Crux

Mike Carey, Lucifer: Crux (Vertigo, 2006) God abdicated his throne a couple of volumes back, leading directly to the re-emergence of Fenris and the beginning of the end of both our universe and Lucifer's own creation. There were other repercussions, too, and as Crux opens, we see the first of them; a dying Michael tries to pass his power into Elaine, but the resultant explosion sends both Elaine and Lucifer into another realm entirely, leaving the way clear for the Lilim to attempt to size control of heaven. As if Fenris weren't enough of a problem. While all that's going on, Lucifer's giving Elaine a crash course in how to use her newfound power; she'll need all of it if she's going to hold worlds together in the face of such an assault. Very, very good stuff, this, and well worth your time if you're a Sandman fan (and aren't we all?). ****

Revolution us under way in all parts of the universe and there seems to be an awful lot of players in this game that want to smack the face of God for everything that is wrong with His creation. Christopher Rudd as the new ruler of Hell wants to smack for the sin of Hell itself. Lilith and her offspring want to smack as final revenge for being denied paradise although they built the Silver City. The Jin en Mok want to break free from their constricted existence in this creation. Fenris the wolf is destruction incarnate and just wants to finish what he started. Again Mike Carey manages to make the same point in the stand-alone story "The Yahweh Dance". Elaine has to learn the God business and she reaches the same point when almost all of her creation wants to smack her face. The story of the impenetrable wall between two parts of her creation that once was a good thing but finally prompts people to attempt mass suicide is a reason for five stars for this volume by itself. Forget the Berlin wall. Could there be a more powerful comment on the wall recently built by the Israelis? Finally, the pregnancy of Jill comes to term. A great story in itself, but also a nice cliffhanger to see what fate incarnate (the offspring of the Basanos) will do in the next volume.

Hooray for the return of Marc Hempel! I loved his minimalist style from "Sandman: The Kindly Ones," so it was a happy surprise to see his work for "The Eighth Sin," the first story in the "Lucifer: Crux" collection. My other rave would be for "The Yahweh Dance," where we find Elaine Belloc learning to harness her newly acquired demiurgic power under Lucifer's tutelage. In addition to being written as a smart and sassy teenager coming to terms with her semi-divinity, Elaine's appeal, to me, is that she provides a humanizing, compassionate foil to Lucifer's singleminded pursuits. With regard to the review below, I agree that the stories collected here are setting up the series finale but I'd have to disagree on how "Crux" could have been organized any differently. Including subsequent issues would mean either breaking up the "Morningstar" story arc into two TPBs or putting out a massive TBP that contained all the stories from "Crux" as well as the "Morningstar" story arc. As much as I want to find out what happens next whenever I read "Lucifer," I don't think I could handle "Crux" AND "Morningstar" in the same volume. Likewise, I KNOW I wouldn't be able to handle "Morningstar" split into two TPBs. Can't wait until July when the "Morningstar" TPB comes out!

The Lucifer series is set to end at 75 issues and this TPB is essentially the setup for the ending. As a bunch of individual stories its ok. As an integrated whole it is lacking. The book should have included a few more issues to balance the setup with some resolution. Otherwise, why give titles to the books, just call them Issues x-x.