Lilith - Lucifer 50

Well The art is great.
Now that we have that out of the way, lets get to the main thing .. The Story.
This is a flashback to the times when Lucifer has not yet rebelled and tells that story.
Mike Carey pulls out all the stops for this issue and in the 60 issues so far this is undoubtedly the best. The dialogue in this issue is top notch and leaves a lot for the reader to ponder on.
Insights into Liliths character are evident by the following
Orphur: Which one of them is mine?
Lilith :None of them. But you fathered that one
This exchange establishes the fact that Lilith will bring up her children to owe allegiance to her and her alone. When Samael visits her with Ibriel to cease her activities she tells him
I may have been made for Adam--But i Live for myself. Which is what living means
These words have a profound effect on Samael who is struggling himself to come to the terms with the fact that he is a puppet whose strings are pulled by his father i.e. God . This is further provoked by Lilith in various conversations with Samael like
The only victory you can win is to be yourself
Samael is also thinking along these lines by his words to Gabriel
Samael : The freedom he enjoys is our birthright too.
The cynical,wry side of Samael is always ever present
Ibriel : Is this a lesson, think you? That good can be brought forth from evil
Samael : If i were given to moralizing,I'd probably find a different lesson
And later in a conversation with Michael
Michael : You have no choice brother
Samael : Oh we all have a choice. The issue-- as i see it--is which of us will be prepared to make it
And in confrontation with Gabriel
Samael: For your virtue is not content unless it can intimidate and enslave the virtue of others
Samael:You're like a drop of dew on a leaf, brother. And look the sun is rising you cannot stop it.
Samael: I care for truth. My own truth
The above establishes much of what Samael will become.
And words to live by from Michael
Michael : Justice is my father's prerogative, The rest of us can only do what we think is right
And finally Samael becomes Lucifer
Lucifer: I am Samael no more. Now i am only what i was made to be -- The Lucifer. The bearer of light and fire
And concluding words by Lilith
Lilith : We can never know of what we are the seeds -- until we flower
There is much that can be learnt from the above dialogs. But the thing that impressed me the most is that here Lucifer comes of as almost heroic. His views haven't changed since then , but carried out to the extreme, he is shown to be the Cold Hearted Bastard that he is. It also worries me because i have similar views and I carry those to the extreme as well.
The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions i guess.
The other thing i liked was Carey's portrayal of Michael which is much better than the petulant child he is shown to be once God leaves. Lilith too seems to be a much smarter women here than shown in later issues. However perhaps Carey's point is how the passage of time has affected these characters.

The End of Lucifer

Currently im speculating on how lucifer will end so here are my predictions
I dont think elaine will become god. I think she will be tricked by lucifer who will gain the powers of Michael
I think he will become master of his own fate , get everything he wants till he realizes that he has become his father.
That will either destroy him (not nice) or he may go back to being lord of hell.

The Morningstar Option

The Morningstar option was a three part mini series in the Sandman Present series.The Morningstar option is written by Mike Carey and Illustrated by Scott Hampton with consultation by Neil Gaiman.

There are ancient gods who are granting peoples wishes and desires. "Heaven" wants to put a stop to it but will not do so directly.Heaven tries to get Lucifer to do its dirty work. In return for a Letter of passage Lucifer agrees. The letter of passage is a way out of this creation. As established in the Sandman series , Lucifer is tired of playing a part in an omnipotent God's script and hates the determinism of everything including his fall and his plotting a way out which this letter will give him.
The main protoganist of the story is Rachel Begai - A half navajo who accidentally ends up killing her brother in the form of a granted wish. Lucifer offers her one chance to see her brother alive again provided she stays with him. The rest of the story is their quest.

It ends with the devil getting what he wants of course. But there is a twist that seems to be Careys trademark. You know the end but the way you get there is not the one you expected.

The Morningstar option combines elements of Navajo mythology and sets up the premise of the Lucifer series to follow. In the last part we see Lucifer and Rachel journey through the four worlds which are supposed to be the Navajo creational myths. Rachels Grandmother refers to lucifer at Atse'Hashke

Carey's dialogue is top notch. Witness the following commentary by Lucifer
"In my day we took anyone who happened by [to hell]"
"Theres a whole shelfload of Christian Commentaries about how good suffering is for the human soul"
"Now off you go and wash off your hands - I suggest steel wool"

Annotations to this series may be found on Matt Peckhams Lucifer site

Lucifer

Lucifer is an Ongoing Monthly comic written by Mike Carey and published under the Vertigo Line of DC Comics.
If you are interested in reading good writing or answering questions like 'what would you do to be the master of your own destiny' or discussing faith,destiny, free will this comics for you.

Prelude

I first picked up The Furies since it was a Sandman spin of. The artwork was stunning though the surprise was the storyline. It was the first Mike Carey story i had read and because this story line was great i looked up his other works and found Lucifer. I recalled that my friend AD had said that Lucifer was amazing but with a title like that i wasnt inclined to pick up the book or indeed find out more about it. I picked up Devil In Gateway and i was not overly impressed though every review in amazon seemed to insist that the rest of stories are better (there were 4 volumes collected when i started reading). So i took a chance and bought Childrens and Monsters . After reading it, i sat down and read it again. It was years since i had actually reread a book immediately after reading it ( i think the last was The Killing Joke) and i have subsequently bought every Lucifer except for Nirvana which i missed and which seems to be out of print and unavailable. I have also picked up Carey's other works (Inferno,My Faith in Frankie) and i hope to pick up whatever else he writes if can get my hands on them except his works for Marvel.
What follows in this blog is my thoughts on each issue the series as a whole and anything else that i feel is related (like Mike Carey's other works). For more definite Lucifer information the Sites are Matt Peckhams excellent site and the Vertigo section of DC Comics
It may take a while to get started though as my collection has been hijacked by a friend!