| Title | : | The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3: Commercial Suicide |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1632156318 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781632156310 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 200 |
| Publication | : | First published February 3, 2016 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Graphic Novels & Comics (2016), Reddit r/fantasy Stabby Award Best Serialized Fiction (2016) |
Team WicDiv are joined by a stellar cast of guest artists to put the spotlight on each of the gods. The multiple Eisner Award nominated series continues in the only way it knows how: darker, weirder, faster. Don't worry. It's going to be okay.
Collects THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #12-17
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3: Commercial Suicide Reviews
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Woden: "...and Patriarchy isn't rule by men, it's rule by fathers. Most men will never be the father. They're just sons, and sons get sacrificed to keep the old man in port and cigars."
Commercial suicide? This highly praised for its art series decides to remove the regular art and replace him with FIVE different artists over this volume; they also change the type of storytelling; and make one comic book in this volume from all recycled artwork previously used! Genius or gimmick? Or is commercial suicide what these young gods are descending into as they all get caught up in conspiracy and murders. Tis volume two massive and powerful issues - 1. misogyny from the point of view... of a misogynist (and it's nothing like you'd expect, or is it?) and - 2. a no-holds barred break down of the abuse given to 'sexy' famous women on social media - and both tales fitting like a glove into the series. I salute you
Kieron Gillen. 8 out of 12. Fab Four Star read.
2023, 2019 and 2017 read -
This was mostly filler with all the guest artists and didn't really push the story forward at all. I didn't mind the guest artists except for the artist on issue 17. Sooo ugly. All the other ones I could stomach, even if they didn't fit the style of the comics. I'm excited to get to volume 4 now!
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2.5 to 3 stars
Not quite sure what they are doing with this series at this point. The notes mention that each issue in the collection was written and illustrated by different people. Instead of being an interesting series of vignettes, it felt like several haphazard interpretations of the same universe with very little connection to each other.
I know that graphic novels don’t always keep the same artist and that can be either good or bad. In this case, I think it was very bad. The main draw for me in the first issue was the awesome visuals. The facial expressions and the color combinations were fantastic. In this one, none of the artists lived up to the original and I found it distracting. I do think I would have been okay with a different look if it had had the same “POW!”, but none of them did.
Because this issue was so disjointed, I find myself not quite sure what is going on in the story. So, am I excited for the next issue? I am not quite sure. I will most likely give it a go to see if it gets back on track, but I have lost some confidence in this series.
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I think the third volume of The Wicked + The Divine is where I leave this series – rather than improve after the disappointing second volume, it remains flat and at this point I’ve completely lost interest. It even takes things down a notch with artist Jamie McKelvie, whose work is the biggest selling point of the comic, being practically absent for the book – I wonder if that’s why the subtitle is Commercial Suicide?
Fandemonium left readers with a jaw-dropping finale that Commercial Suicide steadfastly refuses to develop. Bar one issue where the villain does what they did before to another god here, this third volume simply treads water the entire time. We get the Morrigan and Sakhmet’s backstories as well as spend time with Amaterasu and Woden, neither of whom do anything much. The journalist is collecting testimonials for something and Baal’s mooning about death – yawn. It’s frustrating that writer Kieron Gillen made the duller choice when he’s already presented the reader with a far more exciting storyline and then ignored it for most of the book.
The series has been consistently and beautifully drawn by Jamie McKelvie but now (probably due to working on Phonogram Vol 3: The Immaterial Girl instead) he’s temporarily not drawing WicDiv which is a damn shame if you’re a fan of his art. He still draws the covers and a series of one-pagers called Videogames that appears at the back, but his shadow looms large on the book, showing how poorly the replacement artists measure up to the visual standard readers have come to expect from this series.
I enjoyed Stephanie Hans and Tula Lotay’s work and poor Brandon Graham’s getting a world of shit flung at him for his art on issue #17 which was fine particularly if you’re familiar with his style but it’s veeery different from McKelvie’s and I can see how it might be a shock if you’ve never seen it before! McKelvie sort of appears in the remix issue which takes panels from previous issues and uses them to create a “new” story which was an interesting approach. Matthew Wilson gives the panels new life with his colours and I suppose it’s appropriate that the remix issue is about Woden, the Daft Punk-lookalike. Generally though the art isn’t nearly as inspiring as it has been up til now.
