Scan barcode
A review by watercolorstain
Lucifer Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy by Neil Gaiman, Dan Watters
1.0
I got this volume as an eARC along with Volume One of The Dreaming, which means I sampled half of the new Sandman Universe story arcs released to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary.
Lucifer Morningstar was one of my favorite original Sandman characters, even though he only plays a pretty minor role in the original run. DC went on to create a quite successful spin-off around his character, and I guess that must be required reading, because I'm not familiar with it (yet) and honestly have no idea what the fuck I just read. The summary at the back of the volume says that Lucifer's son Caliban is the only one who can "prevent the end of the world"... but there are absolutely no allusions in these pages that suggest that the world is in need of saving? What?
Lucifer is no longer Lord of Hell, but a destitute beggar with no recollection of how he ended up in that position, trapped and tormented... in some strange village surrounded by buried statues he digs out? His eyes have been picked, but he grows them back? A LAPD detective who recently lost his wife to a brain tumor is trying to make sense of some secrets she seems to have kept during their marriage... he ends up with a brain tumor too, which enables him to see demons, and he decides he must kill Lucifer because of it, I guess? There's also a witch coven that needs a third, a mother, to be complete, William Blake is involved for some reason, and some guy Lucifer tricked and damned to eternity outside of Heaven or Hell who is now out for revenge? Oh, and the mysterious village turns out to be on the skull of the witch Sycorax, mother of Caliban? That just now may have possibly been a major plot spoiler, but since I was completely lost while reading this, I couldn't tell you with any certainty. I also think that there must have been some sort of flashbacks through-out, because Lucifer repeatedly goes from looking like an unkempt homeless man to a chiseled David Bowie?
I honestly don't know if Watters is a lousy story-teller or if he just throws the reader in the deep-end, assuming one's familiar with all the spin-off material, which is why I'm having a really hard time rating this—I may just have been the entirely wrong audience for it, not familiar with enough character backstory, William Blake poetry, mythology and/or Shakespeare plays to "get it". The art was very nice, but I didn't enjoy reading this, it was a convoluted mess of a story that made no sense to me and offered no satisfying pay-off at the end. I won't be checking out any more of the Sandman Universe story arcs after this.
—————
Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
—————
My other ડꪖꪀᦔꪑꪖꪀ reviews:
01: Preludes & Nocturnes · ★★★½
02: The Doll's House · ★★★★
03: Dream Country · ★★★
04: Season of Mists · ★★★★½
05: A Game of You · ★★★½
06: Fables and Reflections · ★★★½
07: Brief Lives · ★★★★½
08: Worlds' End · ★★★
09: The Kindly Ones · ★★★★★
10: The Wake · ★★★
Overture · ★★★
Endless Nights · ★★★★
The Dream Hunters · ★★★★
Death: The Deluxe Edition · ★★★★
Audible Original #1 · ★★★★★
The Sandman Universe · The Dreaming: Pathways and Emanations · ★★
Lucifer Morningstar was one of my favorite original Sandman characters, even though he only plays a pretty minor role in the original run. DC went on to create a quite successful spin-off around his character, and I guess that must be required reading, because I'm not familiar with it (yet) and honestly have no idea what the fuck I just read. The summary at the back of the volume says that Lucifer's son Caliban is the only one who can "prevent the end of the world"... but there are absolutely no allusions in these pages that suggest that the world is in need of saving? What?
Lucifer is no longer Lord of Hell, but a destitute beggar with no recollection of how he ended up in that position, trapped and tormented... in some strange village surrounded by buried statues he digs out? His eyes have been picked, but he grows them back? A LAPD detective who recently lost his wife to a brain tumor is trying to make sense of some secrets she seems to have kept during their marriage... he ends up with a brain tumor too, which enables him to see demons, and he decides he must kill Lucifer because of it, I guess? There's also a witch coven that needs a third, a mother, to be complete, William Blake is involved for some reason, and some guy Lucifer tricked and damned to eternity outside of Heaven or Hell who is now out for revenge? Oh, and the mysterious village turns out to be on the skull of the witch Sycorax, mother of Caliban? That just now may have possibly been a major plot spoiler, but since I was completely lost while reading this, I couldn't tell you with any certainty. I also think that there must have been some sort of flashbacks through-out, because Lucifer repeatedly goes from looking like an unkempt homeless man to a chiseled David Bowie?
I honestly don't know if Watters is a lousy story-teller or if he just throws the reader in the deep-end, assuming one's familiar with all the spin-off material, which is why I'm having a really hard time rating this—I may just have been the entirely wrong audience for it, not familiar with enough character backstory, William Blake poetry, mythology and/or Shakespeare plays to "get it". The art was very nice, but I didn't enjoy reading this, it was a convoluted mess of a story that made no sense to me and offered no satisfying pay-off at the end. I won't be checking out any more of the Sandman Universe story arcs after this.
—————
Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
—————
My other ડꪖꪀᦔꪑꪖꪀ reviews:
01: Preludes & Nocturnes · ★★★½
02: The Doll's House · ★★★★
03: Dream Country · ★★★
04: Season of Mists · ★★★★½
05: A Game of You · ★★★½
06: Fables and Reflections · ★★★½
07: Brief Lives · ★★★★½
08: Worlds' End · ★★★
09: The Kindly Ones · ★★★★★
10: The Wake · ★★★
Overture · ★★★
Endless Nights · ★★★★
The Dream Hunters · ★★★★
Death: The Deluxe Edition · ★★★★
Audible Original #1 · ★★★★★
The Sandman Universe · The Dreaming: Pathways and Emanations · ★★