Zeb Larson reviews The Wicked + The Divine #20…
“RISING ACTION,” Part Three So… why is Laura still alive anyway?
This month, The Wicked + The Divine goes backwards instead of forwards, going all the way back to Laura’s death and rebirth as Persephone. It undermines some of what we thought about the deaths of the Gods as well as bringing Cassandra back into the mix. What we get is a pretty middling issue, unfortunately, in no small part because some of the dialogue is weak. I will be discussing spoilers from here on out.
Two separate but related plots unfold in this issue. We see the events of the night of Laura’s death. Instead of killing Inana, Baphomet had spared him, and the two realized that they were being played by Ananke. They headed to Laura’s house to warn her, but only arrived in time for Inana to take the killing blow intended for Laura, who instead escaped with Baphomet. Back in the present, Cassandra and the Norns meet with Laura to talk about what Ananke’s been planning. Yet Cassandra does not want to go along with the plan, instead telling Laura to inform the authorities. Laura is revealed to have been a projection from Minerva’s owl, and the owl leaves.
Something I’ve realized about The Wicked + The Divine is that I really don’t care for the plot dealing with the pantheon or the fighting between the various gods. I show up for the meta-plot, the discussions about art and inspiration, and the tension between creation and criticism. Laura was a character that I could just barely tolerate, a starfucker of the first order who seemed more interested in being famous and being divine rather than actually creating music and art. Tara was the character’s whose death I found to be tragic, because she actually seemed to have something to say and nobody who would listen. Laura as Persephone is more interesting, if only because her motivation has gone from “I want to be famous” to “I’m avenging my parents’ deaths.” So, I guess that’s one perk of this issue.
Given that I cared so little about Laura’s death, I’m not sure that the central twist in this issue particularly bothers me. On the one hand, Laura/Persephone is more interesting now because of what happened even if it’s been undercut. On the other hand, I really am a believer that death in comics should stick. While it was always obvious that Laura/Persephone would come back (unless by some miracle the allusion inherent in her name slipped by), death itself should still have some emotional impact. Dying and being reborn has more dramatic impact than almost dying and sulking in the underworld for a few weeks.
Furthermore, Cassandra’s response to all of this is so incredibly implausible. She hears that Ananke has been the one killing gods, and furthermore is planning to sacrifice a child…and she thinks Laura should call the police. Did she forget the first few issues of the book, when Lucifer was basically only held by the police because she allowed herself to be? Is there any reason to think that would be successful against Ananke? For having been the voice of reason for a long time, I struggle to think that she’s suddenly so stupid.
I also can’t help but suspect that Cassandra will end up coming around anyway, so this just feels like an excuse to give us the story of what really happened to Inana and Laura. With all this in mind, I’m hoping we can get back to the meta-plot issues sometime soon, because I’m already pretty bored with divine temper tantrums.
Rating: 6.5/10
Zeb Larson
. url=”.” . width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]
https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published June 8, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
