Lucifer

8/2/18
Lucifer 21-28
I've been thinking about why my posts for Lucifer have amounted to little more than extended recaps.  Why haven't I been able to come up with anything more interesting to say?

I have no answer, but let's see if I can work my way towards one.

My first thought is to compare it to Sandman.  At 75 issues, they're both of equal length.  Both star beings of immense power, with an understanding of the universe that we couldn't possible comprehend.  Each of their story arcs are entertaining and well told, interspersed with done-in-ones that build out the universe in unexpected directions.

So why does Sandman rank among my favorite comics ever, while Lucifer leaves me with no emotional reaction above "I liked it"?

I don't care about what happens to any of the characters in Lucifer.  I read about them dispassionately, with no investment how the outcomes will affect them.  Is it because Mike Carey didn't spend enough time humanizing them?  Elaine Belloc and Jill Presto feel more like plot devices than people.  All of their actions feel like they're going through the motions of furthering the story, not the natural behavior of people I can relate to.

Neil Gaiman gives his creations motivations that make them relatable and understandable - Hob Gadling wants to live forever, and his reactions when given that opportunity are completely believable.  We can understand the desires of the sultan who wants the memory of his city to live forever and Shakespeare's wish to write plays the likes of which will never be written again.

What do we get from Carey?  A lounge singer who's driven by the commands of power hunger tarot cards.  A demon who leads her people to war because they tell her to.  A teenage archangel who gets chased around from place to place and does whatever people tell her to.

Perhaps, like The Matrix says, it's a matter of choice.  One of the main themes of Lucifer is the Morningstar's Sisyphusian fight against the fact that everything he does is preordained by God.  Perhaps Carey is purposefully extending this to all of the other characters as well.  They're all slaves to their stories, and don't have a say in how they unfold.

It's very meta, but taking away that chance to decide makes them far less interesting.  There's a feeling of inevitability to this epic that robs it of any tension, even though I don't know how it's going to end.  Sandman is about choices, while Lucifer is about the exact opposite.  Destruction chooses to leave his siblings.  Desire makes the conscious decision to lead her brother to his doom.  Dream ultimately opts to walk down the path to his own end.

The beings in Lucifer never had any say in the matter.