Maybe Gillen chose not to advance the main story too much while McKelvie was away and Volume 4 will see a quantum leap in quality – or maybe not. Either way, Commercial Suicide was a plotless, meandering bore that feels unanchored thanks to previously eliminating certain key characters and replacing them with nothing. Where does The Wicked + The Divine go from here? I don’t know and I don’t care - I’m barely sure of what’s happening at the moment! The series started well but has quickly descended into tedium. Very disappointing stuff given the enormously talented creative team behind it. -
I couldn't bear to give less than 3 stars because I can't get over how amazing the art is. I want to bring the artist cookies and then purposely withhold them from the writers until they decide to cough up some sensible story material.
The mysterious, patchy, at times totally unexplained storytelling is really starting to get on my nerves with this series. I accepted it in the first volume because I thought the writers were just giving the series a running start, but now 3 volumes later I'm still as confused/baffled as I was starting out.
The story skips around from character to character, providing little to no explanation of who any of these beautiful people are, and even jumps back and forth in time with flashbacks etc. At one point the art style spontaneously changed completely for a few pages, then snapped back to normal. The huge cliffhanger event of the last volume was ignored in this one, not even mentioned at all. So basically, I'm confused and frustrated and my nerves are fraying a little. -
For once I liked the story more than the art in this comic. I didn't like the art as much because they had guest artists come in and do the art for the different issues. It's not like I disliked the guest art as a whole but when you compare it to McKelvie's perfect artwork, it just falls short. I thought that in theory, it was a pretty cool idea and if I didn't love McKelvie's art so much then I could have definitely been behind the idea but for me, the original art is the best thing about this comic series and so they should keep it that way.
The story itself got a little bit clearer which is awesome and it was cool to get a little peak into a few of the characters origins. I hope from here on out, the story stays clear-ish and the art goes back to being done by McKelvie. I'm excited to see what happens next!
I would recommend this series. -
I thought this volume was just OK. Each issue is a stand alone issue by a different artist. The time keeps jumping back and forth and it's very confusing at places when the story is occurring. The story seems to have lost its focus some now that we no longer have our way in to the gods with the character of Laura.
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3.5 Stars rated up
The second I opened up this volume of The Wicked + The Divine, I knew something was different. The art changed. At first I thought I was going completely insane. Why would the art change? Jamie McKelvie’s name is still on the front cover. Yet, I knew something was different. Before I even began to read the first page, I skimmed through the volume. I was right! The art style seemed to change within every individual issue. I was slightly confused by this decision as there was no explanation as to why this was happening. I decided to begin reading anyway, hoping for some sort of reasoning behind this strange choice.
Commercial Suicide begins with no explanation as to what the hell happened at the end of the second volume, Fandemonium. I expected it to at least be touched on a little, but nothing was really explained until the very last few pages of this volume, and even that was pretty vague.
This volume felt a bit more like a filler volume than anything else. It was filled with backstories about the different gods and who they were as humans before becoming the gods that they are now. I usually love a good backstory, but I think I was so preoccupied with finding out the reasoning behind the final events in the second volume, that I really didn’t care too much about their backstories at that particular moment.
However, one backstory did stand out to me, the story of Baphomet and The Morrigan. I believed their story and it felt the most relatable and realistic. You really got to see the human side of them through their story and I really enjoyed reading about them.
Although a majority of this volume was filled with backstories, we did learn some very important details that will definitely play a part in the future story of this series.
IMG_1563
My initial reaction to this page was, "Don't do this to me again...please?!"
As I mentioned earlier, the art style changed from issue to issue. At first I didn’t understand why. I thought maybe Jamie McKelvie was changing up his style per issue to show each individual personality of the gods, seeing as each issue was told from the perspective of a different god. As the volume went on, I actually thought that was a super cool idea. Then I thought about it a bit more and realized that was kind of already done via changing their thought bubbles and the typefaces used in previous volumes.
It wasn’t until I got to the very end of the volume where it was finally explained why each issue had a different art style. There were guest artists. Duh. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that from the beginning. Suddenly, the different art styles make a lot more sense. I’m still not sure how I feel about this decision, but I think experimenting with this idea was pretty cool. However, I think one volume is enough. I’d like to see the original art style throughout the entire next volume. It was one of the main things that I loved so much about the first two volumes!
