Lucifer: Volume 11 (2007)

Evensong (2007)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston / John J. Muth / Zander Cannon / Aaron Alexovich | Page Count: 216

"If mercy's your aim, be relentless in your mercy. Be absolute. Be yourself, until you bleed."

The final volume. It's time for Lucifer to put his affairs in order before taking what he feels is the best course of action. Carey wraps up the series with some single issue stories that pick up the pieces and suggest potential futures of many of the main characters and a few of the more memorable secondary ones.

In many ways the women of the series made the toughest choices and underwent the greatest change. Their growth is explored beautifully. In a perfect world that story would never end. It's a bitter-sweet experience; particularly for my favourite character.

On first reading it surprised me to find that I'd miss the Lucifer cast just as much (and in some cases even more) than I had missed the Sandman cast, but having gone through both series more than once now, I think I favour Lucifer, even if it's not as ground-breaking as its predecessor, objectively speaking.

Lucifer: Volume 10 (2006)

Morningstar (2006)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Colleen Doran / Michael Kaluta | Page Count: 192

"Fight. Win, or be defeated. Die. Make your own arrangements. I'm not your keeper."

Volume 10 of 11 in the Lucifer series. After an emotional opening, picking up a thread that may have seemed done and dusted in one of the earlier books, the apocalyptic conclusion to the shit-storm that has built around the Lightbringer for the past few books gets underway. What follows is conflict on a grand scale - chaos unleashed in a place unprepared for it... again.

While some fight for victory, some for honour, and some simply for the joy of fighting, Lucifer knows that to craft the New he must first destroy the Old, and not just in the physical sense. The victor may win the battle but it's not just Above and Below any longer; the whole of Creation itself is at stake. So what if the collateral damage is a few billion souls? In such a crusade, his rules are the only rules that matter.

Lucifer: Volume 09 (2006)

Crux (2006)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Marc Hempel / Ronald Wimberly | Page Count: 168

"I walked on into chaos, and the earth beat like a heart beneath my feet."

Volume 09 of 11 in the Lucifer series. The dictionary definition of a 'crux' is 'a vital or decisive stage, point, etc. / a baffling problem or difficulty'. The Lucifer book embodies both of those things, for sure.

The first story kicks off with the politics of Hell once again in disarray. The current Duke of Gly plays a pivotal role in what direction it'll take. I didn't think Marc Hempel's art on the work was a good match for Mike Carey's words. The illustrator's cartoon styling lessens the severity of the situation. I liked his version of Gaudium, though, but I'd probably like Gaudium even if he was drawn by a five-year-old wearing a blindfold.

After that single issue the regular team of Gross and Kelly take over for the titular tale. Carey's ability to drop little things into the plot, things that through causality will escalate into giant things if left unchecked, makes the book more than exciting. While it's true that characters should be left to grow at their own pace, sometimes they need a little push.

Lucifer: Volume 08 (2005)

The Wolf Beneath the Tree (2005)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / P. Craig Russell / Ted Naifeh | Page Count: 160

"To read aloud from the book makes the book an element in the story it tells."

Volume 08 of 11 in the Lucifer series opens with the 50th issue, pencilled by P. Craig Russell. He did The Sandman 50th issue, so it's pleasing that he got to do Lucifer, too. The art is of his usual high standard, full of open splendour or intimate moments when needed.

It's titled Lilith. If you've followed the series from the beginning, you may be able to guess how that ties in with events thus far and what it means for one or more of the supporting characters. But what we weren't told previously is how large a part it played in other events.

A gathering puts the Lightbringer face to face with the embodiment of the thing that he despises most.

Readers who've been paying attention to what they've been reading up to now will notice that it's the very thing that the former ruler of Hell has spent the previous seven books trying to escape.

Lucifer: Volume 07 (2005)

 Exodus (2005)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly | Page Count: 168

"I served our Father faithfully, and my reward was to be chastised for not being you."

Volume 07 of 11 in the Lucifer series. The Morningstar is forced to take preventative measures to ensure the safety of his property. After the effort expelled to create and then to keep it, to leave it open to God's whim now would be folly. The duty forces him into a position with the Heavenly Host that he'd rather avoid, but sometimes circumstance force the hand of even angels.

Elsewhere, the secondary characters are given more to do, in a more thought-out and interesting storyline than last time. And while that leaves Lucifer absent a lot of the time, it really didn't matter because the parallel storylines kept my attention diverted.

There's a lot of humour in Exodus. It was unexpected but not unwelcome after the drawn-out nature of the previous book. The fugly little fallen Cherub Gaudium gets a chance to shine. He and his sister could sustain an off-shoot of their own, about the domestic problems of two incompetent siblings. I’d buy it.

