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| NOTE: This article is about the mainstream version of Lucifer from the DC universe. The Sandman series version can be found here: Lucifer Morningstar (Sandman). Fo his film counterpart, see Lucifer (Constantine). |
| “ | You also rule a world, Morpheus. A world of sleepers and dreamers, of stories. A simple place compared to Hell. I envy you. Can you imagine what it was like? Ten billion years providing a place for dead mortals to torture themselves? And like all masochists, they called the shots. 'Burn me.' 'Freeze me.' 'Eat me.' 'Hurt me.' And we did. Why do they blame me for all their little failings? They use my name as if I spent my entire day sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive. 'The Devil made me do it.' I have never made any one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them. | „ |
| ~ Lucifer Morningstar describing his life of being the Devil. |
Lucifer Morningstar is the secondary antagonist of the DC Universe, specifically serving as the secondary antagonist of the Sandman comics series and the titular main protagonist of the his spin-off series of the same name.
A fallen archangel, he has taken the role of Satan on several occasions, though he has abandoned such power in favor of a more neutral existence. However, beings such as Lucifer can never truly be redeemed.
He is the arch-nemesis and brother of Michael, including his ex-lovers Lilith, Mazikeen and Izanami. He is also one of the archenemies (alongside Desire) of Dream of the Endless, as well as an enemy of John Constantine.
Quick Answers
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Appearance[]
New Earth (Pre-Flashpoint)
In his New Earth incarnation, Lucifer Morningstar is depicted as a tall, attractive man with fair skin and blonde hair, closely resembling a classical angelic figure. He is often seen wearing a sharp, tailored black suit, exuding an aura of sophistication and charm. His golden, feathered wings are a prominent feature, adding to his angelic yet enigmatic presence. In most images, Lucifer holds a martini glass casually.
Prime Earth (Post-Flashpoint)
In Prime Earth, Lucifer Morningstar undergoes a darker, more ethereal redesign. He is shown as a pale, almost statuesque figure with a haunting, bluish complexion. His features are sharper and more demonic compared to his previous incarnations, with pointed ears and a devilish countenance. His wings are no longer present, replaced by a more ominous and shadowy aura. He is seen manipulating marionette-like strings, suggesting control over others, a nod to his role as a master manipulator. His attire is more minimalistic and dark, possibly resembling robes or simple garments, contrasting with the elegance of his former self.
The Lucifer Series
In the Netflix adaptation of Lucifer is typically shown that of a handsome, middle-aged man with dark brown hair, a neatly groomed beard, and a charming, enigmatic smile. This version of Lucifer does not always display his wings, but when he does, they are bat-like, dark, and leathery, contrasting starkly with the angelic feathered wings of the comic book versions.
Biography[]
Modern Age[]
Lucifer's fall from Heaven
Lucifer was born to the Presence alongside of his twin brother, Michael. A long time ago, Lucifer was sent into the Chaosplasm for rebelling against Heaven. The Chaosplasm then became Hell, both Lucifer's prison and kingdom. He later also was forced to share some of his power when the Great Darkness returned. At some time, Dream of the Endless went into hell, hunting for his stolen helm. After finding his helm and seeing Lucifer, he threatened him that he would kill him.
After ten billion years of ruling Hell, Lucifer stopped ruling it. He also became bored with life and the falsehoods man spread about him. Because of this, he kicked everyone out of hell, locked its gates, and handed its key to Dream of the Endless, which later went into Duma's and Reimel's hands.
Heading to Earth, he now owns Lux, a bar in Los Angeles with Mazikeen. Said to be sophisticated and charming with a deadly and prideful underbelly, he is also stated to be both smart, powerful, and good-looking. He also has a code of honor of sorts, not lying, always paying back debts, and always doing what he says. However, he is also ruthless and self-centered, willing to manipulate people and deities for his own ends and he once let a couple starve to death in a labyrinth for intruding in the Lux.
His retirement was later interrupted by several of his former associates, where he, for her father, went ahead and made a universe. This event caused him, with several other deities, to make a new host of angels.
After Mike Carey's original Vertigo run ends with Lucifer creating his own universe and leaving creation, DC comics reintroduces him in Lucifer (Volume 2). This time, God has apparently been killed, and Lucifer is accused of the murder.
