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A review by aceinit
Lucifer, Vol. 5: Inferno by Mike Carey
4.0
Lucifer’s fifth collection begins and ends with a promise. The first is a promise fulfilled: Lucifer returns to Hell to fulfill an oath to Amendiel...and fight to the death. Still reeling from the events of “TheDivine Comedy,” and not at his full strength, Lucifer is additionally handicapped by the scheming not onlyof Amendiel and various factions of demonic nobility, but of Hells’ new ruler, the angel Remiel. It concludes with a promise of another sort. Lucifer is someone who does not like to be indebted. After Elaine committed the ultimate sacrifice for him in the previous volume, he seeks to fulfill his substantial debt to her by bringing her back from the land of the dead. He closing pages see him taking the first steps towards this goal.
One would expect that, following the events of “The Divine Comedy,” Lucifer would hit a lull. Usually, at the conclusion of a major arc, comics will revert to a series of one-shorts or trifle adventures, both to keep the reader in suspense about coming events, and to prepare for the Next Big Thing. With the exception of the Gaudium and Serpa centered issue at the end of “Comedy”—which drops a bombshell of its own in the final pages—the creative team continues its fast pace by bringing Lucifer once again to the realm of Hell, this time for the duel that has been a year in the making.
Carey continues his top-notch storytelling by taking what should be a straight-up fight to the death and twisting it into a multi-layered story of adventure, scheming, politics and mentally disturbed cherubs that will shake the foundations of Hell’s political structure and cause another angel to break faith with God’s plan. And, in a house of gears built by a demonic smith, it is a story about a serene pool that links directly to the thoughts of God.
Following the conclusion of the duel, Lucifer finally learns of Michael’s fate, and the focus of the series shifts away from its titular character for a couple of those interludes I mentioned earlier. The first focuses on a birth; the second, a death. Though Zimet—who is introduced in the first of these stories–will come into play later her tale is not particularly memorable. Haunting and creepy, yes, but as far as a single-issue story, it has never been one of my favorites.
It is the second story, which begins with the funeral of Elaine Belloc, that is the stand-out here. Told from the perspective of another great figure of the Christian religion—Solomon, living in the modern world as a detective of sorts. He seeks retribution for Elaine’s death, a mission he believes to be of divine origin. His journey to find it will put him in contact with Elaine’s human and not-so-human families.
In the final issues of this collection, we leave the Shinto gods behind and move on to the Norse, who will remain a driving factor as the story continues. One of the things I love most about Lucifer and its predecessor, The Sandman is how it delves into so many different mythologies and religions, incorporating them into one interwoven narrative.
Though this collection doesn’t pack the punch of “The Divine Comedy,” it is a solid follow-up that continues to drive the overall story forward, albeit at a not-quite-as-relentless pace. The sheer amount of elements this collection manages to bring together makes it a quick read that brings a lot of depth to a number of characters, and the art team is superb as always.
One would expect that, following the events of “The Divine Comedy,” Lucifer would hit a lull. Usually, at the conclusion of a major arc, comics will revert to a series of one-shorts or trifle adventures, both to keep the reader in suspense about coming events, and to prepare for the Next Big Thing. With the exception of the Gaudium and Serpa centered issue at the end of “Comedy”—which drops a bombshell of its own in the final pages—the creative team continues its fast pace by bringing Lucifer once again to the realm of Hell, this time for the duel that has been a year in the making.
Carey continues his top-notch storytelling by taking what should be a straight-up fight to the death and twisting it into a multi-layered story of adventure, scheming, politics and mentally disturbed cherubs that will shake the foundations of Hell’s political structure and cause another angel to break faith with God’s plan. And, in a house of gears built by a demonic smith, it is a story about a serene pool that links directly to the thoughts of God.
Following the conclusion of the duel, Lucifer finally learns of Michael’s fate, and the focus of the series shifts away from its titular character for a couple of those interludes I mentioned earlier. The first focuses on a birth; the second, a death. Though Zimet—who is introduced in the first of these stories–will come into play later her tale is not particularly memorable. Haunting and creepy, yes, but as far as a single-issue story, it has never been one of my favorites.
It is the second story, which begins with the funeral of Elaine Belloc, that is the stand-out here. Told from the perspective of another great figure of the Christian religion—Solomon, living in the modern world as a detective of sorts. He seeks retribution for Elaine’s death, a mission he believes to be of divine origin. His journey to find it will put him in contact with Elaine’s human and not-so-human families.
In the final issues of this collection, we leave the Shinto gods behind and move on to the Norse, who will remain a driving factor as the story continues. One of the things I love most about Lucifer and its predecessor, The Sandman is how it delves into so many different mythologies and religions, incorporating them into one interwoven narrative.
Though this collection doesn’t pack the punch of “The Divine Comedy,” it is a solid follow-up that continues to drive the overall story forward, albeit at a not-quite-as-relentless pace. The sheer amount of elements this collection manages to bring together makes it a quick read that brings a lot of depth to a number of characters, and the art team is superb as always.