In volume 3 of Kieron Gillen’s The Wicked + The Divine: Commercial Suicide, we delve into the back stories of several of the characters and begin to get some insight into the working of one particular member of the Pantheon. Before I say anything else let me say clearly SPOILERS. 

In case you missed that SPOILERS. 

Even volume 3 has been out for some time so if you’ve been reading The Wicked + The Divine then you should be caught up at least this far. Still be warned that below in my review I’ll talk about some key plot and character points. 

Before I do so, a few general comments. While a lot of interesting things either happen or are revealed in this volume, in many ways it feels like a bit of a breather after volume two. There were two major deaths in volume 2 and there are more this volume, but here we are getting more insight into the key ‘villain’ of this story: Ananke (I told you there were spoilers). We see her manipulative relationship with several of the gods and gain some perspective on how she chose (or is it lured?) some young people into this Pantheon. Well it’s not yet clear what she’s up to, Ananke is clearly playing a long con – One she may have played in the last iteration when these gods walked the earth 90 years before.

Each chapter in this volume focuses primarily on one of the gods; each one is also drawn by different artist. I most appreciated Jamie McKelvie’s art (he did all the drawing in the first two volumes), and I liked the consistently good lettering from Clayton Cowles; but mostly it worked to have a different artist on each chapter since each one focused on a different character. 

If you read my earlier post on volume 2 you know I found the deaths there to be heartbreaking. This volume adds depth and subtlety to the story but didn’t hit that same emotional level for me. Nonetheless you can be sure I will pick up volume for as soon as that trade is ready.