Lucifer And Her Adoring Fans: The Wicked + The Divine #44 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Lucifer is trying to live up to her name. All the gods are willing to give up their powers, but Lucifer wants to hold onto hers. Laura isn’t willing to let her do this, but she won’t kill her either. So Laura does the only thing she knows how to do, so she sings. However, even if Laura gets through to Lucifer, there is still the matter of Minerva. Can Laura bring herself to kill a kid? Or will someone else in the crew decide that Minerva needs to die? Also, what about the whole world who has been watching this two-year divine drama?
Wicked + Divine #44 is the penultimate issue of this long-lived and much-beloved Image Comics series. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie are close to bringing the series to its end, and all the answers are gradually being put on the table.
This issue focuses on the personal drama between Laura and Lucifer/Eleanor. Eleanor is willing to betray everyone else to stay Lucifer because she believes this is the only way that she can be the person everybody loves and idolizes. Needless to say, there is a bit of irony in that, but Wicked + Divine has always been a metaphor about scrounging for fame and meaning in this postmodern world, and what is more postmodern than being the Devil herself for the adoring fans?
Laura’s gambit to save Eleanor is quite sweet, but I can’t tell you whether it works. The Minerva question is answered in quite a compelling and shocking way as well.
As always, Jamie McKelvie’s work is brilliant. He is a fantastic artist, and his ability to render, detail, and texture this world and its characters never ceases to amaze me. On top of that, Matthew Wilson’s color art is vibrant, well-balanced, and explodes off the page.
The Wicked + The Divine #44 brings the series one giant step closer to its ending, and it does so with a raw and dramatic issue that finds Laura making one last play to make sure that the survivors of this insane turn of events get to stay alive. This one gets a recommendation for sure. Give it a read.
The Wicked + The Divine #44 comes to us from writer Kieron Gillen, artist and cover artist Jamie McKelvie, color artist Matthew Wilson, flatter Dee Cunniffe, and letterer Clayton Cowles.
Final Score: 9/10
