|
LUCIFER #18
"A Dalliance With The Damned Part 2 of 3"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
|
DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Dean Ormston & Peter Gross
Inks: Dean Ormston & Ryan Kelly
Colors: Daniel Vozzo & Jamison
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Shelly Bond
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
It's the second chapter
exploring what Hell is like without Lucifer there to rule it, and though the
artwork isn't as solid as the first chapter, the story definitely is. Our lead
character, a lost soul named Rudd, provides an interesting viewpoint into this
world of debauchery and sin, and I'm enjoying the various games of palace
intrigue and more base carnal desires being played out in the storyline. Carey
has neatly sidestepped the problem of having no one to identify with in a world
filled with evil by giving us the likable Rudd and putting the despicable High
Lord on a level where at least he's allied with Lucifer, the protagonist of this
series as a whole.
There isn't much in the way of political comics in today's marketplace, save Eagle and Black Panther, but for this storyline at least, Lucifer falls into that category as well. The court
intrigue is politics of a by-gone age, with arcane rules of conduct, a tendency
towards assassination and other black-hearted methods and the sense that the
political game is almost more important than the ends for many of the players.
The sexual politics are of a Victorian sort, as the characters engage in
relationships based more on cruelty and manipulating others than love or even
pure lust. The result is a book that feels like it represents the politics of
Hell, dark and twisted in every way but still easy to relate to because of their
similarities to dark periods of human history.
Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly are excellent at
what they do, whether it's the imagery of the Sifting Wheel, the disturbing
experience that Rudd has with powdered pain or the gaudy and expansive dinner
party being thrown toward the end of the issue. They capture the elegance and
grime of the setting very well, and their depictions of characters both human
and not is thoroughly enjoyable. Would that Ormston's work fit in as well, but
though he was a perfect guest artist for the spooky ghost story early in the
book, his abstract and simple style is not at all suited for the intricate
detail required for this story.
In the first issue, Rudd was little more
than a narrator, a point-of-view character who served as the reader's eyes into
this world. He was just as unfamiliar as we were, and so we got explanations and
stories through him. In this issue, he begins manifesting more of a personality
of his own, becoming more involved in the games going on and taking on something
of a pivotal role toward the end. Having rejected the person who brought him
into this world, Rudd is now something of a free agent whose main goal is
survival, and it will be interesting to see what he does to fit in with this
world.
Just as Sandman was about dreams and stories rather than simply the tales of lead character Morpheus, with this story arc Carey has opened up Lucifer into being about sin and manipulation rather
than simply the stories of Lucifer, a character who embodies those ideals. The
result is a stronger book with a wider scope.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
