wicdiv

This week it's time to ascend to godhood, as we look at the comic which ended up in 4th place: The Wicked + The Divine #1 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matthew Wilson and Clayton Cowles!

WicDiv #1 jump straight onto centrestage to offer a showy performance that looks at myth, iconography, devotion, and idolatry whilst quickly building up a fascinating lead character and a world which understands its high concept whilst offering some modern cynicism and paranoia into the mix. It’s a heady mix of concepts, and you could see things easily falling straight down a trapdoor if it weren’t for the heavy heart that beats behind the light and free dialogue. This week Matt is rejoined by special guest Steve Foxe to talk all about it!

Steve Foxe is writer of CHEAT(ER) CODE, the co-creator and editor of RAZORBLADES: the horror magazine, and the editor of The Department of Truth from Image Comics. He’s also the writer of “Night Train” from TKO and a great number of comics and other books for younger readers. He has contributed to PanelXPanel and used to run Paste Magazine’s comics section. Find him on Twitter here!

Matt Lune is a critic and podcaster who has written for publications including PanelXPanel, The MNT and Multiversity. You can find him on Twitter here!

We take our first trip to the world of the Wicked + the Divine to examine Baphomet! And it's so complex, we enlisted Jered from the Fantom Zone to help us! Does this role playing god find a name he's comfortable with? Listen now to find out!

SHOW NOTES:

• Intro
• • Thanks to guest Jered from Fantom Zone
  • Nominees for 100th episode award show + mailbag - nominations page
• Background (05:15)

• • Baphomet created by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, and Matthew Wilson in The Wicked + The Divine #2 (July 2014)
  • Makes his debut in the London Underground holding the Morrigan’s severed head, but was interrupted by the Morrigan herself - they fought until Laura intervened
  • Learns of the “Prometheus gambit”, where a god can extend their life by killing another god - initially targets Urdr but gets stopped by Morrigan, and focuses on Inanna instead
  • Later revealed that he didn’t kill Inanna, and they went to Laura - witnessed her transformation into Persephone, and after Ananke killed Inanna, Baphomet took Persephone to the Underground to hide
  • After sleeping with Persephone, he revealed that he’s actually Nergal, but changed his name because he was ashamed of the association with Warhammer 40K - before becoming a god, he was Cameron, a role-playing nerd in love with Marian - when Marian became the Morrigan, she convinced Ananke to turn him into a god, which he did not appreciate initially
  • After Persephone kills Ananke, he and Morrigan resume their relationship, which turns abusive towards him - Morrigan becomes very controlling and physically abusive
  • Later discovers that Morrigan wanted him to become a god so they could kill and resurrect each other forever
  • Permanently kills the Morrigan’s 3 alters to provide bodies for the disembodied heads of Lucifer, Inanna, and Tara
  • Sacrifices his brain to bring back Dionysus
• Issues (17:16)
  • Scared, insecure, and afraid of death
  • Postures as what he thinks masculinity should look like, as well as what he thinks Morrigan wants (24:20)
  • Domestic abuse from a male perspective (31:54)
  • Was an identity forced upon him, or did he refuse the identity gifted to him and make his own? (42:15)
• Break (55:48)
  • Plugs for Popcorn Psychology, Bedknobs & Broomflicks, and Jeremy Whitley
• Treatment (56:42) 
  • In-universe - Need a fan to infiltrate the Pantheon and feed information to him
  • Out of universe
• Skit 
• Ending (74:58)
  • Recommended reading: the entire Wicked + Divine series
  • Next episodes: Killer Croc, Black Adam, Stranger in a strange land
  • Plugs for social

References:

• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Anthony (06:27)
• Warhammer 40K - Anthony (10:05)
• My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Anthony (12:50)
• Spinal Tap/Goes to eleven - Doc (26:14)
• Hank Pym episode - Anthony (33:03)
• Personality Isn’t Permanent by Benjamin Hardy - Doc (49:05)
• Peppermint Patty - Anthony (64:54)
• "Didn’t I Blow Your Mind" - Anthony (75:40)

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Colorist Matt Wilson guests on this week's episode of Off Panel, as he joins David to talk the art of coloring comic. The pair talks the role of a colorist in a comic, how he works, what drives his choices, how he collaborates with his partners, what he does while he works, the increased visibility of colorists in today's industry, how his experience differs from project to project, the role of colorists as a tastemaker, the power of flatters, and much more.