Of course, Commercial Suicide left us with yet another cliffhanger. At least Kieron Gillen acknowledged it and let us know it was coming with a clever little title page. I just want to know what the hell is happening!!!
Although this was the weakest volume of The Wicked + The Divine so far for me personally, the story is still really intriguing and these damn cliffhangers are definitely going to keep me coming back for more.
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Initial Post Reading Thoughts:
Although this volume was still highly entertaining, I found it a little harder to follow. I enjoyed learning more about the backstory of each god, but parts of it kind of lost me. The cliffhanger from the second volume was left untouched until the very end of this volume, thus resulting in yet another cliffhanger. I'm also unsure of how I felt about the guest artists taking over each issue. I noticed right away that the art was different and it kind of threw me off, but it later grew on me and kind of felt like the gods and their unique personalities were represented by the different art styles. -
I couldn't follow this story. They didn't do enough to link things together. What is happening - who knows. I really enjoyed the 1st 2 books. This was a huge let down. I still want to know what happens and I hope it gets better again. I didn't enjoy this one.
Dripping with disappointment. This was a very undivine attempt at a story. I hear these are guest artists and it wasn't as good.
Total Fail! I didn't give it one star because I have enjoyed the series. Only saving grace. -
I wasn't a big fan of the guest artists as a whole. Some were great but most styles were not my cup of tea. One of the big reasons why I loved this series in the first place was the artwork, so that was obviously not present here. Some of the individual issues were just meh in plot for me as well. I feel like you could probably just look up what happens in this one and move on to the forth volume when that comes out with the original artist back. A bit disappointed in this volume for sure.
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This one provides the background story to several gods and also a new insight into the intrigues and lies. At times it is very confusing, other times totally mind-blowing, but overall very enjoyable and I am really looking forward to the next volume after the cliffhanger in this one...
BUT - I hope the graphic unity will return because while I had no issues with several styles used in this volume, there was one I don't want to see again, like, EVER:
or:
No. Just no.
I'd prefer it if the authors used one style, or at least settled on two or three that look good enough, not this..."art" that looks like the artist was VERY drunk while drawing. -
What a mess.
Side Note: I started this for the 2016 7in7 ReadAThon and it turns out I was a day early... Poo. -
Also available on the WondrousBooks blog.
So far in The Wicked + The Divine we had stellar art, mind-blowing, beautiful and fascinating(+++). And we had a story on the moodier side, a bit slow-pacing, but with potential(-).
Now, in this volume, we have a somewhat faster developing story(+) and THE WORST ART IMAGINABLE(-------). There was maybe one guest artist that I kind of liked and one that I did not totally hate. The rest of it was offensive, most of all Sakhmet's issue.
Offensive, I tell you. Original Sakhmet and the Morrigan:
And for comparison, Sakhmet and the Morrigan from Sakhmet's issue in the third volume:
Absurd and ugly and no one can convince me that it adds to the characters' personalities. If anything it is just distracting the reader from the story AND the personality through really poor, childish art. Example #2, from issue one of Commercial Suicide:
To the right you see what I think should be a girl?!? She used to be one? Maybe?!
In Amaterasu's issue everyone looked deep-fried:
Original artist:
Here too:
I have so much anger against the art. Verrrryyy disappointing.
The story was alright, I guess. The Persephone arc was interesting, some of the events finally started unraveling.
Tara was not what I expected, though. I was very excited to see her but she turned out to be not nearly as cool as anticipated and very whiny.
Now that I have listed these things, I almost can't remember why I decided the rating to be 3 stars. I guess it is because I liked the last issue of this volume? I will not change it now, but I am definitely not as convinced as before. The art basically ruined what was really good about this series because as I have said before, the story was not and is still not superb, it could definitely use more speed and depth. -
Ah… The Wicked + The Divine. “You will be loved. You will be hated” has never been more true....
I loved you... now I hate you. And it makes me sad.
Let’s take a series loaded with a multitude of characters, some of which the reader has barely met and can hardly recognize, with a complicated and at times confusing story line.
Now lets add new artists every issue for 6 issues and see if we can completely confuse and alienate our readers.
Mission accomplished.
What the hell happened? We had a good thing here… You don’t need to reinvent the wheel after two volumes!
To illustrate my point, here’s some art samples.
