From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up Lucifer is many things: she is a thief, she has supernatural abilities, she is fiercely loyal, and she has a strong sense of right and wrong. She is also an attractive young woman with luminous amber eyes. Her real name is Luci Jennifer Inacio Das Neves. For the most part she steals wondrous items for money and for the thrill of the chase, but sometimes she finds herself working for other motives. When an evil man named Dietrich wants her to steal a powerful object called the carasinth for him, he threatens to kill her employer and friend Val if she does not comply. What follows is a fast-paced and astounding story with plenty of fight scenes, gunplay, explosions, otherworldly adventures, and blood. LOTS of blood. The creativity of the story is matched by Rios's breathtaking art and the astounding colors. For example, in order to find the carasinth, Lucifer has to go to the morgue, cut open the dead body of a 300-pound man, and enter Quandrin's lair through the door created by his corpse. The strange liquid world she enters is jaw-droppingly detailed, realized in amazing technicolor hues. Nelson created the character of Lucifer for his Fall of Cthulhu graphic-novel series (Boom!), but this is Lucifer's first stand-alone collection, and it isn't necessary to have read the other series to enjoy it.
Hexed is sure to generate a whole new legion of fans for this amazing thief.
Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Nelson spins off an adventure from the continually surprising horror comic Fall of Cthulhu, set at some other place and time, of teenage “witchling” thief Lucifer (née Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves). Ambitious international gang leader Dietrich forces her to steal an artifact that will give him inordinate supernatural power. She steals it but then connives to destroy Dietrich, knowing she has hidden weapons. During this rather protracted caper, she nearly comes a cropper more than once, her current benefactress falls in extreme jeopardy, and Dietrich loses several henchmen. It wouldn’t be worth the ride but for Emma Rios’ flamboyant (literally: a whole lot of ebullient flaming goes on) artwork, bathed in garish color by Cris Peter. Probably this is a one-shot rather than a series-starter, but if Rios and Peter will sign on for another Lucifer outing, Nelson should write it for them. --Ray Olson
