Lucifer, Volume 3: Blood in the Streets

Lucifer (2015)

by Richard Kadrey, Holly Black, Lee Garbett (Illustrations)

Lucifer Morningstar continues his comeback in the third volume of this series by best-selling writer Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles) and new series writer, and New York Times best-selling author, Richard Kadrey (Sandman Slim)!

After his harrowing confrontation with God himself, it's time for Lucifer to enjoy the season to be merry. Featuring a Krampus-approved holiday special, this third volume of the new hit Lucifer series takes the bringer of light through the streets of Los Angeles, the depths of the underworld and the deepest recesses of his own mind while he tries to live his life as a part of an ancient evil tradition and as a member of the living world.

Collecting: Lucifer 13-19

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Horror, Mythology, Fiction, Dc Comics

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2017

About the author

Richard Kadrey is a writer and freelance musician living in Pittsburgh, best known for his Sandman Slim novels. His work has been nominated for the Locus and BSFA awards. Kadrey's newest books are The Secrets of Insects, released in August 2023; The Dead Take the A Train (with Cassandra Khaw), released in September 2023; The Pale House Devil, released in September 2023.

Reviews

[Chad]

Something of a letdown to the end of this story. Lots of new characters and plots are introduced only to have them half-ass quickly wrapped up in the final issue. I'm sure Kadrey had larger plans that DC cut short, but still. This was an unwieldy mass of characters and story to ever try and bring in for a smooth landing. It's a shame because I really dug the other two volumes in the series.

[Dev]

I just ...I want to like this but it's so underwhelming? I mean I like all the characters. I like Noema and Medjine, Lorin and Raphael are too cute, Leandre's moms are great, Arabella is awesome even though I'm not sure why they didn't just use John Constantine instead, I'm happy we are getting to see more of Lucifer and Mazikeen because I've always shipped them so hard, even Gabriel is endearing and I like watching him and Lucifer bicker but ...

Where is all of this GOING? I feel like this series has absolutely no story structure so far, both in terms of the overall picture and the short-term arcs. I mean in the old series if something said 'part 1 of 3' it was a very clear self-contained arc that fed into the overall picture but now it seems like everything is just going every which way. Also I feel like Lucifer is ...kind of out of character? I don't know he's just TOO GREAT at everything now. Like I know he always came out on top in the original series but he got the shit kicked out of him first A LOT and he also actually needed to be saved by other people several times. Now he's just like oooh too cool super untouchable, like he's becoming a caricature of himself. I don't know, maybe I'm being too hard on this series but it just doesn't feel right.

Also WHY can't Elaine be God anymore and how is someone else supposed to do it? I mean I know she never wanted to but I thought she was pretty much stuck with it because the only reason she could do it in the first place was that she had Michael's powers so how is some random human supposed to do it now? Like it has to be Elaine because her name is written on everything and she absorbed the other two universes into her own. What hand-wavey crap are we about to go into?

[Chris Lemmerman]

[Read as single issues]
Poor Richard Kadrey. He had a lot to do in these final issues of the series, after Holly Black set up a lot of storylines and then left the series before they could be resolved.

To be fair, he manages pretty well. Not only does he wrap up the Dark Presence storyline, but he also pulls in his own characters including a very obvious female Constantine, and a demonic property developer, for a conclusion that ties all of the threads together in some very unexpected ways. It's not really a patch on the old Lucifer series, but it does pay homage to it well, and doesn't insult the reader while doing it, either. Some of it's a little rushed, but what do you expect when you have six issues to tie everything up when you didn't even write the story to start with?

Also included here is a Christmas special issue which is good fun, but mostly just a breather issue to allow for a smoother transition, with a story by Black and a story by Kadrey (and gorgeous artwork from Marco Rudy along the way).