Meet Baal… at least how I know him to be drawn after the first 11 issues. The art is stunning. I’m using Baal as my example because he appears in every issue of Volume 3 except 1 (and that issue is drawn by the original artist Jamie McKelvie anyway)
Now meet Baal in issue 12 as drawn by Kate Brown. We go from vibrant illustrations that pop off the page to sun bleached and faded.
Now meet Baal in issue 13 as drawn by Tula Lotay.
Now meet Baal in issue 15 as drawn by Stephanie Hans. Now, this I can’t really complain about other than some characters not being instantly recognizable. Hans’ art is stunning, especially of Amaterasu. My point is for an already confusing plot, new artist renditions every issue just confuses the reader.
Now meet Baal in issue 16 as drawn by Leila Del Duca . Is this an Archie comic?
Last time, meet Baal in issue 17 as drawn by Brandon Graham. I just shake my head in disappointment.
Unless Jamie McKelvie returns on a permanent basis for Volume 4, I will not be continuing this series. -
It’s been a while since I’ve read the previous two comics so I felt a bit confused while reading this one. The face that there are quite a few guest artists then confused me even more! Some characters looked totally different and I didn’t feel like things were progressing.
However It was cool to find out more about the characters back story. I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as the others but will be reading the next volume -
actualizado 9/4/2018
Como la primera vez... el hecho de que hayan invitado otros artistas no es el problema sino que es que el tipo de arte de algunos de los tomos (12 y 17) no tiene nada que ver con el tono de la historia en sí, los otros tomos el arte el lindo pero no es lo mismo que el original.
El siguiente tomo es mejor, sigan leyendo.
3,5
Sentí que este tomo estuvo bastante desordenado que digamos. No mostró mucho avance del argumento y de desarrollo de los personajes sino más bien una mirada a el pasado de algunos dioses, cosa que yo ya había dado por perdida entre el primer y segundo tomo. Los artistas invitados no me gustaron para nada, sentí que eran demasiado diferentes del artista que dibuja originalmente la novela.
No estoy muy contenta, pero ya estoy enganchada así que seguro que lea el siguiente tomo cuando salga.
¿Alguno lo leyó? ¿Qué piensa? -
So, not much plot going on in this volume which could probably be attributed to Laura not being in it. There were a few predictable reveals and a little backstory but it could have used a fair bit of oomph.
About the art- Ugh. I'm so torn. I love the idea of guest artists. I really really do. It works great in some series. Unfortunately it didn't do it for me in this case. The changes in artists and huge range of styles really pulled me out of what little story was going on. In some cases I had to really sit there and figure out who I was even looking at. And I say this completely selfishly, but the original artist just KILLS IT and really brings these books to life.
Very much anticipating the next volume and hoping we get back into a good story flow. -
I'm not as into this series as I was, I lost track of the plot and who is which god. The story of The Morrigan raised it a star though, she's pretty awesome.
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I'm reading this collected volume but since each issue kind of feels like a self-contained story I'm just going to give some thoughts for them separately while I read.
#12 - Wow, the artwork took a huge step back. Super distracting and kind of ugly.
#13 - Well, damn. Finally get to meet a new character and now she's dead too.
#14 - Not a fan of Woden/Odin/Tron/Daft Punk guy. Also, the green text and font are super annoying to read.
#15 - Oh hey, new artist again ... this looks familiar ... Aha! It's
Stephanie Hans - I just read
Lucifer (2015-) #6 coincidentally, that she also drew for. I hope she keeps turning up more often because her work is lovely.
#16 - Another new artist but this one is a step back again.
#17 - WTF is this???
Hideous. Absolutely hideous.
I know it seems like I care about the art more than the story ... but in a way I sort of do. It's a graphic novel, if I didn't want pretty pictures I'd just read ... a novel.
I'm not sure what the endgame of this story is though, I don't know why someone is going around killing the gods one by one. We know who it is, but not why yet, and I'm kind of losing my patience. -
The 3rd volume of The Wicked + The Divine was disappointing, unimaginative and nearly without plot. It didn't continue where the 2nd volume left off hence avoiding the matter at hand and focusing instead on other background, flat characters. And with nothing much happening but the backstories of The Morrigan and Sakhmet with occasionally confusing, out-of-the blue rage and decisions of the god / goddess, the art was inconsistent, hard to get used to, might be unpleasant to the eyes depending on the reader's taste (which was as expected as this volume showcased guest artists), Stephanie Hans and Tula Lotay's, personally, were redeeming and of quality.
