History ComicBook / Lucifer

Another version of the character, this one portrayed by Creator/GwendolineChristie, will appear in Creator/{{Netflix}}'s live-action adaptation of ''The Sandman''.

->''"Perhaps this is the ultimate freedom, eh, [[ComicBook/TheSandman Dream Lord]]? The freedom to leave..."''

The only spin-off from ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' to not only manage long-term success but also become a critically acclaimed comic in its own right, ''Lucifer'' followed the life and times of the eponymous fallen angel after he gave up being the Lord of Hell to run a piano bar in Los Angeles. After accepting a commission from God to deal with something that threatens humanity, he finds himself the owner of his very own universe. There follows an epic adventure in which Lucifer fights to escape the control of his father, God, while dozens of other parties unveil their own macabre plans.

* EvilVsOblivion: Whether Lucifer can be called evil is deeply debatable but no-one, himself included, is likely to call him heroic. He is still one of the main forces standing against Fenris' attempt to destroy Creation.

* EvilVsObilvion: Whether Lucifer can be called evil is deeply debatable but no-one, himself included, is likely to call him heroic. He is still one of the main forces standing against Fenris' attempt to destroy Creation.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Several, not surprisingly given the power levels of some of the characters.

* MisterSeahorse: The archangel Michael is used as the (giant-sized) incubator for the "army of archangels" in the second book. It doesn't work out according to plan, however - it's stated that [[spoiler:all the children born were mentally and/or physically impaired, and only Elaine Belloc was a successful attempt]].

* OmnicidalManiac: Fenris. He does personify destruction - but he's rather more proactive than one would hope.
* TheOmniscient: Yahweh. Obviously. Everything that happens and ever will happen from the dawn of time through the first half of the series, including all of Lucifer's efforts to escape The Plan, were part of The Plan. Lucifer's rebellion and the War in Heaven, his rulership of Hell, abdication of Hell, and creating a new universe - all God's Divine Plan. This becomes a plot point in the second half of the series when God deliberately withdraws His will from the universe and turns a blind eye, allowing the possibility of an outcome He ''won't'' always have known. It was the only way He could allow something He could not predict to occur. Even then, He still guessed much of it correctly in almost every detail.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Mahu is a powerful demon. He kicks a door open so hard that he kills the human who was standing behind it. When he thinks Lucifer is threatening him with a fall of several miles, he scoffs "Do you think a fall will kill me?" (Lucifer knows better; what he's ''actually'' threatening Mahu with is being thrown into orbit - not that orbit would kill Mahu either, but atmospheric re-entry would when his orbit finally degraded enough.) He would probably be a serious threat to DC's standard superheroes. But in a cast that includes Mazikeen and Lucifer, he just looks pathetic.

* StalkerWithATestTube: [[spoiler:Izanami to Lucifer at the end of the series is a version of this - and it works, but we don't see that until the sequel. She also decides to reinvent herself after.]]

* SunnydaleSyndrome: Played with in terms of how far the more incidental humans (etc.) around the main cast seem to have any idea what's going on. After a while they just seem to sort of roll with it.

* TwistedEucharist: The great wolf Fenris escaped his imprisonment and hatched a long-term plan to conserve his energies for the end of the world. He staged a reconciliation dinner for his enemies, the Aesir, and tricked them into eating pieces of his own flesh and drinking his blood, thereby storing his memories and powers in godly vessels. In present times, he allies himself with a group of other entropy gods to hunt down all of those who partook in his flesh and devour them. He even force-feeds a weakened Lucifer a bit of his own blood to drive him into a murderous frenzy, killing his own brother Michael, feeding Yggdrasil his fallen blood and essentially securing the destruction of the universe

* UnwittingPawn: Poor Charlie, Erishad, Jill, and poor Mr. Easterman. [[spoiler:Arguably repeatedly, too. Elaine and Michael may also count. And Lucifer himself, relative to God - though anyone would be relative to ''God''. As the Almighty Himself points out, everything Lucifer knows he learned from his Father.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Quite a few, including one from Remiel that reminds you he's actually quite powerful, emotionally unbalanced {{Scrappy}} that he is.

* WeakButSkilled: A demon mocks Christopher Rudd for thinking he can win in a swordfight because the demon is still much faster and stronger. Rudd shows him why.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: One of the assassins sent to dispatch Lucifer in "Inferno".

* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Jill suffers rape at the hands of the Basanos.]] Rachel Begai [[spoiler:and Mazikeen]] also suffer a NearRapeExperience.

* ShoutOut: John Constantine is amongst the gathered parties come to the Lux to discuss [[spoiler:the portal created by]] Lucifer. Gains extra points since Constantine was one of the DC Verse characters used in the early issues of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' to connect it to DC's wider world and Creator/MikeCarey wrote a lot of Hellblazer.

* SuperPowerLottery: To spare some space, just take the popular belief of {{God}}, and make it a bit less powerful, and in a fairly literal sense you have both Lucifer and Michael; however, given the series is not about {{Physical God}}s going at each other throats Franchise/{{Superman}} vs. ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} style, the reader [[HoldingBackThePhlebotinum rarely sees more than]] Lucifer boasting, exercising his infinite will and a certain degree of omnipotence and omniscience during the series' run. There are ''some'' glimpses of Lucifer's might; they're memorable. However, he prefers to rely on careful preparation and manipulation, not least because obliterating foes with infinitely-kindled primordial fire lacks a certain style. Mind you, that "certain degree" of omniscience and omnipotence includes ''creating a new multiverse''. Also, he ''breaks'' an afterlife just by visiting it.

* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: In ''Mansions of the Silence'', Lucifer annihilates billions of souls as a side effect of saving the life of one single person. (That one person was someone he owed a favor, his billions of victims were not.) Of all the people who witness this tragedy, only Bergelmir says anything about this action being immoral, and even he is quite polite about it. Even so, everyone else simply ignores him as they would a person who's being generally rude, impolite and socially inappropriate. That said, earlier in the series it is mentioned that it's impossible to destroy a soul; one can only unravel it so that it will take a millennia to reform. Considering that the Mansions of the Silence are in some ways worse than Hell, Lucifer's actions don't come off quite as bad.
** Also, who in their right mind would start lecturing at Lucifer, under the circumstances?

* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:God, who comes back as an OmnicidalManiac.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: Gabriel's since crossed it after being exiled from heaven thanks to Constantine. [[spoiler: It saves him from being mind-controlled by God.]]

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: [[spoiler: How God forced Gabriel to kill him.]] Gabriel doesn't take it well.

* EarthIsYoung: The first albums manage to avert this trope, in spite of being based on creationism. And also in spite of the ''Lucifer'' comic being a spin-off from ''Sandman''. ''This'' version of the setting make it unambiguous that biblical events took place billions of years ago. Later albums kinda throw the concept of linear/objective time out of the window, returning us to the postmodernism of ''Sandman''.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Lucifer's hair changes from blond to red as his character darkens. Although that might be a result of messed-up colouring and many different artists in the comics, seeing as his hair has run the gamut from white-blond to straw-blond to strawberry-red to true red to to orange to reddish-black. The hair curls that resemble horns don't remain consistent throughout the comic's run, either.
** The change seems to be actual and physical, since after he [[spoiler: gets his wings back from Izanami]] his hair goes strawberry-blond when he manifests them, but he goes back to the bleach-blond-with-dark-eyebrows look once he hides them again.

* FanServicePack: [[spoiler:Elaine, after becoming a god in Lucifer's realm (and maybe "growing up" in centuries as a spirit),]] and [[spoiler:Mazikeen after the other half of her face is restored]]. And [[spoiler:Izanami]], in her later appearance.
** Lys is an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]. She's introduced as a pure MsFanservice, [[EvilIsSexy hot and frequently naked]]. But after [[spoiler:Rudd poisons her with the ability to feel guilt]], she looks gaunt and dresses much more demurely.

* FullFrontalAssault: Lucifer has a tendency to this. It's [[ArmorIsUseless usually]] but [[FanService not always]] given ''some'' kind of plot reason. (But see also BarbieDollAnatomy, above.)
* GambitPileup: Happens a lot. It's not really surprising, given the density of {{Manipulative Bastard}}s.

