| Title | : | The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1632153270 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781632153272 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 200 |
| Publication | : | First published July 1, 2015 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Graphic Novels & Comics (2015) |
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium Reviews
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THEY SURE DO KNOW HOW TO END THESE TRADES WITH A BANG AM I RIGHT? TOO SOON? YEAH, TOO SOON.
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I mean seriously! What is with these endings!
So, Laura is still depressed over Luci's (Lucifer) death. Inanna comes along and wants to help her find out what really happened. Some other people. . er . . gods are back as well. Some people are made into new gods and other crazy stuff that blows my mind.
Even though I don't understand some of the things they talk about in the book (maybe they don't either) I still love it and I love the freaking graphics. They are just as awesome as the first volume!
uggg. I need the next one!
MY BLOG:
Melissa Martin's Reading List -
Lucifer: "You're a nice person, doesn't mean you're a good one."
Cassandra (dark and biting trans journo character), Innana (male version of a female goddess) and Laura (mixed raced series lead, big fan of the gods) won't drop investigating the murder at the end of the
previous volume. One thing that some we all want to know is: "if you kill a God do you get their lifespan?" More of this London-centric, diverse cast, retro-feel fantasy-conspiracy thriller-mystery with delicious artwork. There are moves and alliances happening under the surface , that are not at the fore front, and the plotting and art oozes conspiracy. The overarching story of what are the Gods, why are they here, why are they chosen etc. also kept me highly involved, as does looking at the Gods from the outsider perspectives of the mere mortals like Laura and Cassandra etc. Another delightfully balanced volume, in hindsight, with yet another smashing draw-dropping finale!
I think series this has a sometime ill-fitting cross between a solid rock music meets gothic horror feel that would be readily loved by fans of the earlier works of
Alan Moore,
Neil Gaiman,
Grant Morrison etc. with a generation Z fluid gender, inclusive, female empowerment feel. It most definitely has the feel of the type of material being produced in the 1980s by UK born writers in the States, yet is also truly inclusive and has some superb female leading characters. 8 out of 12, Four Star read.
2023, 20019 and 2017 read -
Holy crap.. That ending...
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This story is so all over the place that it should come with a bucketload of aspirin. You know, to cure the headache the reader will undoubtedly suffer from by the time he/she turns the last page. Most of the time you have no clue what's going on, what the characters are talking about or what the hell it all means. A pinch of why, a dash of huh, a drop of "I'm lost," a tinge of "did I miss something," a zest of "oh look, a plot hole!" and TADA! Confusion is you.
The story isn't bad, it's just that the execution is somewhat lacking. It doesn't draw you in like volume 1 did and it's not nearly as intriguing. The fact that the whole thing is so convoluted doesn't help, obviously. I'm not sure if it's because Gillen didn't know what to do with his plot or because he simply didn't manage to express his ideas clearly. There is little progression in the story arc (apart from a few new characters being introduced) so it all tends to get pretty boring. Actually, it sometimes felt like the art was more important than the story. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the art here (it's the main reason why I bought this volume, after all) but I don't see the point in inserting pages and pages and pages of panels if they add nothing to the story. The "Night of the Living Godheads" scene in volume 8, for example, is never-ending. You could easily take 20/25 pages away and it wouldn't make a difference in terms of storytelling. The little plot there is is less than gripping and by the time something finally happened (huge cliffhanger at the end of volume 11), I felt completely disconnected from the story. To be honest, I don't think the writing deserves more than 1 star here. To think this was one of the most original, coolest premises I ever came across. Sigh.
BUT THE ART. Oh the art. I'm in love with McKelvie's graphics and Wilson's colours. Just look at this:
And this:
And this:
The art here is seriously amazing. I'd be tempted to buy the next volume just because of it. But I probably won't. There just wasn't enough story in this volume to make me want to continue with the comic. Then again, I'm a real McKelvie + Wilson fangirl, so I might not be able to resist the pull. I JUS WANTS 2 LOOK AT TEH PRITEE PICTUREZ!! -
I honestly had such a hard time picking a star rating for this one, because something about this graphic novel series is simultaneously intriguing and really... frustrating and boring. So much happens, yet there's no attachment to any of the characters, so it's hard to care about most of the events. I will admit, though, that the ending caught me, and I'll probably pick up Volume 3 just to see where the story goes next.
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So I think I understand this a little more. There are suppose to be only twelve gods in a cycle, and each one is harder than the previous one to find. The only reason I knocked out a star is because I am still a little confused on who is who and what.
I need a guide book to keep up with who is who.