I still am curious for the 4th volume and would likely check that out since I do see them continuing where the 2nd volume left off. But at the rate with where this is going, my interest, too, dwindles.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. -
Really amazing - the artwork in this volume are even better and than the ones before, however the story is not that good, like the one with Laura. Still do not regret reading!
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Reading all three trade volumes of The Wicked & the Divine over two days has been intense, and I daresay gives a different view from following the series over a couple of years. This volume, though I didn't like it at first, turned out the most varied and interesting of all in storyline, effect perhaps augmented by the variety of guest artists, and more depth for a few characters.
The hollowness, cynicism and meta-commentary behind the gorgeous mythical pop-tropes (which, as a big fan of Phonogram I both loved, and hated to see reused until hackneyed) seemed even more overwhelming in the first half of vol. 3 than they had in 1-2, knowingly illustrative of an internet youth culture in which everything is analysed, memed and problematised, and nothing can feel fresh and joyful. (Both the comic and this review are the work of jaded people born in the 70s, and I don't think it's possible to know exactly what it all feels like from the inside, no matter how many Tumblrs you read, without actually being younger and experiencing this stuff in your teens and twenties. Maybe the culture isn't quite so hopeless and recursive, and some of it does feel new, if you haven't been alive as long. )
Then I started to see that, via the characters of Tara, Woden, Amaterasu and Cassandra, issues 13-15 were a multi-sided commentary on internet social justice issues, including, but not limited to those affecting comics. (I mostly hear about the comics world second-hand, through friends and articles; it may be that commentary about these controversies within comics themselves has itself become a dull cliche. Meanwhile I haven't encountered it directly before, and some of the analyses here were interesting, and welcome in their balance.) This was part of a pretty dark phase of the story, in issues 12 to partway through 15. The title, exhaustively knowing as ever, alludes to the difficult uncommercial album that sees off some fans; the mood also evoked those bad-decadent periods of the typical rock biography when everyone's at each other's throats and getting paranoid from the drugs. (I usually find those albums & biography chapters interesting, but here I understood the more typical negative responses: early-teen WicDiv wasn't a type of darkness I found comfortable, and I was waiting and hoping for the story arc to go up again. It doesn't faze me that most of the cast are destined to die soon - I see things much as one character says later in the wonderful issue 16: We're all walking dead. we're all at the edge of that pit. But we get to choose what we do whilst we're here...I'm dancing. They say that having experienced not being able to choose anything, or 'dance'; so it's not naive thoughtlessness disregarding more limited existences, just a statement of how they feel, that day. Meanwhile, these darkest episodes of WicDiv were uncomfortable because there was precious little 'dancing'.)
Tara's story is one that's been frequently told in the last few years, about misogynistic bullying and a woman who feels she's only been valued - if and when she is valued at all - for her appearance and for who people think she is or want her to be, not for who she [feels she] really is. In vol.2 Amaterasu lamented (paraphrase) that she herself was boring because she was straight: meanwhile, this is the dark, unpleasantly media-worthy side of that. Tara also evokes those celebrities, who, sometimes for no apparent reason as here, have become love-to-hate figures and objects of derision, an invisible 'kick me' sign permanently pinned to them, and the story reflects how stressful it might be to be them, increasingly unable to do anything right in the eyes of the public and commentariat. She had experiences that make the following feel universally true to her, rather than merely the case with certain nasty pieces of work (my second clause is implied nowhere in the book): I heard "Hey goddess, hey beautiful" turn into "I'm going to rape you bitch" enough times to know that the former is just the latter with a bow on it. In the way it takes up a fourth-wave feminist mantle wholesale and perhaps as fanservice, I found this issue somewhat similar to the New Year episode of Sherlock. (Although it wasn't quite so out of step with established characters. And given its awareness of online social justice politics, had surprisingly little to say about Tara's pre-goddess life as a girl of Pakistani descent.) Where it was - depressingly - enlightening, though, was in the two pages of abusive tweets it printed. Often, I suspect, the worst of these things aren't shown, in press articles, and certainly not in a Reggie Yates documentary I saw recently in which he was shown interviewing Laurie Penny and looking at some tweets that the camera never focused on. Knowing Yates' oddly yet usefully innocent manner as a presenter, I suspect what he saw wasn't as bad as two of the 'tweets' here - which I was surprised actually to find quite shocking, and contained specifics that I'd never even seen mentioned as actions in popular serial killer or horror stories. (Some people would surely therefore want warnings re. reading that whole first page of tweets.)
