Our gods don't wear spandex

Abstract

The Comparison between the comic books’ superheroes and gods often appears in the scientific discourse. This phenomenon is linked to the human need for creating new idols. In their comic book titled The Wicked and the Divine, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie are going one step further and decide to create a whole new pantheon, designed to fit our century. Creators did not design new gods, they used various pantheons and reincarnated them in new, different bodies. In this article, I will be considering the role of divinity and its place in the modern world. In order to achieve this, I will use comparative analysis between the main series of The Wicked and the Divine and two special one-shots — first set in the twenties of the twentieth century, second in the beginning of the nineteenth century — to highlight the differences in the role of gods and divinity in different period of time. The article will also concentrate on the form of the bodies that the gods gain due to the reincarnation, and the impact of this phenomenon on the place that they take in society.