I also think these gods are based off of Greek mythology, at least a little. For example, I believe these three are knock offs of The Fates.
Also, in case you were wondering, everything is still like really pretty. And this one had so much more colors because I'm pretty sure everyone was doing acid at one point and everyone was neon and super cool looking.
Baal drives around in this beauty and he is kind of stalking our main girl now. That was a turn of events.
Laura is still trying to figure out what/who she is or if she is anyone besides her normal self, mourning the loss of her friend Lucifer, trying to figure out who the murder is, and also just struggling with the biggest problem of all: teenage moods. Main does she have it bad. She is so depressed and I just wanted to hug her.
We meet some of the other gods, we do some acid, and we get a big giant cliff hanger (which seems to be the style of this story). And let me tell you, it's bangin'. #toosoon? -
Literally don't know what to say. I don't like any of the characters, the story is simply thin, flat and full of cliffhangers that don't make any sense. The art is lovely though. So yeah...
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3.5 Stars.
The first half of this volume was so confusing. I don't even really know what is going on half of the time in this series. The story is still very muddled and a lot of things aren't really being explained properly. The second half was much better and things started moving in the right direction. Then that ending, wow I was not expecting that. Despite all of the confusion though, I still like this comic. I'm still holding on to the hope that the story will get clearer and things will be explained soon. I am excited to see where this comic goes because I feel like it has so much potential! The art is so so beautiful and everything about it is perfect.
Side note: lets make The Morrigan awesome again though.
I would recommend this comic series. -
First of all, I need that "Lucifer died for our sins" shirt.
Second, the art in this series has easily become one of my all time favorites. It's so beautiful.
Third. Wtf why you gotta do me like that, ending?! -
ANOTHER cliffhanger! Stop with the cliffhangers already!
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The cliffhanger of cliffhangers.
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God. I love this series.
I’ve seen a lot of people saying the plot is confusing, and yes, it is at times. But you know what? The characters are fantastic enough and the art style gorgeous enough that it makes up for it. I love the writing and everything else.
A spoilery rundown of the characters:
♔ Ananke— the woman who gives the gods their powers, and one we’re trying to find in volume one. Former god. Kind and caring to Minerva, at least. BUT WHAT THE HELL DID SHE DO IN THAT ENDING.
♔ David Blake— idiot panel leader.
♔ Duncan Ackford— former fandom member. Disappeared after panel.
♔ Tom Willis— former fandom member. Disappeared after panel.
And, of course, the twelve gods:
♔ Luci— my wife, my girlfriend, my everything. I miss her so fucking much.
♔ Persephone / Laura— our arguable protagonist, a human with brown& green hair. Wishes desperately to be a god. At least her and Luci are both dead and together, I guess? Lucifer and Persephone make a good ship.
♔ Amaterasu— Luci’s red haired best friend.
♔ Morrigan / Annie / Badb— she’s done a lot, but let basically no information go. Ten out of ten. In love with Baphomet.
♔ Baphomet— the dude who pretended to kill a human, and may be getting some hidden depth? Also, may not be a god at all. In love with Morrigan.
♔ Baal Hadad— we know he had a fight with Inanna, we know that Luci may have slept with his boyfriend, and we know that he looks really good in that red suit.
♔ Woden— the racist pantheon leader.
♔ Minerva— a young god.
♔ Sahkmet— only seen in first.
♔ Inanna— all we know is he had a fight with Baal. And now we know he also dresses like a badass and is probably nonbinary. Was at the panel. A GOOD. I’m sad and I miss him.
♔ Dionysus— Just wants to make people happy, which kind of rocks.
♔ Tara— an unknown entity who wants too much attention, according to Luci.
♔ Uror / Cassandra— a badass Asian trans girl reporter who’s researching Luci’s death. And now, a goddess.
Also, and this is a serious, serious spoiler - dead lesbian Hades and Persephone. I. Want. Them. Back. Come on.
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Hmmmm . . . Not quite sure what just happened!? This series is quite bizarre and while it is very visually stimulating, I did not follow it as much as volume 1.
I have been reading about one graphic volume a week and this is some of the best art work I have scene. I am not fond of the wrinkly face of the old main character in the book - but that is really my only complaint.
If you will be offended by pagan and polytheistic religious themes, this is not the series for you. But, if you have an open mind and are ready for a visual acid trip - give it a try.
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What the what!? How do you end like that? This series continues to be amazing, exciting and heartbreaking!
