WicDiv: your new favorite gods au!

[nekrateholic]

The full title: The Wicked + The Divine, called WicDiv, because I'm lazy (and so is half the fandom).



the details no one cares about (+ a cat):
WicDiv is a comic series published by Image Comics, created by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. They are essentially a twitter-married couple but that's a ship for another day. The promised cat belongs to Mr McKelvie - meet her majesty Bruce, the single reason I still follow him on twitter. (although these are semi-legaly obtained examples, as he tends to deactivate from time to time)

Now that Bruce the creators are out of the way: The world of WicDiv.
I don't think I could explain it better than the comic itself: Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead.



This is called the Reccurrence, each set of gods - the Pantheon. In simpler words, every 90 years a selection of gods from every religion you could think of are incarnated, become pop stars and die. In the pantheon that the storyline follows, we have (in a loose order of my own preference): Lucifer, Inanna, Amaterasu, Minerva, The Morrigan, Tara, Urdr (+Skuld and Verdandi), Baphomet, Persephone, Sakhmet, Baal, Dionysus, Woden, Mimir.

⚠️ Those are links to the fandom wiki. Obviously, all of them are spoilers but especially these ones: Urdr, Persephone, Minerva. Especially Urdr. I love Urdr, please let yourself experience it spoiler-free if you ever plan to read WicDiv.


Excluding wikis, the spoilers are up to around chapter 12 (Urdr and Persephone included) but I will try to keep them at minimum in case anyone 1. reads this 2. is intrigued enough to read WicDiv. Here is why I love it instead:

1. gods as pop stars????? die in two years?????????
Yes, I had the very same reaction. If you like your stories deep and complex, I present to you: turning into a cult-worshipped god overnight, against your will, fated to die within two years (for reference: Minerva is 12). The way the gods are worshipped works a lot like how the more toxic, huge fandoms work but worse.



They start out as humans until a lovely lady named Ananke shows up and they are incarnated; they have no choice in whether they actually want to be gods.




2. the characters
I have to start with this because it's one of my favorite things about this comic: there is more queer people in this than all the non queer-targeted pieces of media I've consumed in my life, combined. As lovely Amaterasu puts it:



They're just there, and exist, and it's amazing. The story is not about that but I'd still like to go through my favorite gods and their gay adventures.

In case the five million Lucifer posts have not made it clear, she has my heart in her asshole little hands.



Lucifer is mostly an unhinged asshole but the kind that you kind of--- love? You Don't Really Know Her, Mom. I can't explain it. She's the edgy tumblr kid and hot, scary lesbian all rolled up into one. Except she's kind of neither. Who knows? She hurts me a lot for spoilery reasons but both of my top 2 do, and all of the others, so I think this may be more of a WicDiv thing than a Lucifer thing.

If I had my way, the story would've been about Lucifer - but alas. It's kind of about Lucifer, but mostly about my dear Laura Wilson. Laura is... kind of like a turbo-fangirl meets aggressively loyal friend? Mostly annoying, honestly, but she grows on you. The reason I'm bringing her up, however, is that both my favorite people love her, or in Lucifer's case... tolerate, I guess? You know how edgy people are.

And here I unveil my true purpose, which is to make you ship Lucifer and Laura for my own personal gain. For spoiler purposes I will not reveal the things they did for each other but I will include two choice examples:

Exhibit one:



Exhibit two:



Their relationship is kind of... I'm Too Edgy For Feelings (Lucifer) meets I Would Literally Die For You (Laura). The funny thing about it is that I don't even think Lucifer was Laura's favorite god before they met. In fact, they met at an Amaterasu show who Laura seems to love most, even though it's kind of left int he dust once she meets all of them. That's the thing about Laura - she's worryingly obsessed with the pantheon, and occasionally gives you weird-fan-secondhand-embarrasment but ultimately, she does not let that cloud her (only a little questionable) judgement, so it's nice.

Anyway, Lucifer picks Laura up out of all the passed out kids in the aftermath of Amaterasu's show and to this day I have no idea why (although I suspect main character syndrom). Laura proceeds to glue herself to Lucifer, including through some Not Very Nice things Lucifer went through (see: exhibit one). Mind you, their entire relationship was born and developed within the span of a handful of days. In general, everything moves really fast with the exception of time skips. In a way, Laura's relationship with Lucifer ended up emo-fying her severely, to the point where she turned in the exact brand of of emo Lucifer is, but with a more subtle unhinged-ness. It was lovely.



And now onto my most favorite boy: Inanna ♥



Within the context of this story, Inanna is everything nice and happy in a pretty, twinkly, smiley package. He always asks before he hugs, for fuck's sake! (or tries to)

Let's imagine Lucifer is the black house in that one meme - then Inanna is definitely the pink one. (because of course they're friends). Inanna also holds possibly the most tragic love story here in my opinion - partly because we never get to see it. Just look at them!





Yeah, that was a trip for me too.
someone please give them the happy, poly relationship Inanna deserves

And still, he's the sweetest soul in here and I love him with my entire heart. (And he likes Laura a lot, not only because of Lucifer, which in itself is very admirable).

Despite what the numerous Lucifer examples above may have led you to believe, I love all of the characters (except one, but spoilers)? They are all so flawed, some of them more than others, and yet you find yourself loving them anyway. Or at least not-entirely-hating because god it's hard sometimes. I feel like this is a good example of how they operate, with another cameo by lovely Amaterasu:




3. plotline
This I can definitely not elaborate but god, this comic threw me for so many loops it's not even funny. I'm sure it will not be like that for everyone but everything is just so nicely crafted I end up in awe, even if the next twist is something I could've predicted. Case in point: here I am, making a pimp post for a comic that took away all my favorite people at one point or another.

In conclusion: WicDiv is amazing. Even if you don't create for the fandom, its universe is so fucking cool to write/draw/create in. For me, it gives that extra kick to my imagination because the premise itself is somethig we've all heard before - the gods and goddesses we know (or don't) written in a new context, with new layers or reimagined old ones. I just, I wish I could write all the fic about it. please