The basically Vader-suited Woden (one of the less mythologically convincing incarnations) - though another GR reviewer rightly mentions Daft Punk as a basis for his look - has some surprisingly complex things to say. He's partly a portrait of a type of stubborn male commenter on feminist articles, and of a slightly different type, the perhaps sociopathic sort of cynical man who makes use of feminism for his own ends - but in these scenes he also becomes more than a caricature, and a way for the writers to make some worthwhile points. Importantly - and unlike Tara's story - the writing doesn't recycle the exact statements commonly seen from below-the-line commenters, those ones that mean you don't bother reading comments because you've seen it all before. Mirroring the authoritarian left's tactics to shut down and invalidate argument, Woden has his own nihilistic ways to do so from a different side, for example by acknowledging how patriarchal societies are bad for many men and then not caring about anything because he won't live to see the future - and with slippery, headfucky ultimate cynicism like the following, that could make the listener question everything he and others have said: You want to control someone? Give them a slice of the truth that confirms all their prejudices.
The gender-based power structure in WicDiv defies straightforward analysis, . And the underlying logic is dark, inspired as it was apparently by death and bereavement:
The argument between Amaterasu and Cassandra is more easily encapsulated by its dialogue - and frankly it's an easier one to win (but then I would say that as I agree with its conclusions).
A: You're the one who sees everything in black and white. You care about ideals more than people. You don't care that your ideals are hurting people. You don't care that people are hurting.
The characters provide recursive, hall-of-mirrors, commentary on the offensiveness potential of their scene set in Japan, a scene ultimately created so they can talk about cultural appropriation.
Later, Cassandra, referring to a shared past on Tumblr: If you ever liked anything I wrote, you have to know this, you're doing it wrong. (Black and white again - she has a very all or nothing concept of liking. On here, people often like posts whilst not agreeing with every sentence. Though some particular sentences may be too disagreeable, so you withhold the like from the other 99%. Besides, likes can mean all sorts: "glad you enjoyed this, I did too", "thanks for drawing this to my attention", "yes I'm still speaking to you/ I hope you're okay".)
I've been wondering if Tumblr kids, queer / feminist teens and twentysomethings are actually quite a big audience for comics and to a lesser extent SFF - if all this content isn't just about who's been making noise, but about the stats, and producing stuff a significant audience will probably like.
I absolutely love issue 16, a mostly realistic comic about pre-fame Morrigan and Baphomet. (The Goodreads single-issue ratings suggest I'm far from alone in this. It's actually good, it's not just that on some level I've always been a bit of a goth, even if I don't have quite the matching wardrobe and record collection). Both Marian and Cameron are both hot, and romantic in an intelligent, stormy gothic kitchen-sink kind of way. Like Tara and Sekhmet, they appear to have reached their mid-twenties before the gods incarnated into them, more interesting for the reader well past their own teens. The art was great too, by Leila del Duca - who I was surprised to find does superhero type comics rather than realistic, so well does her style suit this story. I liked this episode so much, it was going to be difficult not to give the whole volume four stars in the afterglow of reading it. Sekhmet's backstory was good, a change from the mostly middle-class characters, and her incarnation's predatory nature provides a foil to Tara's sacrificial victimhood, but I wasn't sure about the art here. I don't go for 'messy' art styles generally, but whilst it really didn't work for gig scenes, it did give plot-appropriate visual chaos to the life of a character who previously looked sleek and fully in control. (I'm surprised so many other readers disliked it, as I thought high volume comics readers were well au fait with the idea of guest artists via webcomics, and were more open minded than I am about different styles.)
Oh yes, what it is these days with its having been cool to like The Bluetones? All these 'Slight Returns' here for instance - and it's not just here. Not bothered so much as baffled; I'm not aware of any other minor band (apparently bland at the time, though very definitely hummable) whose stock seems to have gone up in such a way.
