Lucifer Morningstar is a DC Comics character appearing primarily as a supporting character
in the comic book series The Sandman and as the title character of a spin-off, both published
under the Vertigo imprint.
Though various depictions of Lucifer – the Biblical fallen angel and Devil of the Abrahamic
religions – have been presented by DC Comics in their run, this interpretation by Neil
Gaiman 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 written by Mike Carey, depicting
his adventures on Earth, Heaven, and in the various other realms of his family's creations
and in uncreated voids after abandoning Hell in the Sandman series.
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 have taken his place as ruler of
Hell, and the Reign in Hell series depicted further developments.
In 2010 IGN named Lucifer as the 68th greatest comic book villain of all time.
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 premised on English poet and prose writer John Milton's Paradise Lost.
In the Sandman series, Lucifer had ruled as Lord of Hell for 10,000,000,000 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 and prejudices 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 and Remiel, while Lucifer
simply retired to Earth, initially to Perth, Western Australia and later to Los Angeles,
California.
By the end of the series, however, it is revealed that Hell was not a punishment, but a gift:
being the furthest possible place from God, Lucifer could theoretically be free from predestination
and God's omniscience.
However, this turned out to be a lie, as God continued to study both Lucifer and Michael
Demiurgos during all of eternity.
Lucifer never created the physical features of Hell - Hell created itself around him.
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.
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:
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.
In the series, Lucifer runs a piano bar 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, in accordance with the stereotypical
gentleman-devil.
The theme of the Lucifer series revolves around the free-will problem.
Carey's Lucifer is a figure representing will and individual willpower, who challenges the
"tyranny of predestination".
While in Heaven's eyes this is blasphemy, Lucifer points out that the rebellion and
damnation as consequence were pre-planned by his Creator, God.
Lucifer rejects God's rule and moral philosophy as tyrannical and unjust.
The violent, aggressive, totalitarian, 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.
The attacks include verbal criticism, marshaling 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 the latter's emotional outbursts
with contempt, and repeatedly defeats Amenadiel's assaults with well-orchestrated, hidden plans.
Ironically, however, it is often difficult to discern when Lucifer acts as a slave to
predestination and when he effectively acts according to his own free will.
Elaborate codes of conduct and schemes of entrapment based on these codes are vital
elements of the DC\Vertigo magical universe.
Lucifer appears as a master of these arts.
In an encounter during the first Sandman story arc 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.
For Lucifer, his word is bond.
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.
Despite his theological title as the "Lord of Lies", refusal to lie is central to the
moral position of the character - he sees himself as a neutral or amoral facilitator
of forces within individuals, and Lucifer actively and effectively combats what he regards
as corrupting moral codes.
While he avoids lying, his morality seldom extends to compassion, with Lucifer regarding
the sacrifice of millions of souls as unimportant collateral damage, with there being few, if
any, beings he respects and even fewer for whom he cares.
As the series opened in 2000, Lucifer's "restful" retirement was disturbed by a series of associates
from his past.
After various catalytic events, he endeavored to create a universe in competition with 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 The 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, an homage to The Sandman #50.
Structurally, the series mostly follows its own path.
Numerous gods appear, with greater focus on Judeo-Christian religion, Japanese, and Nordic
mythology than in Sandman.
As for the Endless themselves, Dream, Death, Delirium, and Destiny appear, but their appearances
are small and rare.
Destiny, perhaps, plays the biggest role in so far as he represents predestination, which
Lucifer of course finds "offensive as a concept," stating that Lucifer knows Destiny is "really
just a SIDE effect of [Lucifer's] FATHER, or rather, his deterministic APPROACH to the
act of creation."
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 published as a smaller graphic novel.
The series' parent title, The Sandman, also ran for 75 issues.
When Lucifer ventures outside Creation, he sees something resembling the comics pages
themselves.
In the end of the Lucifer story arc, God and the Devil are no longer part of the universe,
and a former human 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 one's own truth and values without
being directed by parents, elders, teachers, authority figures, etc.
The New 52 The New 52 reinterpretation of Lucifer is
much more influenced by traditional Judeo-Christian theology.
He is depicted as a malevolent, sadistic, and cunning fallen angel who is the ruler
of Hell and seeks to possess human souls.
He is held with great respect and fear by the denizens of Hell, who serve and obey him
like a king.
Lucifer himself however is mostly bored with his existence when the group known as the
Demon Knights are captured by him during the early Middle Ages, and passes the time by
finding small amusements, such as watching the struggles and falls of Etrigan the Demon.
Lucifer made a more physical appearance in I...Vampire #19 after being tipped by John
Constantine in destroying Cain.
Lucifer immediately sentences Cain and drags him to Hell.
Though a being claiming to be him has appeared in the modern age of DC to the hero Deadman,
the current whereabouts and status of Lucifer remain unknown.
Powers and abilities Lucifer possesses nigh-omnipotent supernatural
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 to provide the foundation for him to shape.
Only his brother Michael Demiurgos is his equal in power and only God is his superior.
However, in certain dimensions, he is powerless and his mobility is limited without his angelic
wings.