Lucifer: Volume 06 (2004)

Mansions of the Silence (2004)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston / David Hahn | Page Count: 144

"You are the King of contrivance and manipulation, my Samael. But in that, as in all things, you learned from your Father."

Volume 06 of 11 in the Lucifer series. Seeing as how it's clearly visible on the cover, I can say without crossing into spoiler territory that the Morningstar has got himself a medium sized ship, but why or where he intends to sail it will be revealed if you read the book.

Sadly, the story is formulaic. After an intro that can leave a reader wondering what happened between the previous book's ending and the beginning of this one, something that Carey has been careful to address up until now, the premise gets underway.

In the tradition of Jason and the Argonauts, all manner of mythical creatures that exist merely to interfere and harm are encountered during the long and arduous voyage. Such a setting is a workable literary device to show how characters react when in permanent proximity to others; e,g. the crew bicker and fight amongst themselves and against the nasties, but that's basically all there is to it.

Lucifer: Volume 05 (2004)

Inferno (2004)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston / Craig Hamilton | Page Count: 166

"It was an irony very much to his taste, that he could no longer live without her."

Volume 05 of 11 in the Lucifer series. The four-part storyline that opens proceedings closes a deal that was made in Volume 02: Children and Monsters (2001); Lucifer and Amanadiel meet at the arranged place and time in an attempt to resolve their differences.

Some secondary characters find the event fortuitous, believing it the perfect opportunity to gain favour with one side or the other. It gives writer Mike Carey a chance to further develop threads from previous books and once more stress that Lucifer can rely just as well on his wits as on his powers; for power is useless without the knowledge of when to best use it.

Lucifer: Volume 04 (2003)

The Divine Comedy (2003)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston | Page Count: 190

"Grace and perfection and eternity were her heritage. […] And a soul so bright it could be seen from Hell."

Volume 04 of 11 in the Lucifer series. The many consequences of things unseen would be a simple way to describe the book. To elaborate on that will be hard to do without giving anything away because almost everyone of any significance in the previous books is gathered in Carey's playground (nestled still within a fractured part of Gaiman's wider Sandman universe).

It's a five pointed star with all the points pointing inwards. No one is safe when everyone wants the same thing and most of them are prepared to do anything to obtain it. It's as powerful as a series finale, and yet it's not even close to the end. Nevertheless, not everyone is lucky enough to make it out unscathed.

Lucifer: Volume 03 (2002)

A Dalliance With the Damned (2002)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston | Page Count: 160

"I think you should stop talking to the snake. These things he tells you are making you unhappy."

Volume 03 of 11 in the Eisner award winning Lucifer series. Things unfold at a more leisurely pace this time as writer Mike Carey shifts the focus away from the charismatic anti-hero. Instead, he explores the virtues and vices of some of the other inhabitants of the realm.

In the first half of the book are three shorter episodes that have a self-contained beginning / middle / end structure but are themselves interconnected and still manage to tie in with the series arc.

Story number one offers readers a chance to sympathise with Mazikeen as she embarks on a personal mission that'll have consequences for more than just herself.

Lucifer: Volume 02 (2001)

Children and Monsters (2001)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston | Page Count: 208

"You know how it is. You put things away for a rainy day [...] then you look up one day and it's raining Angels."

Volume 02 of 11 in the Lucifer series contains two distinct but interconnected parts.

Lucifer owns a Los Angeles piano bar named Lux; the irony of the location and naming amuses him because he's not without a Machiavellian sense of humour. 

In the four part The House of Windowless Rooms he leaves his precious bar behind for a time to pursue the next part in his great work, which requires him to speak with Izanami-no-Mikoto, the Japanese Goddess of creation and death. He'll be powerless in her realm, so must rely on his wits and his cunning to be his weapon and his armour. Shit hits the Japanese fan.

Lucifer: Volume 01 (2001)

Devil in the Gateway (2001)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Scott Hampton / Chris Weston / James Hodgkins / Warren Pleece / Dean Ormston  | Page Count: 160

"Every time I try to improvise I find my moves were right there in the script all along."

Volume 01 of 11 in the Lucifer series. It'll help your introduction into the titular character's world if you've read The Sandman: Volume IV: Season of Mists (1992) previously; it's not an essential requirement, but it's recommended because Carey's version of the Miltonian anti-hero follows on from events therein.

The Dream King tried to find a balance but the Morningstar wants to upset the balance because he knows the balance is a lie. He wants to tear it away and leave a naked truth, one that's free to explore its own workings. But like the saying goes: as one door closes…