Reviews

The Wicked + The Divine: 1923 by Jamie McKelvie, Aud Koch, Matt Wilson, Kieron Gillen

tippyloohoo's review against another edition

1.0

I honestly couldn't get through this. It was tedious and boring and I hated it.

dogfood's review against another edition

Ich weiß nicht wie ich das Buch bewerten soll – und entscheide mich daher, keine Wertung abzugeben.

"The Wicket + The Divine" ("WicDiv") ist grundsätzlich eine Comic-Serie. Aber Format (Sonderband, Novella) und Ankündigung ließen vermuten, dass "1923" für sich alleine steht und man unbeleckt von jeglichen WicDiv-Vorkenntnissen einsteigen kann.

Falsch. So falsch. Ohne WicDiv-Kenntnisse wird man dem Buch wenig abgewinnen können. "1923" scheint eine Ergänzung oder Hinführung zu einem Storybogen zu sein. Die Charaktere werden als bekannt vorausgesetzt und werden gar nicht erst detailliert beschrieben.

Inhaltlich handelt "WicDiv", wenn ich es richtig mitbekommen habe, von Göttern verschiedener Kulturkreise, die alle paar Jahre wiederauferstehen und zwei Jahre später wieder sterben. Die Serie begleitet die Götter durch verschiedene Epochen. Anders als "American Gods" von Gaiman, handelt es sich nicht um "fiktive" Götter, sondern Klassiker wie Wotan/Odin, Dionysos, Baal, Minerva, etc…

"1923" beginnt wie ein Agathe Christie-Whodunnit-Plot. Die zwölf Götter werden von Luzifer ins eine Insel-Villa eingeladen. Doch vor dem Abendessen wird Luzifer mit zerfetzten Kopf tot aufgefunden. Und die elf verbliebenen Götter stellen sich die Frage, wer unter ihnen der Mörder ist.

Im größeren Kontext spielen auch immer wieder Vorahnungen rein, dass der frische erste Weltkrieg, nicht der letzte gewesen sein könnte und die Frage was für eine Rolle die Götter da drin spielen könnten.

So sehr dies alles nach einer interessanten Ausgangslage klingt: vieles wird im Plot nur angerissen. Die Auflösung der Geschichte ist eigentlich mehr ein Cliffhanger oder eine Referenz zu einer anderen WicDiv-Story und blieb mir rätselhaft.

Wer sich auf einen Comic freut, wird auch enttäuscht. Das Format des Buches ist überwiegend eine Novella, in der immer mal wieder 2–4 Comic-Seiten eingebaut wurden.

Mit anderen Worten: ich fand das Buch sehr unbefriedigend, aber das ist ein Problem meiner Erwartungen und des mir fehlenden Kontextes gewesen. Daher keine Wertung von mir – nur eine Warnung: wer in WicDiv einsteigen will, sollte wohl eher zu den Omnibus-Bänden "Year One" und "Year Two" greifen.

rungemaille's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

kunigunde's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

ria_mhrj's review

5.0

Ooh, this was sumptuous. I have not read many Agatha Christie books, but this issue was so evocative of the style and so thrillingly clever. And I love how it took us all the back to the very start, it took me a while to twig that was the direction we were heading in.

Love, love, LOVE this series. Must do my re-read before the next arc!

twirlsandwhirls's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A fun whodunit that plays with standard comic book form!

wingedwalls's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

liesljrowe's review

5.0

So this was not what I was expecting. Despite being packaged like a comic, most of this is prose, which has the effect that the full-page drawings of the various murders are all the more shocking. Yet even if this is very different to the Wicked and the Divine issues I've come to know and love, this is probably my favourite in the series and would be the issue that I would shove at someone wanting to understand why WicDiv has such a claim over my heart and soul.

First off, And Then There were None is one of my favourite Agatha Christie stories, bleak as it is with the fatalism of knowing that all the characters you're reading about are going to meet a grisly end very soon. Recasting it with the gods and having Ananke as a vengeful Agatha Christie/Miss Marple type in the background is the perfect mash-up. Taking that recasting and using the 1920s setting of the original to have a discussion about the build-up to WW2 and popularism vs elitism as the future of art? Genius. You could easily write a dissertation on all the cleverness in here, the tiny allusions which let you know exactly what was going on. I personally had a bit of a moment at "The lights are going out".

Spoiler

Also the train coming out from the projector (representing cinema, based as it is on a really famous short film) to move down one of the elitists made me chuckle.

Also the choices of each 1920s personality picked to represent the gods were absolutely perfect. Lucifer as Gatsby/Fitzgerald was particularly tragic, but I had a soft spot for the Norms as the trio of dystopian writers, foreseeing different visions of an awful future, and the cinematic duo.

aliciamarie89's review

5.0

I loved this so much, because I didn't realize going in that these were the group of gods we were first introduced to in the first issue of this entire series! I liked the juxtaposition between the comic and the longer form writing. It was a murder mystery where everyone knows they're supposed to be dying shortly, but when fellow gods keep showing up dead it doesn't make the entire situation less suspenseful.

Also I recommend as soon as you finish this big special issue to go and pick up the first volume or issue of the series. It flows so perfectly, it's almost chilling. Please read this!

batsinthecastle's review

3.0

Too much text lol, but the story is interesting. Definitely a must-read before Volume 7!

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