He may choose to temporarily abandon his powers.
In the story titled "Lilith", it is implied that his father could destroy him at His own
whim - which makes Lucifer sometimes wonder why His father hasn't dealt with him already.
He is never without the formidable resources of his brilliant, nigh-omniscient intellect
and his unbending will or inner strength, however.
Although Lucifer's overt exercise of power is limited in the books, if he is provoked
to violence, his preference seems to be to use fire as a weapon.
His original role was as "God's lamplighter", in which he used his will to condense clouds
of hydrogen into star-masses and set them alight.
As terrifying as they are brief, battles with Lucifer usually begin 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 partially explained in the story
"Lilith".
Lucifer possesses the common Archangelic powers; vast godly-strength that rivals that of Asmodel,
nigh omnipresent, invulnerability, flight, acidic blood, a devastating sonic cry, telepathy,
and the power to speak to and understand animals.
As an Archangel, his powers are superior to other angels.
In the New 52 reboot, Lucifer is shown to possess power over the human soul itself.
However, he has no power over animal souls.
He can open and close magical portals to Earth from Hell and back again.
He can use this power to either summon or banish demons, as he does with Etrigan.
He is clairvoyant, possessing a heightened perception or knowledge of time, even to the
extent of being able to know the future.
Other versions The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe lists
Lucifer as first having appeared in a dream in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #65.
He appears when Jimmy Olsen attempts to memorize a devil's food cake recipe with his alleged
photographic memory and dreams that he is in France 300 years in the past.
Putting on the clothing of a bandit who has ditched them, Jimmy is arrested and sent to
rot in Devil's Island Penal Colony.
A bald man known as Lord L offers five years of freedom for people to escape in exchange
for their souls.
Convinced that the magic the man uses is technological in nature, assuming him to be an ancestor
of Lex Luthor, he asks to be returned to from where he came, believing Lord L will be long
dead by then and unable to claim him.
Lord L shows up at his front door, still bald but now with a goatee, and insists that he
is Lucifer and has given him over 300 years extra, but will dine with him before taking
him, but disappears when Jimmy serves him cake.
Superman wakes Jimmy soon after and reveals that the card he memorized was really for
angel food cake, and this is why Lucifer disappeared.
In Weird Mystery Tales #4, a story by Jack Oleck and Rubeny depicts Lucifer, looking
much like his present incarnation, save for a few panels in which he appeared as a more
traditional devil, held prisoner by an order of monks.
It also presents a prisoner switch trick not unlike the one performed in The Sandman: Season
of Mists, in addition to being hosted by Destiny, another character later used by Gaiman.
In the story, Lucifer gave Philip Burton his form in order to trade places with him and
fulfill his wish for immortality.
Lucifer walked away in the body of the elderly Burton.
A character called Lucifer, The Fallen Angel appears in Blue Devil #31.
He has angelic wings and a halo, and his face includes dark facial hair.
He does not have horns.
Madame Xanadu recognizes that even with a magic book, he is not the real Lucifer.
He is simply a washed-up actor who decides to be a costumed criminal for a living.
He is dragged into Hell on a train at the end of the issue.
The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe lists Lucifer's first genuine pre-Crisis appearance
as DC Special Series #8.
This character has hair and wings like Lucifer as he appears in Sandman #4, but he is red-skinned
and has a face like a traditional devil, complete with goatee, though his horns may be part
of a headband.
His appearance in the comic is brief, but he is specifically referred to as "Lucifer,"
rather than by other epithets.
He has an advisory board consisting of Guy Fawkes, Benedict Arnold, Adolf Hitler, Jack
the Ripper, Nero, and Bluebeard.
He has an operative, Edward Dirkes, set bombs, while using a bronze Batman statue transported
by the Easy Company like a voodoo doll.
Writer Garth Ennis introduced a character intended to be the Devil as an antagonist
in his run on the Hellblazer comic: however, as the character appeared at the same time
as Gaiman's reuse of the Lucifer character, Ennis had to introduce a new back story for
his character to distinguish the two: the Hellblazer character was named the First of
the Fallen, and was ruler of Hell prior to and after Lucifer's reign.
How this fits in with the reigns of the angels and Christopher Rudd has not been clarified,
although the First of the Fallen mentions Duma and Remiel ruling Hell during Ennis'
run.
In the Hellblazer film adaption, Constantine, however Lucifer, portrayed by Peter Stormare
showed up as an antagonist.
Satan has appeared as a distinct figure in numerous DC comics.
In one of DC-Vertigo's "Fables" spinoffs, "Jack of Fables", the title character made
various pacts with several devils.
One of them is heavily inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost.
Collected editions Paperback
Lucifer, including the Sandman Presents miniseries and the Nirvana one-shot, has been collected
together into eleven trade paperbacks: Note: The full title of all volumes listed
here start with "Lucifer: ".
Reprint editions In other media
DC and Fox are developing a TV series based on the Sandman character Lucifer.
References
External links Lucifer mini-site at DC Comics.com
Rauch, Stephen.
Review: Lucifer, PopMatters, September 1, 2006