Lucifer (DC Comics)

Lucifer

The titular character from the cover of Lucifer #16, artist Christopher Moeller
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Dream: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #65 (December 1962)
Historical: DC Special Series #8 (February 1978)
Modern: The Sandman #4 (April 1989)
Created by Mike Carey (writer)
In-story information
Alter ego Samael
Species Fallen angel (former host of heaven)
Place of origin Heaven, Lucifer's Creation and Hell
Team affiliations The Triumvirate of Hell, the host of heaven, Loki, various characters who are willing to strike a deal with him
Partnerships Mazikeen
Supporting character of <the Lilim, Elaine Belloc, Gaudium, Duma, Spera>
Notable aliases Lucifer Morningstar, Lightbringer, Satan, Prince of the East, the Morningstar, Sunlighter of god, The Adversary
Abilities virtual omnipotence
master manipulator
infinite will, Machiavellian intelligence and an eternity of practice in the art of thinking outside the box

Lucifer is a DC Comics character that starred in an eponymous comic book published under the Vertigo imprint, whose entire run was written by Mike Carey. Though various depictions of Lucifer — the Biblical fallen angel and devil of the Abrahamic religions — have been presented by DC Comics in their run, his modern interpretation by Neil Gaiman first debuted in The Sandman in 1989. Like many modern interpretations of Satan, DC's Lucifer owes much to the character's portrayal in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, though Gaiman adapts the character to fit the fictional DC Universe where their comics are set, where the character exists alongside superheroes and deities from multiple religions.

Later, the character acquired an ongoing Lucifer spin-off series, depicting his adventures on Earth, Heaven, and in the various other realms of creation after abandoning Hell in the Sandman series.[1] Lucifer also appears as a supporting character in issues of The Demon, The Spectre, and other DC Universe comics. Two angels, several demons, a human, and briefly, Superman,[2] have taken his place as ruler of Hell, and the Reign in Hell series further straightened things out.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Sandman continuity

In the earlier related series The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman, Lucifer abandoned his lordship over Hell. While Lucifer had previously appeared in various stereotypical guises in earlier DC books, Gaiman's version was unique and premised on English poet and prose writer John Milton's Paradise Lost (at Gaiman's request of the artist Lucifer looks like David Bowie). In the Sandman series, Lucifer had ruled as lord of Hell for ten billion years, after rebelling three seconds after Creation. Over that time, he had manipulated the various demons of Hell against each other, provided a place for dead mortals to be tormented, and led the war against Heaven.

However, at some point during his rule, he had become bored with his existence. He became tired of the various stereotypes that mortals held of the devil, such as the idea that he purchased and traded for souls, which were largely untrue, and that he forced mortals to commit evil acts. He had become tired of his reign over Hell, and felt it an unfair punishment that he should have to rule there forever simply because he once rebelled. In the Sandman story Season of Mists, Lucifer expels all demons and damned souls from Hell before locking Hell's gates and handing over the key to Hell to Dream of the Endless, the title character of The Sandman series. Eventually, control of Hell was handed over to two Angels, Duma (the angel of silence) and Remiel ("set over those who rise"), while Lucifer simply retired to Earth, initially to Perth, Western Australia[3] and later to Los Angeles, California.[4]

Solo series

Lucifer was the main character in an eponymous series that ran for 75 issues and the Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot, from June 2000 to August 2006, the entire run of which was written by Mike Carey. (This series was preceded by 1999's Carey-penned The Sandman Presents: Lucifer miniseries.) Carey described the book as being "autobiographical", in so much as Lucifer is so much the opposite of the author and all humanity that he "defines [us] in negative": to Carey, the essence of the character was that "we play safe. Most of us do, most of the time . . . but Lucifer doesn't know the meaning of safe, and he never bothers to look down at the tramlines. He goes wherever the hell he likes, picks his fights where he finds them and generally wins . . . following [his] own will and [his] own instincts to the very end of the line, no matter what the obstacles are".[5]

In the series, Lucifer runs a piano bar (an element introduced in the Sandman story The Kindly Ones) called "Lux" in Los Angeles, with the assistance of his female consort, Mazikeen who is a Lilim, one of the race descended from Lilith. Lucifer is portrayed as a sophisticated and charming man, according to the stereotypical gentleman-devil.[1]

