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"Once again, we return."
This article contains spoilers for Issue 33 of The Wicked + The Divine. Read at your own risk. |
- "Damnation is delightful. Everyone should try it."
- —Lucifer[src]
Lucifer, or Luci for short, is one of the gods of the Recurrence, symbolised by an inverted pentagram. She appeared during the 30s, 450s, 1830s, 1920s, and 2010s Recurrences.
History
Lucifer was originally called Eleanor Rigby and was born on 20 July 1995.[4] To her embarrassment, she was conceived on the night of a Blur gig. Her parents were also fans of the Beatles (hence the name), and raised her as an only child in Chelmsford. She first became interested in the Pantheon before her ascension to godhood, watching Cassandra Igarashi's videos and participating in online fandom, where she befriended Amaterasu. She attended Ragnarock 2013 but was greatly underwhelmed.
On a Friday night in 2013, at the age of 18, her own incarnation took place. She was the third god to begin performing, after Baal and Sakhmet,[6] including a gig in Brixton attended by Laura. One day, while being interviewed by some reporters, she was visited by a still-human Amaterasu, who tried to give her some fanart she'd drawn of her. Lucifer pushed her away, not wanting to be embarrassed in front of her admiring public. When Amaterasu joined the Pantheon a few months later, Lucifer apologised for her actions.
After joining the Pantheon, Lucifer began affairs with Sakhmet and Inanna, who was in a relationship with Baal at the time. She spoke about her affair with Inanna in an interview for Pantheon Monthly shortly before Christmas 2013, which led to the interview being suppressed for legal reasons until after her apparent death. It was eventually published in November 2014. Sakhmet broke off her fling with Lucifer when she found out about Inanna, disliking the complications it brought.
Lucifer was joined in godhood by Amaterasu in December 2013, and she was the first person she went to after her transformation. A few weeks later she met Laura Wilson, who attracted Lucifer's attention at one of Amaterasu's gigs by being the "last to pass out, first to wake up". Lucifer flirted with her and invited her backstage to watch Amaterasu give an interview. When gunmen opened fire on the gathering, Lucifer lost her temper and fought back with miracles, killing them both.
At the trial the next day, Lucifer mocked the judge, declaring that the court could not set a precedent of recognising her as a god. However, when she mockingly snapped her fingers, the judge's head exploded, resulting in her incarceration. Before being led off, she asked Amaterasu to fetch Ananke.
A week later, Laura visited Lucifer after name-dropping Ananke, and the two struck a deal - Lucifer would grant Laura divine powers in exchange for Laura's help. However, Laura returned with a message from Ananke asking Lucifer to stay in prison. Angered by Ananke's abandonment, Lucifer broke out and went on a rampage throughout London. She told Amaterasu she would rather die than return to her cell, and fought off both Baal and Sakhmet until the Morrigan intervened at Laura's request.
Laura told Lucifer to head underground where The Morrigan could protect her. Lucifer briefly apologised to Cassandra and thanked Laura for her help before stepping outside. However, Ananke was waiting for her outside the door, and appeared to explode her head with a click of her fingers.
Lucifer's parents organised her funeral, which was closed to the press. Lucifer was remembered with a vigil that lasted at least three days at the site of her death, and through T-shirts with slogans such as "Lucifer Died For Our Sins".
However, while Lucifer's body was indeed destroyed, her head appears to be alive and talking. It seems to have been transported to a mysterious cave by Ananke as part of a scheme to defeat the Great Darkness, alongside the heads of fellow ostensibly murdered gods, Inanna and Tara. In March 2015, they were visited by Minerva, who had been attempting to add Sakhmet's head to the collection, but was unable to because she had only ripped half of her head off. When Lucifer accused her of working with Ananke, she claimed that she was Ananke.
Appearance
Eleanor was a fairly pale Caucasian woman who had short blonde hair that covered her forehead, as well as blue eyes.
Lucifer was a pale Caucasian woman who had short, slicked back blonde hair, with a streak of black on the left side. Her eyes were typically blue, but often when performing miracles they would turn blood red. She was known to wear white suits, a variety of earrings and smokey black eye-shadow.
Personality
Lucifer was sarcastic and snide, and made frequent cultural allusions. She was rebellious and disrespectful of authority, and enjoyed causing destruction. She enjoyed indulging her vices, which included cocaine, cigarettes, coffee and sex. She admitted that she was attention-seeking and constantly needed an audience, which is what eventually drove her to break out of jail. She did not seem completely malevolent, for she recognised when she had done wrong and was apologetic, as she seemed dissatisfied with herself in her final moments.
Relationships
Laura Wilson
Laura was a fan of the Pantheon who attracted Lucifer's attention, resulting in a flirtation. She was the only one to visit Lucifer in jail, and Luci struck a deal to grant her divine powers in return for her help. Laura continued to try to help her even after Lucifer escaped and admitted the deal was a lie, for which Lucifer was grateful. Laura was deeply affected by Lucifer's death, and was determined to uncover the mystery surrounding the events leading up to it.
Cassandra Igarashi
Cassandra and Lucifer had a mutual dislike after Lucifer made a nasty comment implying Cassandra's trans status. Lucifer apologised for the comment shortly before her death, but the two worked together only reluctantly. Cassandra was very sceptical of Lucifer's claims that she didn't kill Judge Holmes, for she knew Lucifer was known for lying.