Lee Garbett finishes off his run on the book just as strongly as he started; I feel like he's a very under-rated artist, especially after his run here and on Loki: Agent Of Asgard over at Marvel. He manages to pencil lots of issues consecutively, and while his style is easy on the eye, it does have an edge to it that makes it really suitable for these operating-in-the-shadows types of characters.

Bye for now Lucifer. Maybe you'll last a little longer next time.

[Sud666]

Let's be honest- Volume three of this phenomenal series (under Mike Carey -the original series) manages to reach a level of tolerable mediocrity, enough to fend off a 1 star rating. The artwork is downright awful. I am not sure what "style" this artist was going for but I ,humbly, advise against using it ever again. What happened to the artist from the very first story? He was decent. The rest? *sigh*

So we have established that the art is about as appealing as desiccated feces. Wonderful. But what about the story? Well....the story manages some brief spurts of interesting story sadly turned banal due to characters that were not terribly interesting. Lucifer still manages to shine but, for some reason, has stolen a massive broadsword from some Japanese Final Fantasy character and is dealing with a troika of Beelzebub, Asmodeus and Izanami (of the House of Windowless Rooms) trying to take over Hell. Annabelle Crane is a sorry substitute for John Constantine. You'd think someone of Lucifer's status would imply the meeting with the Earth's preeminent sorcerer (outside a handful of others) instead of who ever the hell this stand-in is. Not impressed. Also whatever is wrong with God (He has an infection? seriously? *sigh*) is a dumbass storyline-as a hint on how to handle God witness the inscrutable character of Mike Carey's God. This version? *sigh* So overall even the Devil couldn't rescue this volume. The Morningstar's magnetic personality and classy wit manage to drag this shallow version of a truly great comic character, kicking and screaming, into the light of mediocrity. Hence 2 stars. You a fan of Lucifer? Who isn't? Try Mike Carey. Like this silly blonde chick? Yeah? Try John Constantine.

[Shannon Appelcline]

Wait, seriously, a new author for the last volume of a 19-issue indie-ish series? Yeah, the results are exactly as bad as you'd expect.

I wouldn't say that the new author exactly ruins this story, but he doesn't do it any justice either. He doesn't know the characters, and he mashes even more on top of them. The plot feels like people going through the motions. The climaxes are so minor as to be anticlimatic, and the reset buttons are too obvious.

But the worst may be that he just doesn't understand scope. We have a fight with an evil god for the fate of the universe, and Lucifer is worried about being evicted!?

This second major Lucifer series had potential that it never quite reached, but this final volume dragged it all the way down.

[Alex Sarll]

The conclusion of the brief, better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be revival, though curiously the third act proper is the work of a new writer, Richard Kadrey. Still, he mostly maintains the tone of what's come before (and in turn, what preceded that) as the Morningstar schemes to undo the new and even worse version of his father which has taken the throne of the Silver City. My one quibble was the big role given to a character who seemed to arrive out of thin air, Arabelle Crane, but given she's basically the young John Constantine except even hotter, I wasn't as annoyed as all that. The collection does open with one issue still written by Holly Black, and that's a Christmas special, so coincidentally good timing for my read there.
"You're having a jolly old time. Jealous that everyone is celebrating whatshisname's birthday?"
"People celebrate me every day. I don't need a holiday."

[María Amparo]