* {{God}}

* HellHasNewManagement: Christopher Rudd manages to go from damned soul to sextoy for the nobility of Hell into one of the nobility himself and eventually ruler of Hell. This is, of course, after Lucifer resigns rulership of hell and it gets turned over to two angels in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''. As Gaudium remarks later, rulership of Hell seems to be "something that any schmendrick can add to his resume these days."
* HellInvadesHeaven
* HeteronormativeCrusader: One side character starts out as a ArmoredClosetGay Neo-Nazi who beat an Indian man almost to death for flirting with him, at the urging of some "friends". [[spoiler:The man gets disabled for life, but they end up as lovers anyway - once the first guy realized that ThoseWackyNazis wasn't such a good crowd to hang out with after all.]]

* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Lucifer, for all intents and purposes, his powers and abilities are beyond SuperPowerLottery, but the series is not mainly about physical combat and certainly that's not Lucifer's preferred way to get what he wants. Also, it is made clear that in certain realms Lucifer has to abide to their law; so you won't get to see Lucifer going {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} and annihilating other [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] with his might. It's not so much that Lucifer has to obey the laws so much as breaking them could damage or even destroy the realm he is trying to fulfill his goals in which would, of course, defeat the purpose of going to said realms.

* InspectorJavert: Solomon, [[spoiler:but he doesn't limit himself to just one target]].

* KickTheDog: Numerous occurrences. Often by Lucifer himself.
** KickTheSonOfABitch: On the other hand, it's rather hard to feel badly for some of Lucifer's victims, such as a crass truck driver (that Lucifer curses with impotence), Kagutsuchi (who is implied to have raped Musubi in the past and unjustly attacks Lucifer when the latter goes to get his wings back), and Amenadiel.

Lucifer himself is an arrogant sociopath with a dry wit, who -- with a very few exceptions -- cares only for himself and his mission and will kill or ''severely'' inconvenience anyone who is stupid enough to get in his way. Despite popular conceptions of the devil, [[ManOfWealthAndTaste or perhaps playing them quite straight]], he is a handsome, suave man who makes a point of never lying ([[ExactWords not that it means much]]) and always pays back what he owes. He has never tempted anyone into committing sins and indeed seems to find it slightly depressing when they live down to his expectations.

Lucifer first appeared in ''The Sandman'' #4 (April, 1989). He also had guest appearances in ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic, and titles featuring ComicBook/TheSpectre and ComicBook/{{Etrigan}}. He received his own mini-series ''The Sandman Presents: Lucifer'' (March-May, 1999) and then graduated to an ongoing series, which lasted for 75 issues (June, 2000-August, 2006). Both the mini and the ongoing were written by Creator/MikeCarey. A variety of illustrators worked on the titles, but the most important are Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly.

* ActionGirl[=/=]DarkActionGirl: Mazikeen.

* AllMythsAreTrue

* AnotherDimension: The characters run into several along the way.

%% * BadassBookworm: Meleos.

%%* BewareTheSillyOnes: The Titan Brothers.

%%* {{Bishonen}}: Most of the angels, including Lucifer.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Everyone pretty much gets a happy ending, except Lucifer, who can never have the one thing he truly wants, so he disappears into oblivion. Elaine Belloc doesn't end any happier, she has to cut ties with everyone including her best friend and fellow goddess, and gives everyone something they want (but not necessarily what they want the most), giving the entire cast a BittersweetEnding.]]

* BrainsAndBondage: Lady Lys.
* BreakTheHaughty: Jill Presto, Lady Lys, Archon Michael - if you're at all a haughty character in this story, you're going to have the opportunity to learn humility at some point. Even Lucifer takes a few knocks.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Lucifer (and eventually also [[spoiler:Michael]]) to Yahveh is a main theme. There's a lot of it around generally though: Jill and [[spoiler:Mazikeen and Briadach]] to their mothers, Elaine to her [[spoiler:adoptive]] parents, the Basanos to Meleos, Jayesh to his shopkeeper dad... Gathering enough willpower and personal experience to acknowledge the flaws in one's parents/progenitors is a very prominent theme in the series.
** Interestingly, Yahweh seems to be actively ''trying'' to get this reaction out of His sons.

* CharacterDevelopment: A lot, but perhaps most notably Mazikeen, Elaine and Rudd.
** Part of Lucifer's infamous pride is his refusal to develop in any way. He still ends up a somewhat different character at the end than he was at the beginning.

