Lauren German (left) and Tom Ellis star in Lucifer, airing Mondays on Fox. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Bettina Strauss/FOX
Lucifer became a major supporting character in the Sandman series in the “Season of Mists” storyline (1991). Copyright DC Entertainment Inc.
The first issue of Lucifer arrived in 2000. The series ran for 75 issues. Copyright DC Entertainment Inc.
By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Fox has taken “Lucifer,” one of the most intellectually complicated and morally challenging properties in the DC Comics library, and made a TV show. Naturally, they turned it into a police procedural.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Police procedural is a time-honored genre that works well on television, with a crime of the week to give the audience a satisfying resolution each episode, while leaving room for overarching themes and character development. That’s exactly what The CW did with DC’s iZombie, a quirky book that would have been pretty hard to pull off in its original form, and that turned out really well.
Plus, as a bonus, some of the intellectual rigor of the original Lucifer concept remains in the series, which can service some of those overarching themes mentioned above.
And what are those? So glad you asked.
The legendary Neil Gaiman became legendary in large part because of his magnum opus, the Sandman series for DC’s mature-readers line, Vertigo. Sandman was a hugely ambitious series focusing on Morpheus, also called (among other things) Dream, an anthropomorphic representation of dreaming, along with his six siblings: Death, Delirium/Delight, Desire, Despair, Destiny and Destruction, whose names are also their function. Together they were The Endless, the foundation of a vast cosmological tapestry Gaiman wove, which included parts (or wholes) of various mythologies, afterlifes, religions and belief systems – some from existing cultures, some invented.
The Christian Heaven and Hell were part of this tapestry, and in Sandman #23 (1991) the Lord of Dreams goes to Hell, where he expects to fight Lucifer, also called (among other things) The Morningstar, in order to free a former lover. So we meet the First of the Fallen, who is pretty much what we expect, because he’s based on The Bible stories most of us know, as well as the way he was conceived and presented in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, with bits of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy tossed in for good measure. (He is also drawn to look a bit like David Bowie, which was Gaiman’s idea.)
To Sandman’s surprise, Lucifer doesn’t want to fight. Instead, he quits. He literally resigns as Lord of Hell and gives the Dream Lord the key. Which is a pretty wild concept because, you know, what about all those unsupervised demons on the loose? Where will the tormented souls go? And God only knows (literally) what other metaphysical upheaval will occur.
Lucifer says that’s not his problem. He describes his reasons, in the course of which we see how the Christian afterlife works in this series. It’s pretty much what you’d expect, except for a few things we mortals keep getting wrong, which quite annoys Old Scratch.
For example, The First of the Fallen is pretty tired of everyone ascribing every sin in history to him. “Why do they blame me for their little failings?” he gripes. “They use my name as if I spend my entire day sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive. … ‘The Devil made me do it.’ I have never made one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them.”
So, yeah, in Gaiman’s cosmology, humans are responsible for their own sins. We’re just so petty we have to blame them on the proudest (former) archangel in Creation, a creature who wouldn’t dirty his hands with us. Ouch.
Also, Lucifer is irritated by all those movies and TV shows and comic books and songs about him wanting to trade for our souls. “They talk of me going around and buying souls, like a fishwife come market day,” he grouses, “never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul?”
And while he doesn’t get around to it in this issue, we eventually find out that Lucifer – despite being tagged “Lord of Lies” – always tells the truth. He’s too proud and self-important to lie, which makes a perverse sense. He tells mortals the utter truth, and they find their own path to sin.
So he decides he’s fed up, and he quits. He sums up: “The Lord of Hell will do what he damn well likes!” (Which, if you think about it, is the attitude that got him stuck in Hell in the first place. Some people never learn!)
All of it which is morbidly fascinating and perversely entertaining, but that’s not the meat of the issue. Lucifer quitting his job is more than just Creation’s proudest angel once again refusing to do what he’s told. Instead, he brings up the two words religious scholars have been arguing about since there were religious scholars: free will.