Quizás con lo que disfruté de Padre Lucifer y de los frentes abiertos tan interesantes que dejaba pendientes, mis expectativas eran demasiado altas. La verdad que las lineas argumentales han confluido y se han resuelto de forma más o menos convincente, pero no me ha gustado tanto como el anterior volumen. Quizás merezca una segunda lectura. Dos cosas me molestan, por otra parte. Una irracional: no entiendo qué necesidad había de resucitar y desmerecer a Miguel Demiurgos por tan poco papel, a no ser que Holly Black se lo reserve como comodín, lo que visto lo visto, no me tranquiliza. Miguel Demiurgos es mi personaje favorito de ciclo de Carey. Aunque solo cubra la mitad, él sigue presente en su hija, Elaine Belloc. La segunda es algo más objetiva. Habrá quien lo encuentre ocurrente o divertido, pero tampoco veo por qué si Lucifer ha de buscar aliados entre los magos y la elegida es una mujer, ésta sea un burdo remedo de John Constantine con notas propias a penas remarcables. Me molestan estos "homenajes guiños". Creo que se pueden crear personajes femeninos fuertes con entidad propia sin acudir a un reverso masculino. Por lo demás, los dos primeros episodios son dos divertimentos navideños entretenidos, el rescate irreverente del corazón de Gabriel es un punto teniendo en cuenta que acabó en manos del Primero de los Caídos en el Hellblazer de Ennis, y en general, el tomo se lee bien. Nada más.

[Lauri]

Ei saa neist vanade koomiksite uutest, ülesklopitud ja veidi moderniseerida üritatud uusverisoonidest asja, kõik nad kipuvad peale paari köidet hääbuma. Huvipuuduse tõttu tõenäoliselt. Ei le erandiks seegi siin. Kolmas köide ja ongi kõik. Kummalisel kombel oli kahe eelmise osa autori Holly Blacki kirjutatud stsenaarium päris igav, selle osa autor siin Richard Kadrey sai aga siiski mingitsorti Mike Carey tunnetuse kätte ja see meenutab ehk kõige rohkem vana head Luciferi. Sellest jäi aga väheks, sari tõmmati kokku.
Üldse tuleb Vertigo maha kanda, see on tänapäeval muutunud tüütavaks ja tapvalt igavaks. Lugege parem vana, Mike Carey kirjutatud sarja.

[Saif Saeed]

Wow this was a rushed ending.

Not a bad series, I liked the Gaiman Lucifer, loved the Carey Lucifer, and this one was shaping up to be just as good of a series. A lot of the character interactions were what I imagined they would be under a new writer. Sort of the same but different enough where it mattered (most notably with the presence).

Felt like the writer was trying to fit six volumes of Lucifer stories into one, and it showed with the rushed ending. Bit disappointing but the series was still enjoyable. Pick this up if you like Sandman, Lucifer, or religious stories.

[Jaimie]

Woohoo, first graphic novel of 2019 complete! But did they seriously wrap up what was meant to be a much longer storyline in a mere 7 issues?!? I guess they did have a major change in writing staff, but I'm surprised that they chose to kill God and tie up the rest of the story's vague plots with very little denouement. It does make for a stronger story, I guess, and not every graphic novel series needs to be 10+ volumes, but I was just getting into the new Lucifer and the new political schemes in Heaven! Then again, we didn't really need this at all in comparison to the previous series authored by Mike Carey, but it was still another fun romp through hell (and hell on earth) and gave us a little more to think about in the strange and interesting life in Lucifer Morningstar.

[Jess]

bit of a rushed ending but Lucifer is always a delight

[Kara]

I know some fans of the original Lucifer series will pitch a fit about the slight changes in tone, but I like Black's writing, so I don't mind the shift.

[Storm]

13 - Krampusnacht and Secret Santa
"Every December 5th is Krampusnacht, and on that night in Los Angeles, people participate in the KRAMPUSLAUF -- the running of the Krampuses. But if they find themselves at Ex Lux, they better be prepared to meet things far Scarier than Latex Masks and Resin horns.."

The stories aren't bad. However the DISMAL quality of the illustrations and coloring kill any enjoyment in reading. I feel rather cheated really. They feature a LOAD of Lucifer AND Mazikeen, in a red dress. Should have been fabulous, but was so terribly drawn I can only give this 1*.

Blood In The Streets 1: Happy New Year
"In the center of it all is Lucifer Morningstar. His powers are restored, but what good are they if he doesn't know what to do with them?"

Blood In The Streets 2: Little Girl Lost
Lucifer "You always have a choice. It's called Free Will. Just don't abuse it with foolish decisions."