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In this weak second volume of The Wicked + The Divine, superfan Laura and journalist Cassandra investigate Luci’s would-be assassins and uncover the “dark heart of fandom”; Baphomet discovers that death gods can kill other gods and steal their life force, extending their own time beyond the 2 years they’re given; and The Pantheon is complete as the final gods appear.
Kieron Gillen’s story for this book is incredibly thin. I’m not really sure why it’s important for Laura and Cassandra to find out who Luci’s failed assassins were because 1) they proved their incompetence and aren’t a threat, and 2) Luci’s dead anyway. Also, Laura’s “investigation” involves her going to raves and underground parties, doing drugs and dancing which isn’t just utterly tedious to read but wholly ineffective! Without going into spoilers, the reveal of who the assassins were is also really anticlimactic.
So the focus of this book is the masses of fans who’re into these gods of music and the extremes they’ll go to being close to them. Something called The Prometheus Gambit is mentioned, a rumour where if you kill a god, you get their powers, and things come to a head at Ragnarock, a London music festival. A lot of this is underdeveloped in the script and anyway it’s not terribly interesting in the first place. Most of the time you’re just reading tons of dreary expository dialogue and the focus on music and poseur inanity reminded me of Phonogram, Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s earlier collaboration which I disliked.
McKelvie’s art though is outstanding. The head-shot covers to the single issues remain the best comics covers being published at the moment and the character designs are absolutely superb – it’s easy to see why Marvel turned to McKelvie when designing their new Ms Marvel’s outfit! The transformation sequence into gods remains uniquely eye-catching and brilliantly imagined. Dionysus’ rave scene might’ve been dull to read but it looked incandescently beautiful and the Norns’ first performance at Ragnarock looked awesome too. On the whole, no complaints whatsoever about McKelvie and colourist Matthew Wilson’s work in this book – it was first class, all the way!
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 2: Fandemonium is a slow-moving, unfocused and very boring read which is disappointing as I really enjoyed the first book. It’s still a great-looking comic but Gillen’s made me feel ambivalent about the series, despite the WTF?! finale.
Ah, well. Congrats to Kieron and Jamie anyway – WicDev is gonna be a TV show! -
That ending. WOW!
Update: It has now been more than 12 hours since I finished this graphic novel and I'm still shocked about the ending. -
UMMM . . .
RTC.
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I must say, I am really enjoying this series! The Wicked + The Divine, Vol.2: Fandemonium, picks up soon after where we left of after the first volume. Things have picked up and the story has definitely become more intense.
Laura is still on a mission to discover who is behind the tragic events that occurred within the first volume and a few of the gods now seem more willing to help her out.
A few more characters/gods are introduced and while I worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep track of them all, once again, the differentiation in the way they look and act and even speak helps me to keep track of who’s who really easily.
I love that each of the gods has a different personality and visual style. What’s even more interesting though is the decision to even make their speech bubbles appear different from one another based on their personalities. I’m not sure if I even noticed that in the first volume to be honest. Using different typefaces and speech bubble shapes depending on the characters and their personalities is one of the coolest and most unique decisions I have ever seen within a graphic novel!
Another thing I love about these characters is the androgyny of them all. I think that aspect really adds to the fact that they are supposed to be these mythical gods. Most of them do not appear obviously as any one gender which I think is amazing. I especially love the introduction of the character/god Inanna, he reminds me a lot of Prince visually.
There were a few moments within the story that I semi-predicted, but I didn’t hate it. It felt more like, *yes! I was right!* than *ugh, that was predictable*. I guess I wanted these moments to happen and when they did I was super excited! Although, there were definitely moments that I did NOT see coming at all.
Just when I thought we were finally learning more about Laura and her part in this whole story, the ending of this second volume completely derailed all thoughts and ideas I had. Thank goodness I have the third volume waiting to be read on my shelf. That ending would have driven me nuts if I didn’t have the next volume ready to go!
I’m super excited to continue with this series! I found this volume to be a lot more exciting than the first and it has definitely pulled me in! Volume three, here I come!
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Initial Post Reading Thoughts:
A great second installment to this story! There were introductions to new gods and one hell of a shocking ending! Thank god I have volume 3 sitting on my shelf waiting to be read ASAP. -
What the hell!? It can't end like that!! Where is the third volume? I need it.
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That ending. What. I am NOT okay.
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Warning: the end will blow your mind. Literally. When you get there, come find me, we can form a support group.
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Edit: Re-read. May 19, 2018
I think I understand this volume better now.
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August 25, 2016
THAT ENDING! -
I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you..... *sigh*
2015; the year that Karly falls for graphic novel characters. It all began with Marko in
Saga, Volume 1 (How could I help it?? He's just so adorable...) and then there was Archer, and now, Inanna....
