoughts than I expected, but Wicdiv has a way of doing that.
So I have for some time suspected that Ananke was not as dedicated to Necessity as much as she claims (another topic for another post: she identifies DESIRE and manifests WANT, which is rarely the same as necessity). That itch in my mind got me thinking about the first scene above, how Ananke’s symbol might not be a fraying thread as would be implied. It might not be a thread at all, because it looks rather serpentine – a snake with its mouth open, perhaps. The snake, a creature of rebirth. A beast of fangs.
Now this is (presumably) Ananke from the preview for #34, the most striking feature being her bull horn helmet, followed by her ritualistic knife, the bloodied tunic, a cute bone bracelet, and the sack of maybe godly heads. But that bull helmet, that makes me think Minoan. The Minoan Snake Goddess, specifically, of which there are multiples. The association of cultural bleed-through is also ambiguous: there’s a theory that one of the Minoan Snake Goddesses is associated with Astarte, the Phoenician pink/purple-eyed goddess, or Ariadne, which brings us back to the thread imagery.
But there is one connection so brutal that it simply cannot be overlooked – the assertion that the Minoan Snake Goddess is a precursor to Athena Parthenos. And as we know from the 455 Special, Roman and Greek gods can be fluid in their claim to the name.
A while ago I made a post about a certain comment Ananke made in #16 when she met Marian.
I assumed it meant that finding a Morrigan was a rare occurrence, but then 1831 had Percy Shelley as Morrigan so that theory seemed unlikely. Then it was revealed that 1923 would also include a Morrigan, so I snapped my fingers and killed that theory.
But after reading 1923 (loved it btw, took me like two hours to get through it though, I get easily distracted when I read, and have to reread paragraphs over and over) I realized something.
Having a Morrigan isn’t the rare occurrence. The rare occurrence is finding a mortal that has more than one side of the Morrigan in them.
Both the 1831 and 1923 versions are clearly the Macha, given their behavior and look, and we don’t really get any hints that they can transform.
Before the ink has even dried on the 1923 special, in my mind, here we are with a wicked 3-page preview of the next issue! (Behind a cut because I know some people CAN help themselves but I seriously have a problem)
Already so much to unpack! SISTERS! Murderous ol’ Ananke! Persephone? NOT Persephone? One crucial scene? Not just children, but GRANDKIDS?! I’m dying.
Somehow I can’t stop thinking about the phrase ‘Your mother’s tears freeze us all’, and I’m not quite sure why.
(best viewed on its own page rather than the Tumblr dashboard, because BLACK!)
Massive props to Leo, whose cheat sheet made putting this timeline together much easier, and who graciously answered my nerdy questions about who came when why.
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