Blood In The Streets 3: Road Tripping
Gabriel "A disaster. I'm the WORST angel in creation."
Lucifer "Careful. Now you're treading on MY territory."
Gabriel "You were RIGHT earlier. I'm NOT the worst Angel in Creation."

Blood In The Streets 4: Death & Deception
Shady guy "I have a LOT of Lawyers."
Lucifer "Ex Lux is AWASH in lawyers. God ones, Bad ones, Shady ones, AND otherwise. You see I'm not by nature a joiner, so you're going to have to do better than that."

Blood In The Streets 5: Forms of Fire
Takahiko "It's no use. I have your m=Morningstar power now."
Lucifer "Having it and knowing what to do with it are VERY different things."

Blood In The Streets 6: An End, A Beginning
Lucifer "Are you ready, Rachel?"
Rachel "As much as I'll ever be."
Lucifer "Then let's get going. We'll All meet back here for drinks. Or Armageddon."

This was a bit of a mess, all the way to the ending. The art isn't as good as the first 12 issues and the change of author didn't help at all. It does manage to give a "alternate" take on the 75 issue Lucifer comic, but messes up by changing a lot of things and unnecessarily bringing back characters that we know have died in the original Lucifer comic. It's a shame because there are really good new characters, there is intrigues, plot twists and humor. Such a lot of potential for greatness, and yet it fell short.

[Kathryn]

I really wanted to like this series, but I finished reading this volume and felt just underwhelmed.

I think the big problem is that the book's writers brought in a lot of characters from Mike Carey's Lucifer series (Mazakeen, Elaine Belloc, Rachael and her brother Paul) without a whole lot of explanation about who they were. At the same time though, either the DC New 52 ended up changing the backstory for some of those characters, or the current writers failed to grasp what happened in the end of Mike Carey's series (Elaine, for instance, is only the god of her alternate universe and has no interesting in being god of this universe, even though the Mike Carey series blended all the universes together, leaving Elaine in charge when God abdicated.)

If you've read everything leading up to this current series then you're constantly confronted with the changes that were made to an established story. And if you haven't read everything, then you have a lot of characters that you're supposed to identify with, even though you have no idea what's going on. Why is Rachael's infant brother Paul able to talk? What's the deal with the little girl who can see the future and shape things with her mind? If a series tries too hard to rope in both new and old fans, you run the risk of creating a comic that pleases nobody.

Lucifer is still the charming monster, and I admit to being pleased that his love affair with Mazakeen is now out in the open. But I think we've lost a lot of the nuance we had with a Devil that has lots of agendas but for the most part doesn't actually CARE about anything. The fact that the series was abruptly cancelled and the writer only had a few issues to wrap up all of the storylines that were created by the previous writer Holly Black made everything feel rushed and way too convenient. The Christmas stories that open this book are worth a look, but for the most part I think you can give this one a pass.

[Laura]

Apparently a new author had to take over this final part, and it shows. The previous volumes were quite promising, tying into characters and some plot points left over from the original series (that I ended up liking way more than expected!). I went straight into this after reading the original for the first time.

There's too much going on, yet somehow too little. The climax, if you can even call it that, is pitifully boring. So far it's been God dies (shock!), comes back evil (the horror!), and yeah, Lucifer defeats him by... being evil and chucking Gabriel's heart at him, in like 3 pages.

Too much time is spent on side plots that contributed nothing, like the evil real estate guy, female Constantine expy, or Lorin's friend. Even Lorin himself, I couldn't care less about him or Rafael. This means that the promising things, like Noema Presto, or Medjine sharing her Basanos power are overlooked.

Medjine's previous (probably still legally) adoptive family aren't shown again, she's staying with her brother's parents who somehow accept this, and the craziness. I liked Rosemary and Takehiko when they debuted and thought they deserved more characterisation and a shown/better ending.