* ContinuityNod: Appearances by [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] and various characters from ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.
** Likewise the appearance of The Source.
* CouncilOfAngels

* CrossoverCosmology: Appearances by Norse gods, Japanese gods, various mythological creatures and so on.
* CurbstompBattle: A common mortal pimp threatens one of the children of Lilith herself, whose father was a powerful demon. It ends badly for him. Very quickly.
* CursedWithAwesome: Jill gets possessed by the Basanos, and while they give her powers and such if she obeys them, they give her ''a lot'' of crap if she doesn't.

-->'''Erishad:''' Every morning my body forgets all wounds, all hurts. And makes itself again exactly as it was when the gods first cursed me. I have had the same miscarriage every day for four thousand years.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: With the alignment flipped. Mazikeen, in the Silver City, surrounded by the assembled hosts of heaven. Passion is blasphemy, and she has a powerful need to blaspheme. So she [[TakeThatKiss kisses Beatrice, passionately, while giving the angels the finger]]. Also Lilith, who raked her fingernails across [[spoiler:Yahweh's]] face!

* BarbieDollAnatomy: All of the angels. They seem to also have a variable nudity taboo, not that it really matters anyway, since they're all (in effect) wearing flesh-colored superhero leotards. The implied reason for their lack of genitalia is the fact that, per the archangel Gabriel, the Angelic Host does not create, which presumably includes procreation. Half-angel Cal is also mentioned as being without genitalia. Perdissa has breasts, but like her male fellows, she has no nipples. Angel anatomy is essentially decorative.
** In the finale, Spera asks Mazikeen how she had sex with Lucifer despite his lack of genitals. Mazikeen [[TheUnReveal leans in and whispers the answer.]] Spera is shocked speechless.
** Lilith also managed to have sex with Ibriel and Sandalphon (and to conceive, because God made her supernaturally fertile).
** Near the end, [[spoiler:Izanami has sex with Lucifer]], despite the apparent lack of equipment.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: The Titan Brothers.

* {{Bishonen}}: Most of the angels, including Lucifer.
* BiTheWay: [[spoiler:Mazikeen and Beatrice.]] Also Lys: "A man, I think. I'm still in the mood for a man."

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Manu is a powerful demon. He kicks a door open so hard that he kills the human who was standing behind it. When he thinks Lucifer is threatening him with a fall of several miles, he scoffs "Do you think a fall will kill me?" (Lucifer knows better; what he's ''actually'' threatening Manu with is being thrown into orbit - not that orbit would kill Manu either, but atmospheric re-entry would when his orbit finally degraded enough.) He would probably be a serious threat to DC's standard superheroes. But in a cast that includes Mazikeen and Lucifer, he just looks pathetic.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Elaine Belloc, granddaughter [[spoiler:and heir]] to the king of the very universe: Yahweh Himself!

* AdaptationalVillainy: Lucifer to a degree compared to his previous incarnations. While in the previous Lucifer runs Lucifer was very amoral and put his own interests above everyone and everything else, he was more or less indifferent to others unless they were of benefit to his ends or crossed him to earn his ire. In this series, Lucifer is a much darker, sinister figure and seems to take some sadistic enjoyment in the suffering of others and those that earn his anger. While previously Lucifer was, for the most part, dispassionate and stoic in his demeanor, Here he casts an almost miasmal aura of dread and more closely portrays the common fictional image of the devil.

** You mean before she recovers and kicks the crap out of them.

* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: In ''Mansions of the Silence'', Lucifer annihilates billions of souls as a side effect of saving the life of one single person. (That one person was someone he owed a favor, his billions of victims were not.) Of all the people who witness this tragedy, only Bergelmir says anything about this action being immoral, and even he is quite polite about it. Even so, everyone else simply ignores him as they would a person who's being generally rude, impolite and socially inappropriate.
** Elsewhere in the series it is mentioned that it's impossible to destroy a soul; one can only unravel it so that it will take a millennia to reform. Considering that the Mansions of the Silence are in some ways worse than Hell, Lucifer's actions don't come off quite as bad.

* MythologyGag: An [=LAPD=] detective named [[Series/Lucifer2016 John Decker (and his wife, Penelope]] become entangled in Lucifer's fate.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Quite a few characters, notably Fenris and his {{Trickster}} companions Abonsam and Bet Jogie, are cruel, destructive and dishonest simply because it's what they ''are.'' Who expects embodiments of cruelty, destruction and dishonesty to be otherwise?