3 Stars
Pros: The literary figure of Lucifer is shown as deceitful, manipulative and conniving, as expected and yet he does have his moments of charity/compassion, or so they seem/All the stories were delicately interwoven and it will be interesting to see how the rest plays out
Cons: The font in some of the stories was very difficult to read/Mazikeen's speech was absolutely torturous to get through, though understandable as to why later on/The artwork was meh in parts
Full Review:
After having resigned from his reign in Hell in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series, Lucifer Morningstar, the treacherous betrayer of God and his army of Angels is now the owner of a posh night club in Los Angeles called Lux. With his compatriot Mazikeen, a beautiful woman with half of her face covered in a mask, Lucifer is approached by one of the Seraphim, an Angel named Amenadiel with an offer.
There is some sort of energy source that's been created and it's granting peoples wishes. Amenadiel, by the order of God, wants Lucifer, an impartial third party, to investigate. And so he does. He uses Rachel, a part Navajo teenage girl who inadvertently wishes her brother dead, to travel to first world and see how the energy source was created. Once he figures out the mystery, he leaves Rachel stranded, or so we think. The black stone's reappearance in the last part of Children's and Monsters, in the hands of Elaine Belloc, is telling.
With his job done, Lucifer returns to Lux and speaks to Amenadiel, demanding that his price for his work be a letter of passage written by God himself. Amenadiel gives him the letter and Lucifer travels to Hamburg to consult the Basanos, which is a set of Tarot cards that was created by a fellow Angel, Meleos. While in Hamburg, Meleos attempts to destroy the cards, since they seem to have a will of their own, but they overpower him and instead, possess the mind and body of an amateur magician's assistant, Jill Presto.
Regardless of their new owner, Lucifer confronts the members of the Basanos and gets his "six card spread" which shows what he must do in order to bring about his "master plot." Which, when it all comes down to it, with the Devil, is revolution. Each story that follows is connected and play into one another, ending with a surprising twist with the Archangel Michael and his apparent offspring, Elaine Belloc.
Book one leaves off at a very interesting point. Lucifer has apparently gotten what he wanted, though Amenadiel has challenged him to a duel in a years time and there are a few odds and ends that have to be tied up and swept away as well. For the most part, it was an interesting, intricate narrative that leaves the reader curious as to what the next book will contain. It was better having read it once before, I can appreciate the story line better and with more understanding going into a second time.
I would recommend this Graphic Novel to anyone who is a fan of The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman, who is, like me, always fascinated with the literary character of Lucifer and how one author portrays him versus another.
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