The strongest parts were those that carried over from Carey's work, like Lucifer and Mazikeen, or Izanami's revenge. Though I don't get how Paul is a baby when Noema's 12 and Elaine brought him back when Noema was a newborn. Briadach and his servant are also alive, when I'm sure they died. Elaine's barely there, and apparently will get replaced as God for.. reasons?

I do realise a 19 issue series couldn't complete a lot in this fairly short time, but I liked the earlier volumes more, and there were unnecessary sideplots that could have been replaced with adding to the important ones. This had potential, but left me unsatisfied.

[Petergiaquinta]

I dunno what happened to Holly Black, and it doesn't really matter because after what I thought was initially a strong start from her taking over the reins from Mike Carey, the series really went downhill in the second volume. Perhaps writing Lucifer really wasn't her cup of tea, but initially she seemed to have a good feel for Gaiman's original character, something I felt Carey had failed at. Because, while his storylines were interesting, in Carey's writing Lucifer really felt like a stiff, and that's not something I want for the Lord of Hell. God can be a bore. And is. Metatron and Michael and most of the other angelic host of the Silver City of course are all insufferable dullards. But the Lightbringer needs to have a spark, a wry sense of humor even, a spring in his step and a witty comeback at the ready. For me, Black's strength was giving him a little more of that spark than what Carey had allowed, and this new writer, whom I know nothing about, continues Lucifer's character in the same direction. (Go too far in that direction, though, and you'll get Tom Ellis's overly flamboyant figure of the television series; go too far in the other and you've got the dire portrayal by Peter Stormare in the Constantine movie.) Here Richard Kadrey's material is stronger and better than most of the second volume, evident in the first story by Black which feels a bit like toss-off filler. And yet, he doesn't seem allowed the time and space to develop his storyline which ends rather quickly and conveniently. There is a remaining (and at this point, final) Lucifer series published a few years later as part of the Sandman Universe reboot. No doubt I'll be digging into that after the New Year. The devil made me do it.

[Guilherme Smee]

Vinha acompanhando e curtindo muito essa nova versão do Lúcifer pela Holly Black, escritora da série de terror, As Crônicas de Spiderwick. Mas, qual a minha surpresa, quando parei para ler o terceiro encadernado que Holly apenas assinava duas histórias de Natal da série. Quem conduziria a série então, ao seu "derradeiro final" seria o escritor Richard Kadry, que não me lembro de ter lido nada feito por ele. Assim, comecei a perceber como os números feitos por Black eram melhores. Já que Kadry tem um estilo em que todo personagem precisa sair com tiradinhas espertas. Todo. Personagem. E eu pensei "taí, estragou a série". Mas não foi o que aconteceu, tirando essa mania esquisita de personagens espertalhões para todo lado, depois a trama se ajusta e ele consegue manejá-la dando um fim satisfatório para a série. Uma lástima que a Vertigo tenha cancelado essa série, uma vez que a série de Lucifer está bombando tanto lá fora como aqui no Brasil. Mas - RÁ - era uma pegadinha do Mallandro da Vertigo, porque ela iria relançar Lucifer dentro do Sandman Universe, compondo uma das quatro revistas desse selo dentro do selo da Vertigo! Então, minhas rezas, opa, minhas maldições, para que a nova série seja tão boa quanto as duas anteriores!

[Thebadwolf]

4.5 stars. Not as good as the series that proceed this one, but ok. It was entertaining, but a little confusing. It seemed to me that the writers of this series may not have read the entire series that came before because some things were confusing and different without any explanation. I got the feeling that the writers just read a summary of the series, and then wrote this continuation. Some plot points seemed forced just to bring some of the characters back into the story after the events of the prior series and to create the conflict. However that is a view of this series as a whole and this individual book. I read this a while after reading the preceding books in the series, so I forgot some details about what had happened before, but it was still pretty good. The writers did do a good job of capturing Lucifer's personality and motivations. Overall this book and series are pretty good and entertaining, but the original series is better.