“You know,” he tells Morpheus about his rebellion, “I still wonder how much of it was planned. How much of it (God) knew in advance. I thought I was rebelling. I thought I was defying his rule. No … I was merely fulfilling another tiny segment of his great and powerful plan. If I had not rebelled, perhaps another would have, in my stead.”
Yep, here’s the devil discussing predestination. In his mind, he isn’t bad – rather, God made him bad! Of course, let’s take it as a given that Lucifer isn’t terribly good at self-examination, and he’s probably just looking for someone to blame, like the mortals do.
But it’s worth putting to the test, so Lucifer quits his Biblically assigned role. He eventually ends up running a nightclub in Los Angeles (because of course), during a 75-issue run of his own title, where he has all sorts of adventures while the predestination vs. free will argument hangs over the proceedings like a Sword of Damocles. Or maybe a Great Flood. Or an Egyptian plague.
Sounds like the makings of good cop show, doesn’t it? No, of course it doesn’t. But that’s how Fox is going to play it, with Beelzebub helping out a policewoman who, for as-yet undisclosed reasons, is immune to his charms. He finds that fascinating – and challenging – while she gets to put a few bad guys away. We’re probably lucky they didn’t call it “Devil Detective.”
And what are those powers? Well, aside from being immortal – pretty handy with all the gun play – he’s very persuasive. He can get almost anyone to admit their deepest desires. That doesn’t sound like much, but it sure makes interrogations a snap.
And what of the original themes from the Lucifer series? Well, as it happens, most of them are in the TV show, too. Lucifer has resigned as Lord of Hell, and Heaven isn’t too happy about it. (He has a nemesis in the angel Amenadiel.) He doesn’t buy souls, and he doesn’t lie. He’s very prideful, and believes he’s been mistreated by “Dad.”
Oh, and the predestination question is in play, too. “Lately I’ve been doing a fair amount of thinking,” he tells Amenadiel. “Do you think I’m inherently evil, or because Dad decided I was?”
So Lucifer is a buddy-cop show that has the possibility of a theological conundrum, which may or may not play a significant role. That alone is enough to get some people upset, as with the One Million Moms organization, which has put heat on Olive Garden for advertising on the show.
Whether that proves a problem for Lucifer’s producers will have to play out, but the character on the show – fleshed out quickly and well by Welsh actor Thomas Ellis – would laugh it off. Helping the LAPD is just how he gets his kicks.
After all, he says, “I like to punish people too!”
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (comicsroundtable.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
I was initially turned off by the police procedural approach, even though it works well in iZombie, and wasn't going to watch it. Then I saw a quote from the showrunner that they may have guest stars, possibly including The Endless. This got me to watch and I like it. As someone who has read all of Sandman and Lucifer, I have no problem with this show. Ellis really sells the character.
1. My wife made the same observation about Lauren German.
2. We, too, thought Ellis sold the show well enough to buy in.
3. Having The Endless even hinted at would stall my brain like eating ice cream too fast.
4. While boning up on my Bible for this story, I found that "Lucifer" may not be a proper name. In fact, the original devil may not have had a name. He was mentioned once in the Old Testament with the Hebrew word heylal (hey-layl?), which means "lightbringer." The Greeks used their own word for bringer-of-light, as did the Romans -- which is the Latin "lucifer." So, maybe the Hebrews named this archangel Lightbringer, but probably not, since later scholars all translated it as a function rather than a name. (Also, I think it's the Latin that drags in the alternate translation as the planet Venus -- with attendant alternate words Morningstar, Daystar, etc. -- but it could have been the Greek.)
Ditto with Satan, which is the Hebrew word for "adversary." Probably not a proper name. (Evidently the Arabic "Shaitan" is much the same.)
Just some distinctly non-scholarly observations. If we have any Bible scholars, chime in!