YES, you!
Anyways, this one was a little weirder and more convoluted than the first. And once again, while I enjoyed the story, it's the art that really stole the show for me.
Dammit, Inanna, stop it.... let me think ;)
Moving on. This story is a very strange one; populated with gods with 2 year sentences before death, rock shows and cloaked histories that never really make sense until it's too late.
And look, I CAN post a picture without Inanna in it:
Sorry, that this is the most useless review ever. -
#1
The Wicked + the Divine: The Faust Act ★★★☆☆
#2
The Wicked + the Divine: Fandemonium ★★☆☆☆
if i thought the first book was slightly confusing, this left me completely bewildered -
¿¿PERO QUÉ ACABA DE PASAR??
No entiendo nada...
Inanna me encanta, Baal también. Odio a Baphomet y no me imagino quién puede ser en realidad.
Y de los demás no sé muy bien qué opinar... ¡Todo es un lío! -
The first half of this volume had its ups and downs, but the second half... OH MAN, does it make up for any shortcomings. Honestly, I can't even review this right now because I can't get over what this volume just put me through. I'm actually glad I was behind on this series because with THAT ending I don't know how I could have waited for volume 3 to come out, and now I can just dive right back in. Oh, and in case you're wondering the art is as stunning as ever.
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I read this as part of the Booktubeathon 2015 and I was very, very excited to get to this! I have been looking forward to reading this since finishing up Volume 1 and the ending of Volume 1 made me highly excited for this. I am happy to say that this book certainly didn't disappoint me. I adored both the story and the artwork once again, and I certainly cannot wait for Volume 3 (which I know will be a while!).
In this book we are continuing exactly where we left off with the hunt for who committed a murder (I won't say whose but if you've read the previous volume you know who) and the discovery of all of the Gods (previously we'd only discovered about 10 of 12). We find out some of the motivations behind the murders, and we get introduced to yet more mysteries and more characters.
One of the elements I most love about this series is the artwork. The Wicked + The Divine team are clearly not afraid to push the boundaries and come up with ideas for spreads, characters and design which are both unique and visually stunning. Each character has their own typeface, colour-scheme and style making them all instantly recognisable, and all of them are drawn and coloured BEAUTIFULLY. This whole book ranges from the clean, clearcut design of Volume 1 into some more hippy colours, and sparkling half formed Gods throughout. There's a lot of flair and design talent put into this series, and it only goes to enhance the mystery and magic of the story.
The story itself I always find interesting because just when I think I know where we're heading the team throw in a curveball and something crazy or dramatic happens that I could not have predicted. I love the fun of never quite knowing what could happen next, and... well, the ending (I'll say no more!) :O
On the whole this was brilliant. Just as brilliant as the one before, and another wonderful book which has my dying for the next one! I cannot wait to try out Volume 3, and continue to follow the beauty, wonder and magic of this series. 5*s, highly recommended! -
Also available on the WondrousBooks blog.
Ughhh... I'm angry. So much potential and still not delivering. And that makes it so confusing.
Let's do this the old-fashioned way. I will dissect it in several parts and tell you what was good and what was not or failed to improve.
The art is still magnificent. I swear I could continue reading this just for the art. I have so much love for the artist. I will give you this sample and write no more.
Ugh.
But. The story did not move an inch. The only reaaaaallly cool moment were the last scenes with Laura. And they opened up an entire new load of questions, the answers of which I feel we will not see soon. Because they are not very good at answering questions. I still fail to see the reason behind many things happening and some things I only got because I was reading up on Wikipedia and accidentally spoiled myself about some minor plots.
The characters keep being on the cool side, though I really did not like what they did with my favourite, the Morrigan. She was the biggest badass in the first volume but in this one she is more of a clingy weepy girl. Laura was again a bit pathetic, but due to the last scene that I mentioned, I am not sure anymore whether she has a fault in it. The others are also interesting, especially Dionysus, whose appearance in the volume was one of the best things in the series, but because there are so many of them, they do not get enough screen time. I am really excited to see Tara, though. -
In it second volume, The Wicked and the Divine remains incredibly, intensely beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, the story in this volume was kind of weak. The mystery of who murdered Luci should be rather more interesting than it is. But the characters themselves find their interest waxing and waning. It isn't until the last issue in this collection that things start to pick up. I still really like this series, and not just for the art and gloriously glam rock character designs. I very much want to see where this is all going, especially after the last few pages.