Ananke
Ananke acted as a mentor for Lucifer. Lucifer said that she wanted to avoid upsetting Ananke, but lost her temper when it became clear Ananke did not plan to free her from prison, resulting in her eventual death at Ananke's hands. Unbeknownst to Lucifer, Ananke was responsible for the Judge Holmes murder, purposely landing her in jail, and engineered the events that led to Lucifer's death.
Amaterasu
Amaterasu was Lucifer's self-described best friend. She was disappointed when Amaterasu didn't visit her in prison. Amaterasu tried to persuade her to back down when she broke out of prison but was unsuccessful. She was later seen crying over her dead body. She later talked about her death on television and said that the only comfort was the knowledge that she would see her again in two years.
Baal
Baal and Lucifer had a disagreement after Lucifer slept with Baal's boyfriend, Inanna. The two were similarly stubborn and faced off after Lucifer's escape from prison.
Other relationships
Lucifer admitted to having slept with Inanna and Sakhmet in the past, but denied sleeping with either Minerva or Baal. She seemed to greatly dislike Tara and Woden.
Powers
- Pyrokinesis: Lucifer's most recognisable miracle was producing a flame with the signature finger snap "kllk", but her abilities extended to causing much devastating pyrokinetic effects. Such feats included creating an entire wall of fire to engulf her opponents, as well as seemingly cause objects to combust, such as her cuffs and even the heads of her attackers. There was also an instance in which she destroyed bullets; whether she created a protective aura around herself to do so or simply destroyed the bullets through combustion is unknown, though it is likely the latter.
- Performance: Very little is known about her performances, but like the other gods she does have her fans, and based on variant cover art for Issue 3 she seemingly gave primarily vocal-based performances. At certain moments when she performed miracles her eyes changed from blue to red.
- Underground teleportation: Being an underworld god it is likely she was able to travel to the Underground, although she did not seem to do so before her death.
Past Recurrences
30s Recurrence
During this recurrence, Lucifer is mentioned as having appeared by Set during the events of the 1920s recurrence. Set found out about Lucifer's death from Jesus in a tavern five days after the Crucifixion.
1830s Recurrence
Lucifer made an appearance in the 1830s Recurrence as Lord Byron, and was one of the final four gods to die, alongside Woden, Morrigan and Inanna. He and Inanna engaged in a sexual relationship that resulted in her falling pregnant, though she died before carrying the pregnancy to term. Shortly before their joint deaths, the remaining gods all went to stay in Lake Geneva, where Lucifer was visited by Ananke with a mysterious package. After a round of horror stories, he revealed that it contained the severed hand of Hades, who had died a week earlier. Lucifer and Morrigan proposed to resurrect Hades using this limb, in the hopes that they could find a way circumvent the 'dead in two years' restriction. This plan backfired spectacularly, however, as it resulted in the creation of an entirely new Creature who then proceeded to kill them both. Woden sacrificed herself to tame the Creature, and Inanna was later killed by Ananke.
Over 150 years later, Cassandra identified a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery as a depiction of the 1830s Lucifer. The man pictured appeared to be dressed in Middle Eastern inspired clothes, with a black moustache and beard, and was wearing a red turban. This painting is based on a portrait of Byron in Albanian dress.[7]
1920s Recurrence
Lucifer appeared during the events of the 1920s Recurrence. All the other eleven gods gathered on an island owned by Lucifer towards the end of the Recurrence. He was supposedly quite well off, and had created a hologram in his residence in addition to other scientific advantages. He chatted with Ananke before having his head blown off by Set, setting a chain of murders into motion.
Mythology
While not traditionally regarded as a god, Luci appears to be based on the Christian Satan. Lucifer was originally an angel but was exiled from Heaven for rebelling against God. He played a significant role as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, tempting Eve with the forbidden fruit, leading to the creation of original sin. In popular culture, Lucifer appears in literary works such as Paradise Lost, Dante's Inferno and Doctor Faustus.
Quotes
By Lucifer
About Lucifer
Dialogue
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Trivia
- Lucifer's design is based on The Thin White Duke, a persona of David Bowie.[8]
- Lucifer's original name, Eleanor Rigby, is a reference to the Beatles song of the same name.
- A Bowie-inspired version of Lucifer also appears in The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, and later became the subject of a spin-off.
- Kieron Gillen wrote a short story about Lucifer meeting David Bowie after his death.
- A variant cover for Issue 2 featuring Lucifer is a reference to David Bowie's mugshot.
- Gillen originally considered including Loki in the Lucifer role, but decided against it as it was too on the nose.[9]
- Gillen has described Lucifer as "the distillation of what could be roughly phrased as a Kieron Gillen Character. One part Dangerous Liaisons, one part a cursory skim of The Bluffer’s Guide To Popular Culture Of The Last 4000 Years. My Emily Aster, my Loki, my Emma Frost and all the rest – a core character I return to to explore a bunch of things I find fundamental about me."[9]
Appearances
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Issue 1
- ↑ Issue 4
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Issue 5
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Issue 6, year confirmed in Writer Notes: The Wicked + The Divine #6
- ↑ Issue 6
- ↑ Kieron Gillen on Tumblr
- ↑ Writer Notes: The Wicked + The Divine #2
- ↑ Writer Notes: The Wicked + The Divine #1
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Writer Notes: THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #5
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