With God dead, Lucifer becomes the primary focus of Heaven's wrath. His adoptive brother Gabriel, among others, is dispatched to find and bring him to justice, dead or alive. Lucifer seeks to clear his name, while unraveling who truly killed his creator. While still extremely powerful, Lucifer uses armies and magical conflict rather than withdrawing from creation as in the original Vertigo comics.
The New 52[]
Two different versions of Lucifer were introduced in Prime Earth continuity. The first one was portrayed as a foe for Etrigan and Justice League Dark. Lucifer in Demon Knights is portrayed as the classic fallen angel and ruler of Hell, wielding immense power and a cold, manipulative demeanor. In his first appearance, Lucifer shows up in Hell and is an imposing presence, observing the Demon Knights' arrival and asserting his dominion. "The Prologue" shows the celestial war; Lucifer's rebellion against the Creator, and his fall to Hell.
Lucifer torments each member of the Demon Knights psychologically in his Hellish realm. He targets Exoristos with an offer tied to a powerful artifact called the Black Diamond, attempting to manipulate her into doing his bidding.
He later engages in a cat-and-mouse game with Etrigan, chastising him for betrayal and mocking his ambitions. Lucifer reveals that Merlin once struck a deal with him; banish Etrigan to Earth and bond him with Jason Blood. This was to curb Etrigan's rise and preserve Lucifer's rule in Hell.
He sees Etrigan as a thorn in his side, condemning him for rebelling, celebrating his subjugation, yet keeping a wary eye on his latent power. In subsequent issues, the Demon Knights, led by Etrigan’s plan, begin pushing back. Etrigan breaks free of Lucifer’s manipulation, rejecting servitude and ultimately preventing Hell’s invasion of Avalon. Lucifer’s hold on Etrigan dissolves as the team escapes.
DC Rebirth[]
Another version of Lucifer from Prime Earth is shown to be more closer to the original series. This version was introduced during the DC Rebirth era. Lucifer (Volume 3) (issues 1-6 collected as Lucifer: The Infernal Comedy) reboots Lucifer Morningstar's saga within The Sandman Universe, set after Neil Gaiman's original work but distinct from the Vertigo/Mike Carey continuity. Set in the Prime Earth continuity, the story unfolds as a dark, surreal mystery combining existential horror with metaphysics.
Lucifer finds himself powerless, blind, crippled, destitute, and trapped in a quiet boarding house in a strange town. He has no memory of how he arrived, or why. He's cut off from his former life and the divine realms. As he drifts through his limp identity, sinister forces torment him from every direction. This bizarre prison seems inescapable, and the only thing that can pull him out is finding someone, his missing son Caliban, who he doesn't even remember.
The narrative jumps across settings and timelines: flashes of Lucifer's past, his fragmented attempts to recover power, Caliban's fate, Detective John Decker's journey, and haunting glimpses into dreams, Heaven, and Hell. As Lucifer regains awareness, he begins to piece together who set him astray, why so many want him dead, and the cosmic stakes tied to Caliban; his forgotten child.
The many aspects of Lucifer
In The Divine Tragedy (issues 7-13 collected), Lucifer eventually resurrects Sycorax, the fairy-queen mother Caliban. Enraged, Heaven unleashes its host upon him, leaving him vulnerable and friendless. He finds temporary refuge in the lands of the dead, a realm beyond the reach of both Heaven and Hell. Raguel, an angelic warrior, grants Sycorax a reprieve; she can live for three more days before being dragged back to death. Lucifer rejects this deadline and launches a frantic mission to secure her freedom.
He searches through various afterlife realms, seeking a proper home for Sycorax. Lucifer also confronts the celestial host determined to end Sycorax's increment of borrowed time. He defies divine judgment, fights both cosmic and personal battles, and, ultimately, strives to protect both his son and the woman he brought back.
In The Wild Hunt (issues 14-19 collected), Lucifer later is drawn into a cosmic event known as the "Wild Hunt"; a supernatural hunt that traverses different realms and times, involving powerful beings and ancient forces. The Wild Hunt is a mystical, almost mythic pursuit that mixes folklore with celestial politics.
