Review: LUCIFER #11
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Dan Watters
Artists: Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara
Colors: Dave McCaig
Letters: Steve Wands
Reviewed by: Seth Singleton
Summary
In my review of Lucifer #11 we begin in the void. Sinking into the nothingness beneath all existence, he must decide if he even wishes to return to the world. Elsewhere: two witches commandeer a rowboat, and Caliban fills his belly.
Positives
It all begins with a beautiful cover. The art is gorgeous and there is something so compelling about the face comprised of burning flams looking down from the clouds. Is it the searing eyes of God glaring down with judgement? Or is it the spying eyes of Lucifer? It’s all very ominous for the two figures braving the rolling ocean in a rowboat.
“There is an ocean of nothing at the bottom of everything.”
The void is such a beautiful introduction to this issue. It reminds Lucifer of the beginning. It’s a temptation. One that offers Lucifer a place to leave it all behind. It is something that he uses later in a confrontation with Raguel. The deal made with Caliban is not a secret pact. It’s a useless ruse. Caliban does not know his father’s plan. He believes that every choice Lucifer makes is selfish.
But the one thing I continue to notice is the way Lucifer exits each underworld. At the end of this issue he has collected a debt from the Hindu gods. He can add it to the debt he collected from the Egyptian gods. I believe that when all is said and done he will begin to call on these favors to complete his undisclosed mission.
Negatives
Thessaly leads Sycorax away from the island. She is under the influence of a shovel handle that was made from the wood that grows in Hell’s Suicide Forest. The handle claims that a witch-hunter made the island visible to the searching eye of heaven. Now that Sycorax and Thessaly are on the boat the angels are coming. But, the level of risk seems so far removed from the characters that it was hard to feel the threat of danger.
The story instead pivots to the wooden shovel handle that contains the spirit of Sampson. He wants revenge on Raguel for leaving him in the Suicide Forest and not allowing him to enter heaven. I like the story thread, but I’m not a fan that it relegates two powerful characters to the role of bait.
Verdict
Lucifer is playing a long game. Like the strongest hand at a poker table the First Fallen is using patience to wear down those around him. It is already working on Caliban, Raguel, and every underworld he visits. It’s a great tool for expanding the cast of characters beyond heaven and hell. It’s also a brilliant way to connect them all with one thread of narrative and then to tie them all together in a final master stroke at the end of this story’s arc.