You are more well-read than I, but my understanding is that most of the writings about Heaven and Hell comes from Paradise Lost and Divine Comedy. In the Lucifer comics and other popular stories, the character Lilith is also used from what is sometimes called Jewish mythological writings.
I liked Tom Ellis a lot in his previous show, Rush, on USA. There, he was an unlicensed doctor in Los Angeles who got paid under the table in cash to treat people who didn't want their ailments or injuries documented on hospital records -- jet-setters, millionaires, sports figures, rock stars, even politicians.
Doctor Rush was mess of contradictions, living a glamorous but still seedy life, fighting his own addictions even as he treated others, sleeping around indiscriminately, dragging his buddy down with him -- he was the kind of guy you watch and think, "Man, I'm glad I'm not him!" And he spoke with an American accent.
USA kept Rush only one season, and then scrubbed it from existence. Too bad. Here's hoping Tom Ellis has better luck this go-round.
I think you're right: Gaiman's concept was more literary than Biblical. Mike Carey's series really fleshed the character out, much as Hellblazer fleshed out the character of John Constantine after Alan Moore created him.
Tom Ellis doesn't really look like Lucifer was drawn, but he certainly gets the pride and charisma right. I wasn't expecting the show to follow the comic very closely, but I'm enjoying it. I'd have to say I liked Constantine better (at least so far), but I hope Lucifer lasts longer.
Richard Willis said:
I think the tradition of the primeval revolt and fall of Satan is Christian. It can be read into passages in the New Testament, but it looks to me like these were the passages from which it developed and their original meanings were different.(1) There is a pre-Christian Jewish tradition of the disobedience of angels at the time of the flood that was a development of Gen. 6:1-4.(2)
"Lucifer" derives from the Latin version of Isaiah 14:12. Latin became the language of Christianity in Western Europe. The NRSV renders the verse "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!" In its original context the verse is part of a taunt directed at the King of Babylon. At some point interpreters associated the passage with the tradition of the fall of Satan.
"Satan" is Hebrew for "adversary" or "accuser". (In a legal context one's accuser is one's adversary.) He is only referred to a few times in the Old Testament, but appears prominently in Job. Genesis doesn't identify the Edenic serpent with Satan but the identification is pre-Christian in origin.
"Mephistopheles" is from the Faust legend. He's the demon Faust sells his soul to.
(1) Rev. 12 describes a war in heaven and fall of Satan, but the passage is symbolic and I think it refers to Christ's and the author's time.
(2) This is what I think Jude 1:6 and 2 Pet. 2:4 allude to.
All true I'm sure, but then many names, including nearly all common first names as well as family names, started as descriptions of some sort of function or a description. Many common English last names are clearly descriptive of something that was likely applicable to some ancestor of many generations ago, although many common first names, derived from a variety of languages, no longer seem descriptive because that aspect is no longer or never was part of the English language, as in the name John derived from an ancient Hebrew phrase meaning "YHWH is gracious" or Fred meaning "peaceful" in an old version of German. So while what is now taken to be the name of a mythical character may have once been merely a descriptive title, I'd guess it was in relatively short order that the title became the name. From what I've read the family name "Caesar" originally meant "red hair" before the reputations of Julius and his grandnephew Octavian, aka Augustus became so prominent that the former surname itself became a title of royalty and the basis for the titles Kaiser, Czar and Tsar.
Captain Comics said:
I only recently finished reading the entire collected Lucifer series - just got the last volume about a month ago. Great stuff! Also watched the first two episodes of Lucifer the tv series, and it's fun but while Ellis is certainly charming, he doesn't seem capable of the icy coldness of his graphic counterpart. At least the other supernatural characters in the tv series make note that Lucifer's time on Earth has changed him, making him more empathetic to mere mortals, at least to those who don't prove themselves to be nasty louts, and Lucifer himself admits to and likes the change. All of which is in keeping with Gaiman's themes in the Sandman.
"You're supposed to be blonde."
"I get that a lot."
I've seen a few episodes of this and I like it so far because of the charm of the actor playing Lucifer.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next