Rome is burning . . . again. It was a something of a common occurrence for the Eternal City in the fifth century.
Written by Kieron GillenCover by Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson
Illustrated by André Araújo
Colored by Matthew Wilson
Flatted by Dee Cunniffe
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
Cover: Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson
“CITY OF GOD” Nothing lives forever, be it man, god, or empire, but that doesn’t mean you have to go quietly. Join us as Lucifer refuses to fiddle while the Roman Empire burns. The critically acclaimed THE WICKED + THE DIVINE inevitably vandalizes history as it turns to the Sack of Rome. Showcasing the epic art of ANDRÉ LIMA ARAÚJO (Avengers AI, Man Plus), the special is NOT included in the forthcoming fifth volume of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE.
“The Wicked + The Divine” is many things; writer Kieron Gillen has even called it a superhero book before. Which makes a certain amount of aesthetic sense. However, with a week that saw the end of ‘The Button’ and another round of comics talking to, about, and via comics, it seems fitting for the same kind of intertextuality occur in the latest “The Wicked + The Divine” one shot “455 AD.” As with the previous one shot “1831,” Gillen, along with guest artist André Araújo, have the past speak to the present about the instability of the ‘Imperial Phases’ and the nature of their divinity, in the form of a story of this Occurrence’s Lucifer. Or is it the Divine Julius Cesar? All that is going on while the comic also gets to riff on elements of Roman society and its contradictory messages, and historiography.
“455 AD” is an incredibly anxious, verging on schizophrenic, book, but that unease doesn’t manifest itself in the form of action. The issue consciously cuts past or hides such spectacle. Luciferius Cesar’s destruction of the Vandal army is hidden off panel by a hill. The massacre of the Senate is similarly hidden. The book cuts to the chase: that is, the end results not the spectacular methods. Where the anxiety is made the most manifest is in the faces of everyone in this book. Everyone knows something is off, the appearance of the divine tend to do that. During Lucifer’s scene in the Senate, everyone’s eyes cartoonish shrink at their divine leaders temporally disconnected statements. Araújo style is more cartooned, thinner, than main series artist Jamie McKelvie, which allows him to go through degrees of emotion at a faster rate panel to panel. This manic switching never lets the reader get comfortable with what’s happening or going, it all just seems to be barreling towards an inevitable (bad) ending.
Before I got to the credits page, I wasn’t sure if Matt Willson had done the color job. He has, but this pallet isn’t like the main series with its contemporary striking vibrant colors. The pallet of “455 AD” is made up of soothing pastel’s which create an excellent contrast with the anxiety stricken faces.
For its part, the page design isn’t consciously spectacular or twisty like the main series. As with the pallet, its repetition and normalcy help to undercut the anxious messaging of the art it frames. “455 AD” features flashbacks to a younger Lucifer and his divine partner Dionysus/Bacchus (the Greek and Roman god of wine). These brief sequences are situated in the middle third of the page, giving the overall page something of a call and response dynamic. Araújo uses this pattern against the reader to finally signify things have gone off the deep end, when Bacchus psychotically appears in the lower third of the page representing a clean break from sanity.
“The Wicked + The Divine” is a series that isn’t one for normal healthy relationships, for all its posturing on some level this series is a teenage relationship melodrama. Which makes the brief sequences of Lucifer and Bacchus surprisingly touching, and kind of warm. It’s their recognition of their relationship within the context of ancient Roman culture, and how it exposes the contradiction within Roman identity, that develops a sense of connection between the two. The basis of Roman identity can be summed up as “I’m Roman and you’re Not.” Which gives the Roman permission to dominate, but cannot allow for similar domination, which made queer relationships a taboo past a certain point (assuming you’re not the Emperor). Lucifer’s brief recollections act as a calming agent, that placed in the context of the present just help to show how unhinged everything is.
Continued belowThe heart of the anxiety is found in Lucifer’s attempt at a so called Imperial Phase. Unlike the rest of his divine counterparts in that Occurrence, he’s yet to kill himself. Like Baphomet in the present, Lucifer doesn’t feel like giving up on life just yet. If past is prologue, it portends and ill future for the current crop of divine. Much like how “1831” further pointed towards a duplicitous Ananke, “455 AD” shows us what could happen if the Divine don’t have supervision and instead are the ones doing the supervising. All of which is nicely encapsulated in an examination of Rome’s first dictator perpetuo Sulla.
After such a delightful incarnation of Lucifer in the main series, the prospect of another incarnation of the fallen angel didn’t exactly light the world on fire. How Gillen uses this incarnation of the fallen angel to explore the nature of divinity in the series overall and how it was handled in Rome is extremely smart. Lucifer’s declaration that they are really the Divine Julius Cesar echoes current members of the Pantheon and their insistence that they are another deity. It’s also the choice of deity that would only make sense in a setting like ancient Rome and helps to develop the anxious quality running through the book.
Maybe if he becomes another god, they will get more time. Julius Cesar actually was made a god in Roman Paganism, the apotheosis of great figures served several functions. In the case of the Julio-Claudian and dynasties that followed, the apotheosis of their predecessor helped to further legitimize their claim to imperator status and serve as a mechanism to recognize good governance. Later in the issue, Lucifer wonders if he’s Nero (really he’s more of a Caligula) which speaks to another, opposite, mechanism of recognition the damnatio memoriae or condemnation of memory. Where the State would do its best to erase you from history. These shifts in identity bring up questions of just how big the Pantheon of the series is and how they come about. Both Cesar and Nero lived on long after their deaths.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – As a Roman history nerd, “455 AD” gave me everything I could want. It played off our understanding of the main series while articulating it with era specific methods. This is a fun bit of historical fiction-fantasy.
