I have realized that I am more impressed by the Lucifer series the further into it I get. Although it does not have the ambitious scope of Gaiman’s Sandman series that was its genesis, the scope it has is ambitious indeed, and the depth is all but equivalent. Or maybe it just depends on what you mean by scope. Where Sandman traipsed all over the field, from myth to human nature to family, all interleaved, Lucifer keeps its focus pretty narrow. But considering that the focus is on the end of the world with heavy dollops of religious controversy for flavor, you can’t exactly argue that scope is a problem here either.

The Wolf Beneath the Tree is the culmination of months of planning. Lucifer has paid his debts and cleaned his house, and has no particular plans beyond sitting on his metaphorical back porch and watching the sun set on God’s creation. But of course things never work out that simply, do they? Not when there’s a Norse wolf-god out to destroy all of existence and Destiny is either meddling in events or fated to do so, depending mostly on whether you believe in free will. (Lucifer, unsurprisingly, does.) I could be wrong, but I feel like the series has reached the point of no return, events spiraling out of control, explosive climax and all that. It’s gonna be hard to convince myself not to just go ahead and finish up now.

Also, the first story about Lilith and her countless offspring and especially about the earliest part of Mazikeen’s backstory? I would like more of that, please!