Customer Reviews

Lucifer, Book 11: Evensong

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Lucifer series is over. And if you know Mike Carey, when he finishes something, he likes to make sure nobody can ever pick it up again. In a word, this really is it.
I'd like to start off by saying a few words about the entire series. Lucifer is easily one of the best comic series Vertigo has ever produced, in part because Mike Carey is one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to know. I place him on a level with Gaiman in terms of inventing characters and settings that have never been used before, and utterly without peer for keeping his plot threads tightly wound. More than once I have stood in awe of the way he manages to pull things back together for a startling climax.
Evensong has many things in common with the last book of the Sandman series, The Wake, in that it occurs after all the action has taken place, and exists mainly to wrap things up. Therefor, it should not be surprising that the big "go out with a bang" comes and the end of the last book, and Evensong is, if not exactly a whimper, then perhaps only the fading echo of the bang that was.
In true Carey fashion, all major characters drift off where it would be difficult, if not impossible, to pick them up again. I have no wish to spoil the endings, but Jill Presto lives happily ever after, Elayne decides to start taking her God roll seriously, and even Gaudium enjoys some level of respite.
Then there's Lucifer, easily the most entrancing character to ever walk through literature. In the final comic, Lucifer comes full circle with his past, and has the final confrontation with his father that we have been expecting since the first book. As you might imagine, Lucifer cannot help but be himself, and nothing is resolved. The last comic even manages to force you to sympathize with God's position, and the ending is more than a little sad as Lucifer fades away into the sunset (or lack of sunset, as the case may be).
Now, I hate to nitpick, but when someone with Carey's reputation for thoroughness misses anything, it's easy to be critical. My number one complaint over the entire series is that, back many novels ago, when Lucifer is searching for the ship made of dead men's nails, he promises Loki to hold him up over the side of the ship come the day of Ragnorok. This is a small thing, but because of Lucifer's penchant for never being forsworn, I at once assumed that he was going to fullfull this oath before the end of the series. Come the last issue, Loki has never again made an appearance, and Lucifer has placed himself in a position to make it obvious he no longer cares. I find it hard to believe I am the only one to notice that Lucifer has been foresworn, and as with anything, one mistake ruins the formula.
The other notion I have issue with is the entire storyline of the Japanese death goddess. Evensong deals extensively with her, being the only true enemy of Lucifer's left alive, and she acheives what could be best termed a stalemate with him. Somehow, her final meeting with him is referenced as though it foreshadows her doing something very important, and very detrimental to Elaynes cosmos, but the book doesn't go into any detail, and it doesn't finish her story very satisfactoraly.
These two small things are the reason I have to give this book four instead of five stars. Given the scope of the series, and the way Carey has impressed us before, I think fans were expected something truly spectacular. What we see is an impressive feat any other author would be proud to call his own, yet still not par with Carey's other works. In spite of this, I will be reading the series again and again.
Because as I said, this is it, and it's more than a little sad now that it's over. For the last time, "that's all folks..."

While I came in before it eneded, Lucifer will probably remain my favorite comic run of all time. In many ways, it's an extension of Greg Rucka's run on "Wonder Woman", with an equal balance of mythology and intrigue. Yet, as it is Vertigo Comics, Carrey is allowed some greater degree of freedom and envelope-pushing. It's very serialized, very intricate plot and nature also ensured that it would be a winner for me.

So, in regards to the main story, obviously, the big bang ending came in "Morningstar". This is the wrap-up and quite a wrap-up. Events, characters, and themes come full circle, going all the way back to the Morningstar Option mini that set it all in motion. It's amazing where the story went from that mini to the final collection and how greatly the characters changed. Lady Lys, Meleos, Mona, Mazikeen, Elliane Beloc, Jill Presto, Remiel -- what a cast and what a journey. And of course, Gaudium gets one more stand-alone issue and had me laughing my head off once again. The main highlight is the last issue and Morningstar's final confrontation, a confrontation that is excellent and perfectly in character for the Lightbringer.

Ultimately, this is a great end to the one of the best comics I've ever read.

The Lucifer series is for serious readers. Please note that I said serious READERS, not comic fans. Even if you've never read a Superman or Spider-Man comic, consider this series. It's intelligent, entertaining, thought-provoking, philosophical, emotionally charged, powerfully written and drawn, and overall one of the finest miniseries ever set to paper. When I rank my list of All-Time Best Miniseries or Series, it's a short list: Watchmen, Kingdom Come, Lucifer, and Seven Soldiers of Victory (the Grant Morrison version). Yes, Lucifer is that good. It might even be better than Watchmen. This particular volume, number eleven in the series of collected issues, is the final volume. As such there's a sad quality to it, but it ends on a perfect note. All our favorite characters return, things are wrapped up, and a very fitting finale awaits this book's reader. When I finished it the first time, my immediate thought was regret, since I knew this story had come to an end. But the more I thought about it, the ending is why we read the story to begin with, and the ending to this series has all anyone could want.

