Lucifer was a monthly comic book, published by Vertigo, and written by Mike Carey. Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly have been the artists for the majority of the title's run. Lucifer is a spin-off from Neil Gaiman's Sandman - Gaiman himself, in the introduction to the first trade paperback collection of Lucifer, claims to have recommended Lucifer as a potential spin-off character to any writer who asked.
Note - the rest of this writeup contains spoilers, if you haven't read Sandman before...
Gaiman laid the foundations for Lucifer in several storylines of his Sandman series. Lucifer first appeared in Sandman #4, when Dream travels to hell to retrieve his helmet. He is successful, and leaves hell unharmed; but he causes Lucifer to lose face on the plains of hell. Lucifer swears that one day he will have his revenge.
Lucifer's next appearance is in the Season Of Mists story arc, when Dream returns to hell in order to free a soul he had condemned to hell many millenia ago. Being a monarch in his own right, Dream sends an envoy to hell to announce his visit; on hearing the news, Lucifer is stung into action. Dream arrives at the gates of hell only to find the place quiet. Eventually, he meets Lucifer, and joins him as he clears the last few tormented souls and demons out - hell is being closed down, and Lucifer is resigning from his position as king of hell. Once hell is empty, he asks Dream to cut off his wings - which Dream does - and then presents him with the key to hell. Lucifer then goes to Earth, where he is next seen living as a beach bum in Australia.
Lucifer appears again in The Kindly Ones; now, he has opened a piano bar in Los Angeles called Lux, which he runs with the assistance of Mazikeen of the Lillim - who is Lucifer's consort. This is Lucifer's situation where Gaiman leaves off and Mike Carey picks up the story.
Carey's first storyline came as a three-issue title - The Sandman Presents: Lucifer. The "Sandman Presents" title has been used for several other brief Sandman spin-offs, using characters such as Lucien and Merv Pumpkinhead from the Dreaming, and Thessaly, the witch from A Game Of You. Lucifer the comic book started during 2000, and finished with issue 75 in July 2006; and to date has been collected in ten trade paperback (with an eleventh, and final, collection probably available before the end of 2006):
Major characters to have featured in the series include:
- Lucifer Morningstar - Originally known as Samael. The Fallen One.
- Michael Demiurgos - The Archangel Michael, Lucifer's brother.
- Lillith - first wife of Adam, who was banished from Eden for refusing to submit to her husband. Spawned the Lillim - all her children, fathered by various demons (and an angel) that took Lillith's fancy after her expulsion from Eden.
- Mazikeen - Made her first appearance in Season Of Mists - a female demon (although she's actually of the Lillim), half of whose face is missing. She is one of Lucifer's lieutenants, and later becomes his lover, and manager of Lux. When Lux is destroyed by fire, Mazikeen's body is also destroyed, but is restored afterwards by Jill Presto, who also restores Mazikeen's face - for which Mazikeen harbours a serious grudge.
- Elaine Belloc - Daughter of Michael, half-human, half angel.
- Mona Doyle - Elaine's best friend, who likes hedgehogs.
- Gaudium - A fallen cherub.
- The Basanos - A living deck of Tarot cards, created by the angel Meleos.
- Jill Presto - a lounge singer, whose success came thanks to the Basanos.
- Susano-O-No-Mikoto - A Japanese god of thunder, who made his first appearance in Season Of Mists, as a representative of the Japanese pantheon, to persuade Morpheus to grant them the right's to Hell.
Lucifer is a pretty epic comic book, on a similar scale to Sandman. It's not as groundbreaking as Gaiman's series, but it is still a very good read. Carey's style isn't as literary as Gaiman's, nor does it try to be. Lucifer does contain similar elements - the use of deities from different mythological pantheons, as well as members of the Endless - to Sandman, and Carey has estimated that the entire run of Lucifer will be of similar length - around 75 issues. The artwork on Lucifer is of high quality, and remarkably consistent - despite the many guest artists who appear from time to time.
Sources:
- http://lucifermorningstar.com
A companion site to Matt Peckham's not-yet-published unofficial companion to the Lucifer series.
- http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/
The Vertigo website
Please feel free to /msg me with any comments, additions, or complaints. Thanks for reading!