The Hunt forces Lucifer to face not only external threats but his own past and nature. Lucifer is compelled to join or confront this hunt when it threatens to upset the balance of cosmic order and personal freedom. Throughout the hunt, Lucifer encounters mythical hunters and creatures with their own agendas, divine and demonic beings who want to control or destroy the Wild Hunt, and figures from ancient myth and legend who challenge Lucifer's understanding of fate.
In The Devil at Heart (issues 20-24 collected), Lucifer is living in Los Angeles, blending into human society but never quite fitting in. Lucifer is forced to confront a new threat that blurs the line between Heaven, Hell, and earth.
Other Versions[]
- Main article: First of the Fallen
Powers and Abilities[]
- Nigh-Omnipotence: Unlike regular Fallen Angels, Lucifer retained his holy and nigh-omnipotent powers instead of them fading away completely. Lucifer is able to manipulate any external force for any effect he desires. He cannot, however, create something out of nothing; for this, he needs the Demiurgic force of his brother Michael and later his niece Elaine. Michael and Lucifer can create anything from living beings to entire multiverses. His most common use of power is calling forth the fire of the various suns he used to birth and burning his opponents to ashes. Lucifer is even stronger than the Endless, and the only known beings able to rival and surpass his power are Michael and The Presence.
- Omniscience: Lucifer knows the universe's entire history. He also knows information about others that they don't even know themselves, stating that "the world is a book, some words stand out from the page."
- Omnipresence
- Cosmic Awareness
- Energy Projection
- Enhanced Intellect: Lucifer's mental capacity is enhanced to levels greater than any normal human, allowing him to take in and process information at an accelerated rate. He could process the universe's 20-billion-year history in the blink of an eye.
- Flight: Lucifer can fly by using his large, angelic wings.
- Immortality: Lucifer will never grow physically old and can live forever. He is billions of years old. Only The Presence is said to have the ability to destroy him.
- Invulnerability
- Magic: Lucifer can use magic spells for various purposes. He could cast a spell on a dimensional gateway so that it would unmake the rest of creation if it were opened. He has also displayed skill in the use of blood magic. One spell allowed Lucifer to disrupt the power of the Basanos, using both his and Mazikeen's blood. Lucifer also used Mazikeen's blood to create a doorway out of an abstract dimension. He could also use "sympathetic magic," a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence. This allowed him to blind two demons by putting out a lit match.
- Matter Absorption
- Necromancy: As a psychopomp, Lucifer can choose the soul's destination if he kills a person or supernatural being, such as a demon. He killed Musubi by her own will; freeing herself from Izanami's service. Lucifer can also manipulate souls and the dead for various other purposes.
- Power Distribution: Lucifer has been shown capable of empowering a person's soul as a guardian spirit over virtually anything.
- Resurrection: Lucifer is capable of resurrecting anyone or anything that he kills.
- Pyrokinesis: As the Lightbringer, Lucifer possesses absolute control over fire and light. In his original role as "God's lamplighter", Lucifer used this power to condense clouds of hydrogen into star-masses and set them ablaze. He was able to manipulate residual energy of the cosmos to create suns on multiple occasions. He can also create large masses, and explosions of fire, as well as shape natural flames to his will.
- Thermal-Blast: Lucifer can generate powerful blasts of flames at will. He has also been shown capable of breathing a destructive stream of fire.
- Disintegration/Incineration: Lucifer can incinerate beings with his flames. He also once used his fire to incinerate the eyes of Meleos
- Dimensional Travel: Lucifer is capable of traveling throughout realms at will. He can create portals to Hell, as well as open doorways to the Void, a space outside of creation. He was also able to splinter a dimensional gateway to a world of his own creation across the multiverse, creating millions of gateways. Lucifer once traveled into the mind of a dying man and was even able to fly to the edge of the universe, where The Source resides.
- Reality Alteration: Lucifer is capable of shaping reality at will. After an explosion of Michael's Demiurgic power exploded in the Void, Lucifer was able to shape this energy into a universe of his own design, and even create life on this world.
- Infinite Stamina: Lucifer never gets tired and doesn't need to sleep.
- Supernatural Strength: Lucifer is strong enough to throw a person into orbit.
- Supernatural Mobility: Lucifer has been said to be able to circle the planet before his image leaves your eye.
