Lucifer Morningstar: An alternate name for Satan, also known as the Devil, the Adversary, Heaven's Bane, the Fallen, the Morning Star, Sammael, the Many-Headed Dragon of Armageddon, the Snake, and all around not-nice guy.

This particular version of the devil is Neil Gaiman's creation (who, by the by, is an incredibly hoopy frood in my book... ) which appeared in his many record-breaking comic book (aka graphic novel)The Sandman.

Although at his first appearance in issue three wherein Lucifer was portrayed as somewhat his rote evil, dutifully and nearly mundane evil self by promising to eventually destroy Morpheus at the end, the character became much more intresting in the future. By the fourth storyline, Season of Mists, Lucifer returned to the series as Morpheus had call to return to hell. Prepared for battle because of the afforementioned threat, Lucifer greeted Morpheus, and telling him to relax, announced to the Dreamlord that he, Satan, ruler of hell, just quit.

This, rather surprised Morpheus.

It turned out that Lucifer, once the most powerful and beloved of angels, and apart from his creator the most powerful entity in all of existance, had tired after all of these ten billion years of his existance, of playing the bad guy. He was fed up with it. The tireless and eternally stalemated war with heaven, the torturing of damned souls who wanted to be punished (for you're only in hell if you want to be there, or believe you should be there), the rulership of a millionfold unruly and assorted extraplanar beings collectivly known as 'demons'. he tired of it all. Even his alleged infinite anger and pride had turned to apathy and boredom in time (albeit it a rather large amount of time).

So, Lucifer quit hell. And gave it to Morpheus, much to The Sandman's horror, and launching a rather intresting storyline.

After this, Lucifer is seen enjoying sunsets on the beach in Austrailia later in the series, and makes a small verbal consilation with his Creator.

Later, he's seen playing the piano as a lounge act in a restaurant called Lux's*. He's allegedly a very good pianist. He still retains all of his former (very former) divine powers, but seems not to use them maliciously, or even like a trickster, but only for his own ineffable and largly inconsequental purposes.

After The Sandman ended as a series and Neil Gaiman went on to Neverwhere Stardust, DC Comics under the adult-oriented Vertigo label created a series based soley upon Lucifer Morningstar called, appropriatly, Morningstar. I have not read this series as of yet, but is supposedly very good, and I shall reupdate upon my digesting of it. Filfre to add your own comments to expound upon what he does in his series.

*Lux, latin for light. One of a plethora of puns you will encounter if you read. You should fear anything Post-Modern, Virginia, including that word, for Post-Modernism really isn't. ;)

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