Satan begone
Oh yeah and the art is pretty good, a softer style though I usually like a harder art style but pretty ok. Now a real artistic master piece is the art on the Percy Jackson graphic novels. Its just *mwah* perfection. Just look at how Nico is drawn they captured his character perfectly.

[Darth Reader]

I miss Holly Black's Lucifer. I could clearly see a difference in the writing style and the motive behind some of the character's actions were so carelessly thought out. I'm unsure why Black was only a guest writer on this, but I think they made a mistake.

The Christmas/holiday stories at the beginning of this were absolutely fucking atrocious and who ever okay'd that should be seriously reviewed.

I think, ultimately, the artist should be thanked greatly. A lot of what was lost in Lucifer's dialogue by not having Black writing was made up for by the artist. He was able to capture what Kadrey could not in the way characters stood or were portrayed. Several scenes were saved by this.

I love Lucifer. I hope they bring Black back.

[Brian Minsker]

Another shift in authors for this reboot of Mike Carey's classic series, this time with Sandman Slim author Richard Kadrey. The result is a slight tick up from Holly Black's later work on the series, and though Kadrey is clearly still learning a bit about graphic storytelling, his voice for Lucifer is closer to Carey's character than Black's was. It helps that Kadrey has some experience with writing palace intrigue in Hell with the Sandman Slim series. The end result is a pretty good story told pretty well. The reboot is still not up to Carey's original series, but it's getting closer.

[Sarah]

2 stars for writing but giving it 3 stars because the artwork is fantastic - some of my fav artists worked on this book. But even though I am quite a Richard Kadrey fan, I am not really a fan of the writing in this book. He is trying too hard to do exactly what the author of the original series did but it's not a patch on Mike Carey. Not impressed with Th lack of New characters - not really impressed at all.

[Oneiriad]

The plotlines were quite neatly and satisfactorily concluded. That said, this whole series mostly felt like pastiche of the original Lucifer series and an attempt to re-create the 80s and 90s era Vertigo and similar comics that spawned it - and I'm sorry to say that it never quite manages to rise above that to become something new, something its own.

[J Sams]

Meh

Posing and snappy patter isn't really writing. It certainly doesn't come close to the subtlety of Carey's earlier work on the title. The characters could have been drawn from a template, just chose blonde or brunette. Humans should come in all shapes and sizes. Takes all kinds to make a world. Maybe this is supposed to pass for Gen Z wit? Got tedious by the end.

[francesca]

everyone happy and content. lucifer is a hero, sounds strange, doesn't it? but it's true, in this comic. at least the comic has a good ending.

nice, although, characters are different from how they were created. interesting and stuff (although completely different) but i can’t say i didn’t like reading it.

[Rachel]

Not a bad ending, I'm glad that they kept the series at a trilogy because the second book seemed rather drawn out, where this one was really finishing up the story and answering a lot of questions.

Not a bad, fun little series to read.

[Chris]

This was interesting but felt really rushed. I get the feeling like the story with God was going to drag out over a much longer series and then the book got canceled. So it ends with all the players in place but just WAY too fast.

[Alexander Dan'Iyan]

Not as good as the original

Not as good as the last collection, not even close... here they simply talk too much. Original series was formal and stoic, this one seemed like it was written by teenagers...

[Craig]

Early on, I was thinking I was absolutely going to hate this, but as it kept going, I found I was liking it more and more. There is still a bit of a rushed feeling to it all, with multiple story threads all getting tied up fairly neatly. The art is kind of slapdash, too.

[Benjamin]

Still not good enough, picks up a bit from the last edition, and theres less of the mumbo jumbo jarbly parts, and more of the coherent stuff we expect.

[José]

50/100.

Ha estado bien, pero no ha tenido más. Quizás me esperaba algo... distinto y simplemente, ha confluido de forma decente. Yo buscaba algo más y no lo he encontrado.