This isn't terrible, it just isn't very good. The early issues are so meandering and inscrutable, that it's hard to read and care about the characters or the events. By the end, when everything comes together a bit more, the payoff is so small that it hardly seems worth the investment. Mike Carey's run on Lucifer was a bit of a slow starter, too, but not nearly at this level. I think I might try the next volume of this, but I'm probably not going to follow Watters too much longer (this is a much better comic than his impenetrable Coffin Bound). The artwork is the real standout throughout this volume. The work by the Fiumaras (father/son, is that right? or are they brothers?) really deserves a better story.

An enjoyable addition to the sandman universe, though for me nothing will ever beat the originals by Neil Gaiman. Still, it's nice to see the universe expanding and it is sure to bring in a legion of new fans. And Lucifer is a character that always seemed to have more potential, so it's nice to see his role expanding.

I enjoyed the art but found that I really didn't know what was going on throughout the narrative. Most likely I needed to read previous Trade issues of this titular character to know what was going on. While I read this in it's the entirety I couldn't really say I knew exactly what was going on throughout. Far too many pieces were missing for a casual reader to pick up from here and fully understand what was going on. I would have preferred it the story featured more of the backstory. Particularly with this being Vol. 1.

Opens with a hirsute and somewhat deranged seeming creature claiming to be Lucifer in the angelic font used in all of the Sandman comics under the care of a woman-shaped being who does not seem to be Mazikeen. He is trapped in a strange world that he cannot escape and where he is not the most powerful being, though he is more powerful than some of the place’s pathetic denizens. He is compelled to seek the nature of his imprisonment and to seek escape. It does not usually go well, but it does lead to a discussion of the relative strength and weakness of men and angels that makes some good points.

LAPD John Decker did not in fact quit smoking, though when he is with his dying wife Penny he pretends otherwise. His guardianship application is still pending, and so Penny suffers, until when taking her for a drive there is an accident and she dies. Now he is tormented by visitations from her incarcerated brother about a place, Gately House, and phone calls from his doctor with bad news about his brain. Soon he is further plagued by an unwelcome connection to an evil witch made famous by Shakespeare and her son, the bastard get of the fairest fallen one, and awful knowledge about the residents of Gately House. He becomes the agent of these things.

Although I know the Lucifer spin-off has always been darker than The Sandman, I would have to think carefully before recommending it to a fan of Neil Gaiman’s series. The subject matter is dark and brutal, and the art matches it with a harsh style that does not pretend to beauty, though it is mostly realistic. I’m reminded of the art in Brian Wood’s Northlanders comics from years and years ago. Like that series, the violence here is unpleasant, even though it clearly has the potential to be worse. Awful things are done to cats, historically and narratively in the second issue. For myself, I do not care to read further in this series.

This really fell short for me in comparison to the original Lucifer comics. I couldn't get into it, and I did not finish it. I found it lacking.

With the relaunch of Vertigo with it’s 25th anniversary, Neil Gaiman’s world of the Dreaming from his work on Sandman is expanding. Lucifer Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy is one of four books curated by Gaiman for DC Vertigo which expand his existing world under the banner of The Sandman Universe.

As one of four ongoing series, Gaiman is evolving and weaving together a larger space for fantasy. In Lucifer Vol. 1, the onetime ruler of Hell is missing, finding himself imprisoned and crippled by mysterious forces who only have his torture in mind. With memories gone, we watch as Lucifer moves through a hell where he is powerless and a man named John Decker moves on the outside, pulled to Lucifer’s world.

The creative team behind Lucifer Vol. 1 – The Infernal Comedy is large with writing credits for Dan Watters, Neil Gaiman, Simon Spurrier, Kat Howard, and Nalo Hopkinson, letters by Steve Wands and Simon Bowland, colors by Dave McCaig and Mat Lopes, and art credits for Max and Sebastian Fiumara, Bilquis Evely, Tom Fowler, and Dominike Stanton.

