The devil is confronted by a group of angels in Lucifer No. 7

The devil gets his due in the latest issue of Lucifer.

Marvel and DC almost directly never reference God in their pages (Marvel has The One-Above-All and DC has The Presence), but over at DC’s Vertigo imprint, God and Lucifer and pretty much every other deity has had a story written about them. Lucifer was actually relaunched (the original ran in the double-aughts for 75 issues) and, along with House of Whispers, Books of Magic, and The Dreaming, these four series have been the basis for the resurrection of the Sandman universe at large, which is technically a part of the DC universe. Writer Dan Watters, artists Max and Sebastian Fiumara, colorist Dave McCaig and letterer Steve Wands are pumping out a magnificent journey that follows Lucifer’s suffering and long trail of misdeeds, and the first Fallen isn’t done doing evil yet.

Vertigo Comics

Lucifer gets slapped by an angel

At the end of the last issue a host of angels had come to the Earth to find Lucifer, who had brought Sycorax, the mother of his son Caliban, back to life, in a blasphemous allusion to Christ. Lucifer takes a verbal shot at ol’ J.C. and gets walloped by Raguel, the angel of vengeance, which is a pretty bold move for an angelic being, even though they’re literally an angelic being. The angels decide that Sycorax will only get to live for as long as Jesus was dead (three days, in case you weren’t sure), so Lucifer has Mazikeen hustle her off to the island she was originally trapped on by Lucifer, while he heads to Hell with Stingy Jack, who is due for a good eternal torturing. When he gets there, he argues for compassion for Sycorax, when she is killed by Heaven in three days, but the angels Duma and Remiel (who have been sent by God to rule Hell since Lucifer abdicated the throne) will offer her no special treatment, and even mock Lucifer in front of the demons he used to rule over.

Vertigo Comics

Sycorax and Caliban do family time, and Lucifer prepares for…something

Mazikeen, Caliban and Sycorax travel to Milan, where Sycorax casts a spell that reveals the angels watching them to the general public, causing a big freakout. Mazikeen makes a slash in reality with the moonlight knife Stingy Jack used to have, and they escape to the island from the play The Tempest (things are pretty meta here, you might need to do your own research to make sense of these literary allusions), where Sycorax and Caliban share some quality mom/son moments. Lucifer is sitting around Hell, all gloomy from being angel-dissed, and he comes across William Blake (them literary allusions, I tell ya) who has been telling everyone an embarrassing story about the fallen angel that occurred while they were trapped in Sycorax’s mind together. Infuriated, Lucifer kills Blake and several demons, and brings their decapitated heads to the mystical gates of Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead, which is some epic foreshadowing.

So while his vengeful baby’s mama, his angry son, and his forever-jilted girlfriend (poor Mazikeen) are hanging out on a magical island that Heaven can’t see, Lucifer heads to a death god. Seems extreme, but the literal Devil is known for being extreme. So this potential for gnarly death god action seems pretty in line with his usual work, as well as a highly intriguing plot development. This comic keeps getting better and better, if a little too intellectual for some. 8.5/10, instantly recommended. Let us know what you thought in the comments section below.