At eleven volumes, Lucifer isn't for the faint at heart. It's a long series that requires you to think, remember, and be willing to challenge your beliefs. However, at no point should this book be considered "satanic" or some form of black/evil magic. It's a story, pure and simple. It presents a different view of the cosmos and makes any reader reconsider her or his beliefs, but at the end it rewards persistence and actually can renew a reader's faith, as it did with mine. Come to this series with an open mind and remember that it is not for children, and I think you'll be quite pleased with what you find. I recommend reading it in order if at all possible, but you can pick it up anywhere in the order and still have an excellent read.

Mike Carey, Lucifer: Evensong (Vertigo, 2007)

The war in Heaven is over. Lucifer and Elaine have averted the worst, but at what cost? With the strength of the overall series, Evensong felt a bit like a letdown; too many loose ends were tied up too quickly, and too neatly, to be comfortable. That said, though, it's impossible to really call it bad; Lucifer is a series that stands almost as high as the original Sandman from which it spun off, and it's a remarkable accomplishment. The entire series is very much worth reading, and I highly recommend it. *** ½

Excellent wrap-up of a fine series of graphic novels on the theme of God and Lucifer. The treatment is deep enough to interest philosphers and theologians.

At the end of Sandman Neil Gaiman only needed to replace Morpheus with a new Dream. Mike Carey, on the other hand ends his Lucifer story with no less than a new cosmos under new management, since both Lucifer and Yahweh completely leave this creation.

Before Elaine Belloc fully starts Godhead "from within", (immanence instead of transcendence) a lot of loose ends are tied up:

- Elaine Belloc finally loses her virginity. (Her godhead would be a joke otherwise, wouldn't it?)
- Izanami in a way does the same with Lucifer, i.e.: she takes the adversary function in Elaine's new cosmos. I understand Izanami's rebirth as "immutable gold" als a principle of non-mercy in opposition to Elaine's position of mercy.
- Rachel Begai gets her brother back.
- Meleos the creator of the Basanos is incapacitated as an artist. Apparently Lucifer thinks that creativity on this scale is a threat to Elaine's cosmos, at least until Elaine has "fully matured".
- Mazikeen gets her face back and leaves her mark on Lucifer's. She takes over the Lightbringer function.
- Remiel who is the last holdout against the new management is dealt with by Gaudium and Spera. The "Morningstar option" at the very beginning used Native American mythology. This "Gaudium option" has a nice mixture of a lot of myths about the afterlife. (Valhalla does not fare well, however, looks like Carey wanted to atone a bit for his extensive use of Norse myths like Fenris and Yggdrasil.)
- Most women still alive (Lilith is dead, Beatrice is only mentioned) are invited to a final "Girls night" with Elaine. At the end Jill Presto (now a single mother with a normal baby) is walked home by her former lover and Mona Doyle remains an overworked guardian angel for hedgehogs.

When all is said and done, Lucifer and his father meet for the last time and the mark left on his face by Mazikeen shapes Lucifer's final decision.

Since this final volume is full of reflections on the past, also the "Nirvana" story that is added at the end makes some sense. It is certainly no "Orientalist trash". I see it as a reflection on Oriental concepts from a different point of view. Also, the voyage into the kunayin bell is obviously a first sketch to the voyage to Yggdrasil that happens later in the story. Many thanks to Vertigo that "Nirvana" did not remain a very rare collector's item!

All in all quite a stellar ending to one of the best graphic novels ever written. Mike Carey surely sees eye to eye with Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.
"All stories are lies. But good stories are lies made of light and fire. And they lift our hearts out of the dust, and out of the grave."

This wraps up most of the loose ends in the "Lucifer" series in a satisfactory way. The open-ended nature of Lucifer's fate is appropriate and suitable, and the mood and method of his final parting from his father Yahweh is ...hmm, properly consistent with his character; so is his farewell gift to Mazikeen. Elaine's choice of immanence rather than transcendance as her path of Godhead is well-justified and portrayed.

Unfortunately, the pretty but meretricious separate episode "Nirvana", which is a sort of filler to the whole thing, spoils the mood. This piece of orientalist trash should have been mercifully forgotten, rather than resurrected here. Surely it would not have hurt Carey to have actually talked to a few Buddhists to find out what Nirvana is actually conceived to be, rather than inflicting his own ignorance on his readers.