Boom Studios 2014
Created & Written by Michael Alan Nelson
Illustrated by Dan Mora
Coloured by Gabriel Cassata
We open with Val’s funeral and it hits home she really is gone and she won’t be coming back. Lucifer’s gone off the deep end Raina is trying her damndest to pick up the pieces and continue on. Alright in the last few issues, including this one, Michael has managed to turn this series completely upside down. We’ve got to throw out everything we’ve known and pretty much start anew and only the names remain the same. I mean hello and goodbye this is what i’m talking about people this is why we follow the writers we love because they continue to thrill and amaze.
Dan and Gabriel continue their relentless work on the interiors and the imagination required to bring some of this to life is utterly mesmerizing. They have also managed to do something subtle to Raina and give her this quiet confidence in her stance and face it’s a small thing to change the posture or “harden” her look but it’s enough that it’s incredibly effective.
Oh Harlot or Fastrada what an interesting character development this is. She really has forgotten what it’s like to be human, to eat to do normal things. I want to see more of her plight and eventually it would be nice if she and daughter traded places once more but I won’t hold my breath that will happen. Still Michael’s able to write such diverse characters and all in one issue and make all their personalities work in this way that is delightfully unexpected.
Raina is getting better and better at using those tattoo’s and she manages to pull Reginald the cat from the shade. It’s almost cute ya know seeing the cat back as a ghost still playing and being it’s normal self. Still Raina and Bob decide to carry on Val’s work and why not they were paid a year in advance so there’s plenty of time to look for something else right. The more things change the more they stay the same right well I dunno about that but Raina has found the strength inside her to be more like Val and take on what she was doing.
I wasn’t sure where this was going to go after Val’s death and what Lucifer did in her rage over it all but now suddenly there seems to be more happening than ever before. With the news that Cymbaline isn’t dead as believed and all the roles they’ve played to date being swapped and Lucifer so dramatically changed things will be taking on a whole new meaning. While I want the old Lucifer back i’m content to see what happens with her for now.
There really isn’t a book similar to this on the market and that’s kind of what I look for this unbridled originality.