The theme of the Lucifer series revolves around the free will problem. Carey's Lucifer is a Nietzschean figure representing will and individual willpower, who challenges the 'tyranny of predestination'. While in heaven's eyes this is blasphemy, Lucifer points out that rebellion (and indeed all sin) and damnation as consequence were pre-planned by his Creator. Lucifer rejects God's rule as tyrannical and unjust. Violent, aggressive, vengeful, and dictatorial aspects of heaven's rule are represented mostly by the archangel Amenadiel, who has a particular hatred of Lucifer and leads attacks of various kinds against him, such as verbal criticism, marshalling the host of heaven as well as challenging him to individual combat - almost all of it without the slightest care for the countless innocent, unwilling and unwitting victims he is more than willing to sacrifice for his own pride. For his part, Lucifer disdains Amenadiel, treating his emotional outbursts with contempt and repeatedly defeats his assaults with Machiavellian scheming.

Elaborate codes of conduct and schemes of entrapment based on these codes are vital elements of the DC\Vertigo magical universe. Lucifer appears as the master of these Machiavellian arts. In an encounter during the first Sandman story arc (around issue 5#) a weakened Dream outsmarts Lucifer. Lucifer first swears revenge on Dream, but later comes to accept Dream's critique of his role and project as Lord of Hell. This inspires Lucifer's abdication, a vital element of the Sandman saga, and the point of departure for the Lucifer series.[1]

For Lucifer and Dream, their word is bond. This shared characteristic is key to both character's mastery of manipulation and maneuvering in the realms of magic. As David Easterman, a character who sees himself as a victim of Lucifer, puts it: "when the devil wants you to do something, he doesn't lie at all. He tells you the exact, literal truth. And he lets you find your own way to hell" [6] Refusal to lie is also central to the moral position of both characters- they see themselves as neutral or amoral facilitators of forces within individuals (will and dreams respectively) with Lucifer actively and effectively combating what he regards as corrupting moral codes. While both characters avoiding lying, their callous morality seldom extends to compassion. Both sagas are moral dramas, but while Sandman involves a tale of atonement, Lucifer is concerned with war and peace in the heavens, with Lucifer regarding the sacrifice of millions of souls as unimportant collateral damage, with there being few, if any beings he respects and even less he cares for. It should be reminded, however, that it is very difficult to discern when Lucifer acts as a slave to predestination and when he effectively acts according to his own free will.

As the series opened in 2000, Lucifer's "restful" retirement was disturbed by a series of associates from his past, and after various catalytic events, he endeavored to create a universe in competition with (and presumably against the wishes of) his father, Yahweh. This puts him on a collision course with several powerful mystical entities that have a vested interest in the new creation and draws the angelic host into the fray - including his brother, the archangel Michael Demiurgos, and his niece, Elaine Belloc.

The series paralleled The Sandman in several ways, with epic fantasy stories being told in arcs separated by one-shot episodes depicting a smaller, more personal tale. Unlike Sandman, the series has had a consistent art team in Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly, with most of the odd issues illustrated by Dean Ormston. The title's 50th issue was penciled by P. Craig Russell, homaging Sandman #50. Structurally, aside from the meeting in Hell that Lucifer arranges with angel Amenadiel in much the same way Dream did with himself in the pages of Sandman, the series follows its own path. Numerous Gods appear, with greater focus on Judeo-Christian religion (as viewed by John Milton in Paradise Lost), Japanese and Nordic mythology than in Sandman. As for the Endless themselves, all but Desire and Despair appear, but their appearances are small and very rare.

However subtle, the influence of the Endless throughout the series is undeniable, as their roles are paralleled by other almost similar notions : Destiny of the Endless acts like predestination - Lucifer finds Destiny "offensive as a concept" and tells him "[He knows he is] really just a SIDE effect of [his] FATHER. Or rather, his deterministic APPROACH to the act of creation." His contempt for Destiny (though "It's really nothing PERSONAL.") is mostly due to the fact that Lucifer has spent the major part of eternity trying to break free from predestination; Lucifer is a psychopomp, like Death; the way Lucifer manipulates reality resembles Dream's ability to bring dream objects into the waking world; both destruction and creation are tied together by Michael's death and the way Lucifer uses its power to create a new world, which reminds us of Destruction's dual nature; One of the various reasons why Destruction left his realm and responsibilities was that "light and matter are interchangeable", which is confirmed in the series by the fact that angels are made of pure light; Fenris takes on the role of absolute dissolution and destruction; just like Destruction, Lucifer abandoned his realm and responsibilities partly because of a revelation as well (due to Dream's comment in Hell); Many characters just follow their immediate desires, without regards for others - similarly, "Desire is a creature of the moment" and "Desire is cruel", as it uses to play horrible games with mortals; Hell and the House Of Windowless Rooms are places of almost ultimate despair (the House Of Windowless Rooms somehow parallels Despair's realm); Several characters are in a state of delirium.

