The Wicked + The Divine #45
The former Gods say good-bye in The Wicked + The Divine #45, by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Jamie McKelvie, colorist Matthew Wilson, and letter Clayton Cowles. Gillen and company close out the book in perfect fashion. There’s really not much else to say about it.
In the year 2055, the former Gods gather for a funeral of one of their own at Valhalla. Laura meets up with Lucy, and they enter to party, greeting old friends. The funeral is for Cassandra, who Laura ended up marrying. Laura begins the tribute but produces a projector that allows a recorded hologram of Cassandra to finish her own eulogy, telling all of them how she felt about them. At the end of the book, Laura addresses the reader directly, talking about stories, endings, and hope.
Gillen completely nails it with this one. Everything is pitch-perfect and plays to the tone of the book- it’s the last issue. The last words on the page, and putting it at a funeral is the perfect way to present this story. This issue serves as the book’s funeral. One can look at Cassandra and her holographic self eulogy and Laura’s message to the audience at the end of the book as Gillen talking to the audience. Telling readers how he felt about each character as he wrote them through Cassandra. Then giving them a final speech about not letting stories dictate the world to you. He tells readers to be wary of stories to remember that they are written by someone. And that the future is important and open, no matter what the books of destiny tell us.
Gillen works in a few little tidbits about what’s been going on the ensuing forty years. Just enough to allow readers to understand events without beating them over the head with it. He very well could have done an entire issue about the years between, but that would have taken page space away from Laura and company’s reunions and the final speeches, which really cement the tone of the issue and make everything work so well. The story of the Recurrence ended the last installment. This one is just about saying good-bye, a fond farewell to characters that readers have spent years following. It’s structured and paced perfectly. It’s not meant to give closure, not really. Readers never find out the ultimate fates of any of the characters, but they’re not meant to. This is the last time they’ll be seen, and it’s up to readers to imagine their fates and fill in the years in between. To be their own writers.
Jamie McKelvie’s final performance on the book is beautiful. As usual, his character acting is perfect, getting across the emotion in every scene. The figure work is perfect. Every panel bleeds feeling. There’s really no stand out scene or sequence (although the oak tree Cassandra is buried under looks amazing) because it’s all stand out. It perfectly fits the book and makes it all work that much better. This is an amazing script, and McKelvie delivers art that elevates it.
The Wicked + The Divine #45 is a bittersweet farewell to old friends. Throughout its run, this series has been a lot of things, but it was mainly it was about a bunch of ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances and how they got through them. Not everyone made it to the end, but the ones who did are better and worse for the experience. Which is basically what is known as the human condition. Readers connected deeply with these characters and this story, and Gillen gives them the chance to say good-bye in this poignant last issue. The entire creative team turned in a fantastic effort, and it shows. This team has been working together on the book for years now, and they gel so perfectly. As far as last issues go, this one belongs with The Sandman #75 at the pinnacle of final chapters. From start to finish, this comic is a masterpiece. It gives a fitting ending to those characters’ stories, while also reminding readers that destiny is what they make it, not what the people who wrote it make it. The Wicked + The Divine will be missed, but the book couldn’t ask for a more exceptional ending.