Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: dc comics, lucifer, sandman presents

Lucifer Cancelled, Final Story Released as a DC Graphic Novel

Published Fri, 29 May 2020 20:10:00 -0500

Last updated Mon, 01 Jun 2020 10:22:24 -0500

DC Comics has decided that the issue of the Sandman Presents: Lucifer comic published in March before the shutdown, will be the series final ongoing issue. Instead, the unpublished #19 to #24 by Dan Watters and Sebastian Fiumara will now be published as an original graphic novel, which will sit alongside the other Lucifer volumes on the bookshelf. Here's what DC has solicited previously for Lucifer, now being repurposed.

LUCIFER #19 (MR)
DC COMICS FEB200524
(W) Dan Watters (A) Sebastian Fiumara (CA) Tiffany Turrill
"The Wild Hunt" reaches its stunning conclusion as the Prince of Darkness travels to the necropolis known as Litharge (from The Sandman: Worlds End) to wage war against Odin's hunters.In Shops: Apr 15, 2020 SRP: $3.99

LUCIFER #20 (MR)
DC COMICS MAR200593
(W) Dan Watters (A) Sebastian Fiumara (CA) Tiffany Turrill
At last, the devil goes to hell. In Shops: May 20, 2020 SRP: $3.99

LUCIFER #21 (MR)
DC COMICS APR200627
(W) Dan Watters (A) Sebastian Fiumara (CA) Tiffany Turrill
Lucifer trespasses into the garden of Destiny of the Endless, but for what nefarious purpose? Nothing less than tearing a page from the Book of Destiny itself.In Shops: Jun 17, 2020 SRP: $3.99

The date of any such original graphic novel has yet to be released or decided upon. This is how the series was launched:

Stripped of his youth, his beauty and his mind, the book—the third ongoing Lucifer series, this time from Dan Watters, Max Fiumara, Sebastian Fiumara and Dave McCaig and set firmly in Neil Gaiman's world of The Sandman—begins with Lucifer waking up, trapped in a small town with little to no memory of how he got there. He's an old, grizzled man with long flowing ginger hair and a beard. He's both blind and powerless, with a body giving way to age.

It's a far cry from the Lucifer that TV fans are used to seeing on the Fox-turned-Netflix series loosely based on the original comic, with Tom Ellis bringing the devil to life with roguish charm, reveling in his luxurious life running a club in Los Angeles after abandoning his post in Hell. Gone are the fancy suits, the beautiful palm-tree-studded settings and rock-and-roll vibe. In its place is a town full of sepia-toned despair, the saturation drained from all the color as if one spark could turn the entire place to ash. And there isn't a bar in sight!

What Watters and artists Max and Sebastian Fiumara have done with one of the most recognizable characters from pop culture is a true feat, as readers wouldn't actually know that this character is Lucifer at first glance—although he does speak about himself in the third person quite a lot, giving readers a clue to his real identity. But watching him get coddled by a woman telling him to eat his oatmeal before it gets cold, and then seeing him get tortured in a crowd full of recognizable real-world villains like Hitler and Jack the Ripper, is like a shock to the system.

The swagger of the devil is gone, giving way to a ranting, decaying shell of a man. He's just so…human now. There's a desperation and sadness to the formerly omnipotent and terrifying being. How could this have happened?!

According to Watters' previous teases about the series, this all happened as a result of Lucifer trying to find the mother of his son. The how, when and why of it all will be explained as the series moves forward, but it's clear that things did not go the way Lucifer planned. He's about to suffer all the indignities of aging and humanity that he's never had to deal with before, and it's not going to be pretty. Watching him feel pain for the first time was only a small taste of how Lucifer's worldview is about to be rocked as he tries to escape the town from which no one can ever leave.

Bringing a fresh new perspective to a character so old and iconic that he's literally biblical is impressive enough on its own. But Lucifer #1 goes above and beyond showing the devil in a new light. It's created an entirely new reality and mystery surrounding one of the most open-book characters in history. Readers will be hooked by the first few pages alone to see what else Watters has been able to achieve with the notorious character.

And while there isn't much information to go off of so far about how Lucifer ended up in that town, what's even more of a mystery is how a detective from the LAPD ties into his story. Readers meet John Decker early in Lucifer #1, and his circumstances aren't much better than the devil's. His wife Penny is dying from an inoperable brain tumor, and he just wants to bring her home to pass in comfort.

But after a gruesome accident and an ominous dream, Decker is sent on a path that will lead him to eventually cross paths with Lucifer. Again, the how, when and why of it all has yet to be revealed, but something is clearly drawing him closer and closer to Lucifer's plight. What does the Gately House have to do with the devil? And what role does Lucifer's son, Caliban, have to play in his fate?

ERRATA – Bleeding Cool has removed a reference to 'the night of the long knives ' – it was meant as a reference to Harold MacMillan's cabinet reshuffle, where many cabinet ministers lost their jobs in one night, but a number of people have seen it as a direct reference to the overnight murder of many opponents of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime which coined the phrase. I apologise for causing offence with my poor choice of analogy.

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