In McKelvie's "video" shorts in the end gallery, I was very fond of Inanna's My regrets are the one thing I don't regret., although he seemed too young and too nice to have cause to say that. If you're older and you've pissed a few people off who didn't deserve it, it's only decent to have some regrets - and it may be a reminder not to make the same mistakes again. Yet it's unpopular in popular culture to suggest regret has any value. The series' strange mix of soundbite shallowness + wisdom continues.
Would I read more if I could, if vol 4 was around now? Yes. (WicDiv has also made me keener to read Young Avengers.) The difficult third album sure as hell wasn't as pretty, but it was interesting.
This was a free advance copy received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. -
(Received from Netgalley for review.)
Definitely the weakest volume of WicDiv so far, which is intentional? I guess? McKelvie's absence from the book (apparently to work on Phonogram) means both a volume full of guest artists who I just don't like quite as much and an exposition filled volume that almost entirely ignores major plot developments from the last volume. But I knew all of that going in, and I suppose that there was at least a modicum of an effort to keep fan expectations low. Still, maybe not the best way to handle the situation, I don't know.
So if we don't get further development on the story, what do we get? A lot of character development. There are a lot of characters floating around the WicDiv universe who are really interesting, but haven't had time spent on them beyond establishing their basic looks and personalities. And I really did like getting this extra insight, I just think it might have worked better being a bit more spread out through the series, instead of being one giant exposition bomb.
So, good stories, but no real storyline, which is something of a let down. But I'm a sucker for this series, even when it isn't at its best, so I'll be back for more. Of course. -
This is an inherently READABLE, comic and this is a decently strong arc. (Far better than "Fandemonium" [the second arc], in any event.)
Though this arc answers a few questions, and brings up some more, it ultimately fails to live up to the promise of the first few issues. This is still on my monthly "Pull List", but it's not necessarily "Top of the Pile" material anymore.
3.5 stars (rounded up to 4 for the premise and the jump in quality between Arc 2 + 3, and the willingness of the title to sacrifice the "Reader Surrogate/Narrative POV.)
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aaaand I'm still disappointed with this series.
this is the most unnecessary volume so far. one issue is very important, the other 5 are just there doing nothing. I'm not that interested in the gods' backstories when there's such a big thing going on in the present! each issue seems to be written as they come, there's no previous planning. at this point, the writer seems completely lost in the direction of the story. this is not what I signed off for with the first volume.
and don't get me started on the different art styles in this TPB. they are mostly ok, but there's two I particularly hated and would never have picked up if I worked on the creative team of WicDiv. if the McKelvie was tired (which is what I kinda understood was the real deal), just do like other successful graphic novel teams and just pause the whole series. I think this was a poor decision that did a lot of damage and will definitely have repercussions with the fans.
what had potential to be one of my favourite graphic novel series of all time, quickly became a big let down...
full review here:
https://catshelf.wordpress.com/2016/0... -
Commercial Suicide is right, sadly. I wanted to love this book. I adored the heck out of the first two volumes, and especially with that twist at the end of volume two. And then… McKelvie goes on holiday, we get a load of backstory and alternate points of view, and the story almost entirely lacks the characters we’ve come to love. Partly because there’s a high body count in these comics, but also because Odin can’t be anyone’s idea of a hero, and it’s becoming apparent that Ananke is more than she’s letting on.
I don’t actually hate the art in the way some other readers do. It has broken the consistency of the series, but it was interesting looking at other takes on the characters — and I actually liked the art in the comic about Sekhmet, which I know other people really hated. It just seems to suit her, somehow.
But… this just feels so thin compared to the other volumes. I wanted so much more, especially after Fandemonium.
Originally posted here. -
So...this would have been a DNF for me. I really didn't enjoy it. The story sort of skims along again. I'm frustrated because there are so many things left out, and then this whole run felt like a bad mix of infodump and filler.
I won't speak about the art, because I get it, the regular artist couldn't take the job for whatever reason and I appreciate that they tried to give work to others, even if they're wildly different styles. Just be warned that each issue has a different artist.
As to the rest, holy FUCK. A list of places that failed:
-An objectified woman who's pissed that all people ever see is a beautiful face. That's all she tells us, she's called "Fucking Tara," and is a weird mix of the author showing us how he "gets" how women don't like to hear how pretty they are, but let's also just all revel in how filthy men can be to women they despise and want to own.