Lucifer Vol. 1
The story in Lucifer Vol. 1 is anything but linear, something that is eased by reading it in a collected volume instead of each of the issues, one through six, individually. Jumping from the Dreaming, to Lucifer, to John Decker dealing with his wife Penelope’s illness, to the Lucifer in his prison, to Lucifer and his son Caliban, to Decker grieving his wife, to Lucifer digging for freedom, to Decker seemingly falling victim to same illness as his wife, and so on. It’s easy to lose your place.

With that said, the lettering team does a consistent and dynamic job of crafting unique styles for each character’s dialogue, inner thoughts, and narrative. This allows the designs to degrade with the characters’ sense of self. The style accents the writing of this issue which is raw and beautiful, and ultimately written in multiple voices that lend to an immersive story.

Lucifer Vol. 1
The art is gorgeous for multiple reasons. It is horrific when it needs to be, showing Lucifer Morningstar’s violence in a beautiful a terrifying light that is also completely gorgeous, with the pain in the background of the Lucifer’s Bowie-esque beauty. In his prison, Lucifer isn’t alone. The land he is in is filled with those he deceived into deals with him.

We see amazing renditions of William Blake, the Fates, and more, with their stories from legend retold in Lucifer Vol. 1. But, as Lucifer don’t remember, neither do they. As they each come into the story we see their stories played out in violence and deceit. Not only told with a mix of narrative and dialogue but stunningly illustrated.

Lucifer Vol. 1
The other moments of stunning art are those that showcase Decker discovering the world that Lucifer moves through while simultaneously depicting his growing illness, but leaving the door open to question: Is this his health or is this Lucifer and his world’s doing? In one section we the depiction of seizures, which I never thought could be drawn in such a visceral and authentic way. Yet, in another, we see the appearance of demons, replacing the images of humans.

While we understand that there is a thin line between the two as the audience, the narration and consistent changes in places in the story confuses us along with Decker, before pulling all of the threads together in the ending, leaving with a path forward for both Decker and the Devil.

Lucifer Vol. 1
One of the more stunning images of Lucifer Vol. 1 is the depiction of Decker receiving contact from Lucifer’s prison. When we learn that Decker has a tumor, the red mass calling him to the hidden house is both a call from a world beyond but also a depiction of the mass in his brain, the mass that was in wife’s brain.

There are many things to love about Lucifer Vol. 1, however, the first issue is heavily centered around the Dreaming, before connecting to Lucifer’s story. While I understand the need, I can’t help but think that that first issue could have been compacted, allowing pages in later issues to go deeper into Decker. While Decker’s seizures begin to cause jumps in his time, his inclusion in this story could be expanded, and Penelope’s connection and the magic behind his growing illness could have been unpacked and given more impact.

In addition, it may also be a little hard to understand in the beginning if you are unfamiliar with Gaiman’s world of Sandman Universe. The first issue of the volume may catch you off guard and since it just jumps into the universe it will leave a new reader wondering about some of the mechanics of the Dreaming.

Overall Lucifer is a series that benefits from being read in volume form. The story becomes easier to follow and the pacing is great enhanced. Since the beauty of the book is also one of the better parts, the inclusion of variant colors and character sketches are the perfect addition to any fan. Lucifer Vol. 1: The Divine Comedy may not be a hit for all given some fairly graphic panels of violence, but if that doesn’t bother you, it’s a great read.

Lucifer Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy will be available on June 19th everywhere comics are sold.

Rating: 4.5/5

I loved this book. I really enjoyed the Sandman Universe books so to read more stories was wonderful!

A terrific book for all Lucifer fans. So much better than the television show.! This is what the they shouldn't produced!

My Rating : 2.5

I was really excited to read this book because it's Neil Gaiman and Dan Watters. The artwork in this graphic novel is amazing as expected, but the storyline was not what I enjoyed a lot especially considering the two authors. Lucifer as a character has an interesting structure and I am glad I gave this book a chance even if I didn't enjoy it.

It's very pretty and covers, or tries to cover a new intro to Sandman and Lucifer. While a book one, it does work better with a knowledge of the years behind it. Hopefully it follows an earlier Lucifer volume by Mike Carey and goes on to grow and leap and take a long journey forward.

Sorry, I was unable to download this title before it was archived. I will be looking for this title on the shelves.

