Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, image, image comics, jamie mckelvie, kieron gillen, Saddam Hussein, The Wicked + the Divine

The Wicked + The Divine + Saddam Hussein

There's a lot to be said about The Wicked + The Divine #1. And thankfully writer Kieron Gillen has said most of it right here. Some things I'm glad I got, lots I didn't and have necessitated a re-read. Something I remember him also saying once, was about how people interpreted his work and as long as he it wasn't directly opposed to, you know, the facts, he would say "I can't deny the evidence is there…"

Very gracious. And, of course, if he wishes, pretend it was intentional and reincorporate that into future issues. Grant Morrison used the Barbelith forums that way for Invisibles, and Alan Moore certainly saw that YouTube video for Neonomicon before writing its upcoming sequel.

But there was something about Luci that resonated with me regarding Saddam Hussein and the Iraq War. And, given Gillen's dissection of that issue, wasn't intended.

But it took me back to the anti-Iraq War march I went on all those years ago. I joined half way, I wanted to make my point but not actually have to walk all that way to do it.

I was convinced, you see, that monster that Saddam Hussein was, he wasn't entirely stupid. From all the evidence I could see, Hussein had WMDs at some point and either got rid of them or sold them on. But he couldn't actually say that, for fear of destabilising his regime against neighbouring or even internal forces. So he was having to play some kind of peekaboo game with the weapons inspectors, giving the impression that while they couldn't find any, he might have some hidden somewhere they couldn't see. He told the truth but wanted people to think he was lying.

And they did, invaded his country and saw him captured and hanged. Not quite the outcome he was going for.

I really should have taken my theory to the bookies, I was close enough. Or, you know, published it somewhere. But that's what I saw in Luci. Exhibiting her godlike "head explodo" powers on the click of a finger, the same used to count the twenties gods out of existence. And then preening around in the court room, all the attention on her and playing up to it, loving the obsession, and more importantly the fear.

That's until it all goes wrong of course. And while everything else that had happened to her was within perfectly acceptable parameters, including being shot at with machine guns from mysterious assailants in a neighbouring building, this is something beyond her ken – and that doesn't seem to happen a lot. Being dragged away from the court, flashed me right back to Saddam being pulled from his hideaway.

Of course Saddam got rid of his WMDs. Luci still is one. This is all my thought patterns though, you'll see something else, as is probably intended.

Issue 2 soon. Final Order Cut Off is today if you want to jump on this series and tell your retailer.

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