-A person portrayed at least as a dude who is basically an MRA but we're supposed to feel bad for him? Mansplains patriarchy to a transwoman who is just quiet and appreciative of how "true" he is. This dude then does a voiceover during an imagined graphic porn scene that takes as much page space as MOST OF THE OTHER BIG PLOT REVEALS SO FAR.
-A weird half-attack on appropriation, which is pretty tone deaf and self-congratulatory feeling.
-Just...so much graphic sex. Guess the gender of the people who just can't get enough dick?
-Let's also make sure to get the whole "sold my soul for a man who did me dirty" bullshit in there too.
C'mon Kieron, any other way you could show a complete sneering disregard for women in this volume?
Also, and I know this will shock you if you've followed my reviews for the previous two, THERE'S NOT A GODS-BLESSED STORY IN THIS WHOLE CURSED BOOK.
A wank-fest for MRAs of the Gamergate persuasion. I am so sick of all this and everyone who bobble-headed approval to it. -
Spoilers for volumes 1 and 2
This series really needs to stop killing characters. Is this how it feels to read/watch Game of Thrones? Because wow, the rate at which important characters just... die... is a little fast.
I mean, the last volume ended extremely explosively, but... I don't know, I didn't really think that
More on that:
The plot was immensely confusing. I mean, I thought I was halfway following after volume 2, but I feel really lost. I'm definitely going to keep reading this series, but I'm having a hard time keeping up. A lot of stuff happens in each volume, and I don't think everything that happens gets enough time.
Also, the art. The art was what I loved about the first two volumes, but this one switches out between art styles as it goes and it... wasn't good. I liked some of the styles, but it didn't feel true to the characters at times.
The characters! Many of them are still confusing, but they were worth reading for.
BAAL: As much as I like Laura, it was nice to hear from him on his own for once. He was definitely more interesting in this volume, and I am kind of excited to see what happens next with him. However -
TARA: Wow, what a fascinating character! Tara shows the truly dark side of fame (those comments!). Her story was an astoundnig one.
AMATERASU: After volume 1, I found Amaterasu a bit of a bland character in comparison to others (like Luci). She really came in strong in this volume, though. I liked seeing her backstory. I feel like this tactic of focusing on the individual gods was a really good idea because they didn't get enough spotlight on their own.
SEKHMET: Again, I liked her own story if not the art style. I do want to know more about her.
WODEN: He's a creep and not as compelling as the other characters. That line he had in volume 2 about why he wears the mask interested me, though.
THE MORRIGAN AND BAPHOMET: I liked them in the previous volume, and I really liked them here. Their backstory was really compelling and I ate it up. They're definitely my favorite (surviving) characters.
3/5 stars. While the characters are cool, this volume's plot was a mess. And I didn't like the different art styles. But I am looking forward to volume 4. -
*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*
After the shocking last issue, this volume concentrates more on some of the original gods/goddesses providing some back story as to who they were before being chosen. We also find out who has been taking out the gods and it's a shock to see who it is although there is no explanation as yet as to why they are doing it.
I miss the main character, Laura, without her it feels a bit more like a bunch of short stories instead of something cohesive. The main issue I have with this volume is the artwork, after two breaktaking volumes of stunning art this volume falls pretty flat. Six guest artists were used to put their own spin on the series and it is just to different and therefore jarring with each volume having a totally different art style. It's not that it's all bad it's just that it lacks any sort of consistency and I hate inconsistent artwork. I just wish the original artist had been used for this volume, reading some of the other reviews for this it's a huge issue for many that the art is so different.
Let's hope volume 4 is back to the standards of volumes 1 & 2. -
Meh.... was sort of hoping to enjoy this one a lot more. The art styles were just so choppy. I really didn't like the art that was being used towards the end and it was so different than what was being used beforehand. The story wasn't really captivating me. I enjoyed this volume up to and including the whole part about Tara but it seems like once that happened, my interest faded and I wasn't connected. I have been told that there will be more volumes and I have also heard that next volume, the only artist will be Jamie which makes me still want to continue. It's going to be another arc though so I will definitely try it out even though these first three volumes were just so so or mediocre for me.
I think with my disappointment with the art and the confusing (at least to me) plot, this one wasn't so great.