While it was kinda annoying having a repeat story (the first story in this volume is also the first story in The Dreaming Vol. 1), I enjoyed this volume. Now, I haven't read any of the Sandman series (other than The Dreaming), so I know I missed a lot of references, but I got most of it, and I know how to google haha. The art was gorgeous, the story was intriguing, and the characters were interesting- William Blake was especially good, I liked him a lot. I look forward to Volume 2!

#LuciferVol1theInfernalComedyTheSandmanUniverse

An excellent first volume of Lucifer's new season. It blends Christian mythology with The Sandman Universe’s narrative flair and succeeds at making things exciting and addictive.

This book was so decompressed it bored me to tears. The first several issues just seemed to be random things happening with no connection, although it sort of eventually came together. Of course, by that point I'd already given up on this garbage. The book also apparently has very little connection to any of the previous series (Mahzikeen does appear but does nothing.) or to Lucifer from the Sandman comics to which I say "Screw you, DC." The art was solid though.

I thought that the artwork was absolutely gorgeous in this volume, but the story itself was pretty average. It deals with Lucifer, absent from Hell, trying to work out where he is and how he got there. Some of the plotting was quite confusing, particularly in the early issues and often felt a little bit convoluted. However, once the story really got going, I found myself more invested in the action and I really liked Sycorax as a character. As I said, the art here is just stunning, and the Bowie-esque early Lucifer style was perfect. Overall, I think that this could potentially become an interesting series, but this first volume was a bit lacklustre.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The story was kind of boring. It never grabbed my attention enough to care about what was happening. The art was good though.

Okay, let me tell you that this confused me, a lot.
At first, I had to download this book like five times because I thought that I was doing something wrong. That was not Lucifer but Sandman! However, after reading some reviews, I realised that really one-quarter of this Lucifer Volume is about Sandman, which I mostly skipped because I read it just recently.

I have to say that I know Sandman way better than I do know Lucifer, but I still managed to get what was going on fairly quickly. But I was not invested in the story until the last 20 pages or so.

Plus my everlasting issue with Lucifer stories is that since I'm not a native speaker, I have a very, very hard time grasping what Mazikeen is saying.

This is an intro into a new portion of the Sandman Universe, and one that I felt was a bit lacking. I felt constantly like I was missing a *lot* of information, even though I've read the entire Sandman series prior to tackling this book. It could be a personal preference issue, but I wasn't particularly spurred to finish this one.

So first I should say that I like, if not love, all of the Neil Gaiman books I’ve read. I’ve only read a bit of Sandman so far and have read none of the Lucifer stand alone books until this one. I’m watching the Lucifer tv show right now (which I realize isn’t very faithful the comics).

I started out liking this. And then I just lost interest and struggled to continue on with it. There was something missing. I’ve read enough comics / graphic novels to know that these stories can be disjointed, so the fact that it bounced all over the place didn’t really bother me. After reading it, I went back and skimmed. The part. I liked had credited Neil Gaiman as a writer while the other sections did not. I am not sure if it’s just that different folks were writing it or what but I wasn’t feeling it. It seemed boring. I feel like I wasn’t getting to know the characters well enough to care about what was happening to them. A shame given the intensity of what was happening.

Where the story faltered, the art shined. The style and color schemes were both perfect for this universe. If all you care about is the art, this is a 5 star book. I expect a better balance of story and art. Art alone couldn’t carry this one, so I had to settle on 3/5 stars.

Overall it was just okay. I doubt I’ll continue on.

'Lucifer Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy' by Dan Watters with art by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara is part of a new expansion of the famed Sandman series. This is the second one of four that I've read and it's a vast improvement over the first one.

This volume starts with the same Sandman Universe 48 page comic. In that is the whole setup for what follows. The Sandman is missing and a raven has been sent to find out what's going on.

This time, we deal with a broken down and blinded Lucifer. It gets much worse for him as the series goes. There is also an L.A. detective losing his wife to cancer, and a weird halfway house that may be more than halfway in to hell.

The story here was much more coherent than The Dreaming was. The art is really great too. I like the side characters like William Blake (nice touch!) and Robert Johnson. It's a nice layered story about loss and hope and suffering. Well written and well drawn.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.