The Wicked + The Divine vol. 7: Mothering Invention

We were promised answers in this volume.  Along with a sequence that nearly broke creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie by the former’s own admission.  The good news is that both of these things are delivered in vol. 7! No, we don’t get ALL the answers. Anyone expecting Gillen to explain everything in this series is only setting themselves up for disappointment.  Which is why we get an opening scene set 6,000 years ago between Ananke and her sister as they lay out the ground rules for how the gods will come back every 90 years before their final reckoning.

Who was Ananke’s sister?  What work were they doing together?  How did it lead to this cycle of death and rebirth?  We don’t get those kind of answers here and we might never.  It’s not as much of a problem as it sounds like since this volume once again makes it clear whose story this is:  Laura’s. While Ananke and her present-day incarnation figure prominently into this volume, along with some juicy scenes with Woden to goose the drama, “Mothering Invention” is mainly the story of Laura careening through the dumpster fire that is the Pantheon’s current state.

From escaping Woden’s captivity with Cassandra, only to find Baal’s secret sacrifice room, and then to wedge herself right into the (final?) lovers spat between Baphomet and Morrigan, it would appear that very little goes right for this latest incarnation of the goddess of death and rebirth.  It does give us a great front-row seat to some conflicts and revelations that have been a long time coming in this series. Though that might imply that Laura winds up being just an observer to all this, it’s made clear that she winds up in these situations through her own choices.

Same goes for that final choice that effectively strips her of her godhood and looks to deliver the antagonists a definitive win.  That would be a real downer of an ending for this quasi-penultimate volume, but Gillen is never one to leave things so clear and decisive.  Remember when in “The Walking Dead” after Glenn was murdered at Negan’s bat and it looked like our heroes were in for an awful future until Eugene revealed that he knew how to make ammo?  The last page of this volume is kind of like that.

Oh, and the art is fantastic as has always been the case with this series.  But what about that sequence that nearly broke its creators? It’s an eleven-page sequence of six-panel pages detailing the return of one specific god over the ages and how it doesn’t quite play out the same every time.  It seems like an easy enough thing to do until you realize all the work that had to go into choreographing the action in each panel and getting the clothing and look of each era just right. It’s a bravura display of style that takes on additional significance when you realize which god is being killed over and over again here.  Significance which we wouldn’t be able to appreciate without the sequence which opens this volume.

So in addition to answers, magnificent style, we get some setup and payoff in this volume as well.  What’s not to like? Well, how about the fact that now I’m REALLY anxious to see how all this wraps up in its final volume… which won’t be out until September.  At least we’ll have the collection of specials in March to tide us over. Expect fun, drama, comedy, awfulness and maybe even some more answers then!