Cover artists included Duncan Fegredo, Christopher Moeller and Mike Kaluta. The letters are inconsistent, with the first half of the series carrying particularly established fonts of Gaudium, Michael and God only to drop almost all of them save Lucifer's towards the end with numerous changes in the letterers.

The series ended in June 2006 with issue #75 and has thus far been collected in eleven books, with a standalone story (Lucifer: Nirvana) published as a smaller graphic novel. The series' parent title, The Sandman, also ran for 75 issues.

In its concluding issue, the Lucifer story mirror the theme of other contemporary DC comic series. When Lucifer ventures outside creation, he sees something resembling the comics pages themselves, a meta-effect which was a year earlier also used in the finale of the Promethea series by Alan Moore, published on Wildstorm, a subsidiary of DC. In the end of the Lucifer story arc, God and the devil are no longer part of the universe and a former human (Elaine Belloc) is instead presiding over it. New concepts for heaven and hell are created, inspired and influenced by other human or superhuman characters in the story. The new situation is described on several occasions by the fallen cherubs Gaudium and Spera. In essence it is "growing up" i.e.: the need to find your own truth and values without being told by your parents.

This resolution is similar to the one in the DC series Preacher, where the struggle between good and evil ends with both God and the devil out of the picture and man in control of his own destiny.

Powers and abilities

Lucifer possesses incalculable power; he can shape the matter of creation into anything he can imagine including matter, energy, and more abstract concepts such as time. However, he does have certain limitations. Simply put, he cannot create something out of nothing. He needs existing matter (and where that is unavailable, the Demiurgic power of the archangel Michael) to provide the foundation for him to shape. Only his brother Michael Demiurgos is his equal in power. However, in certain dimensions he is powerless and his mobility is limited without his angelic wings. He may choose to temporarily abandon his powers (including immortality) and it is strongly suggested that even he could not survive if his heart were to be eaten by another character. In the story "Lilith", it is implied that his father could destroy him at his whim - which makes "[Lucifer] sometimes WONDER [...] why he hasn't dealt with [him] ALREADY." He is never without the formidable resources of his brilliant intellect and his unbending will however. Although Lucifer's overt exercises of power are limited in the books, if he is provoked to violence his preference always seems to be to use fire as a weapon. His original role was "God's lamplighter," using his unmatched will to condense clouds of hydrogen into star-masses, and setting them alight. As terrifying as they are brief, battles with Lucifer usually begin (and end) with him drawing down the flames of some superheated star and incinerating to ash anything in the immediate area. However, the true reasons why he favors light and fire are partly explained in the story "Lilith" (from "Lucifer : The Wolf Beneath The Tree").

Other versions

Collected editions

Lucifer, including the Sandman Presents miniseries and the Nirvana one-shot, has been collected together into eleven trade paperbacks:

# Title Publisher Year ISBN Reprints
1 Devil in the Gateway Vertigo 2001 ISBN 1840232994
2 Children and Monsters Vertigo 2001 ISBN 1840233915
3 A Dalliance with the Damned Vertigo 2002 ISBN 1840234709
4 The Divine Comedy Vertigo 2003 ISBN 1840236930
5 Inferno Vertigo 2004 ISBN 1401202101
6 Mansions of the Silence Vertigo 2004 ISBN 1401202497
7 Exodus Vertigo 2005 ISBN 1401204910
8 The Wolf Beneath the Tree Vertigo 2005 ISBN 140120502X
9 Crux Vertigo 2006 ISBN 1401210058
10 Morningstar Vertigo 2006 ISBN 1401210066
11 Evensong Vertigo 2007 ISBN 140121200X

Note: The full title of all volumes listed here start with "Lucifer: ".

References

  1. ^ a b c Irvine, Alex (2008), "Lucifer", in Dougall, Alastair, The Vertigo Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 118–124, ISBN 0-7566-4122-5, OCLC 213309015 
  2. ^ Superman #666
  3. ^ Sandman #28, July 1991: "Season of Mists" part 7
  4. ^ Sandman #57, February 1994, p21: "The Kindly Ones" part 1
  5. ^ Carey, Mike (July 2000), On The Ledge, DC Comics / Vertigo 
  6. ^ Lucifer Vol 1. Issue 11
  7. ^ a b The Unofficial Lucifer Morningstar Chronology
  8. ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=15956

External links