- Telekinesis: Lucifer was capable of telekinetically flinging knives at goons and slicing them into chunks.
- Wings: As a fallen angel, Lucifer possesses large angelic wings.
Other Media[]
Television[]
Lucifer Morningstar in the 2016 TV series Lucifer.
Lucifer[]
- Main article: Lucifer Morningstar
Lucifer Morningstar stars as the titular main protagonist in the TV series Lucifer, played by Tom Ellis, who also plays his identical twin brother Michael in Season 5.
In the show, he is bored of his role of ruling Hell, and so he rebels, abandoning the Underworld to go live in the mortal world, more specifically Los Angeles, where he runs a nightclub called Lux with his demon companion, Mazikeen "Maze". When a celebrity he did business with is gunned down before him, he sets out to find out who ordered the hit, but Maze is concerned that he's showing empathy for mortals. He currently assists L.A.P.D. detective Chloe Decker in solving various cases, using his ability to compel people to speak their honest opinions and secrets to get what he wants. Meanwhile, the angel Amenadiel appears to Lucifer and tries convincing him to go back to Hell, as he'll have to take Lucifer's place if he doesn't go back, who then releases a psychotic damned soul named Malcolm Graham to ensure that Lucifer returns to Hell by force, which backfires and forces the two to work together to send him back.
Lucifer Devil face
In Season 2, he's reunited with his mother, who escapes from Hell at the end of Season 1. He is later forced to confront her after she plans to return to Heaven to wreak vengeance on God for banishing her and starts willingly hurting any mortal who gets in her way. In Season 3, Lucifer finds himself with his angel wings regrown, and must hunt down the one who kidnapped him and did so. His only suspect is a criminal mastermind known as "the Sinnerman", who was later revealed to be the L.A.P.D.'s new lieutenant, Marcus Pierce a.k.a. Cain. He is also forced to confront his feelings for Chloe Decker, whose true affection he rivals Pierce over. At the end of the season, his face is unintentionally revealed to Chloe after killing Pierce for murdering Charlotte Richards.
In Season 4, Lucifer is faced with several dilemmas that affect his life: Chloe trying to accept his face and the truth, the return of the original sinner Eve; a fanatical priest named Father Kinley who is trying to send him back to Hell because of a prophecy that spoke of him and his "first love" unleashing evil on Earth; and trying to struggle with his own self-hatred for his past actions. At the end of the season, after demons briefly visit Earth to replace him with Amenadiel's son, Lucifer returns to Hell to keep them at bay, but not before confessing his love for Chloe.
In Season 5, after ruling Hell for thousands of years (which is actually two months on Earth), Lucifer is forced to return to Earth after Amenadiel informs him that his evil twin brother Michael has arrived in Los Angeles impersonating him and is attempting to either ruin or take over his life, leaving Amenadiel to rule Hell. After doing so, he learns that Amenadiel returns after God tells him that Hell no longer needs a warden, and he starts a relationship with Chloe. Later, during a fight alongside Amenadiel against Michael, God arrives to end their conflict.
Arrowverse[]
Ellis reprised his role as a minor character in the Arrowverse's 2019-2020 crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths. John Constantine, John Diggle and Mia Smoak travel to Earth-666 to ask Lucifer for help by giving them a card to enter Purgatory so they could save Oliver Queen's soul.
The Sandman[]
Lucifer in The Sandman
- Main article: Lucifer Morningstar (Sandman)
Lucifer appears as one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside The Corinthian) of Netflix's The Sandman series. They are portrayed by Gwendoline Christie, who also portrayed Captain Phasma in Star Wars.
Film[]
- Main article: Lucifer (Constantine)
Lucifer appears as the overarching antagonist of the movie Constantine, here played by Peter Stormare (who also portrayed Werner Zytle on Arrow).
Trivia[]
- Creator Neil Gaiman explained that Lucifer's design was based on the late legendary singer David Bowie.
- He is the only version of a character named "Lucifer Morningstar" to be villainous, as the versions from FOX/Netflix Lucifer and Hazbin Hotel are portrayed as heroic characters.
External Links[]
- Lucifer Morningstar (New Earth) on the DC Wiki
- Lucifer Morningstar (Prime Earth) on the DC Wiki
- Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer) on the Heroes Wiki
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