Are you excited for Lucifer tonight on Fox? Because I’m excited for Lucifer on Fox, it’s at 9 pm est, just in case you weren’t sure when the City of Angels was getting taken over by the former ruler of Hell. Now before the show airs I thought I’d talk about where this version of Lucifer came from. 

Now you might be thinking, Katherine Lucifer is totally from the Bible I don’t need you explaining this to me, but he’s so much more complex than that. The version of Lucifer Fox is showing began his life in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics. In the story line Season of Mists, Lucifer no longer wants to rule over Hell and kicks everyone out. He then gives the key to the Gates of Hell to Dream of the Endless, in case you haven’t read the comics that’s the Sandman. Hell winds up being placed in the control of two different fallen angels, Duma and Remiel. Lucifer heads out to spend his retirement on Earth and eventually winds up in Los Angeles.

Neil Gaiman’s Lucifer didn’t just stay in the land of Dream, but was scooped up by Mike Carey. He still looks roughly the same, maintaining the David Bowie inspired imagining of Gaiman, but now he reigns over the Lux bar in LA with his devoted female assistant, Mazikeen. Gaiman did not write the solo Lucifer series, but did give his blessing and even wrote the introduction to the first graphic novel. The comic ran for 75 issues, with an additional one shot story line, between 2000 and 2006. Carey also wrote a Lucifer story in a 1999 The Sandman Presents miniseries event for the character.

The television series is based on the Carey series that was inspired by Gaiman, so I guess you could call it an adaptation of an adaptation. This new imagining of Lucifer is being played by Tom Ellis, who looks a bit different than the original Lucifer.

Though he still rocks a suit, he’s definitely not a blond. As a fan of Supernatural I can understand why Fox would want to make their Lucifer different from Mark Pellegrino’s fair haired version on the CW.

Another difference between the comic and the show that I immediately noticed was Mazikeen. Her character in the comics has a half burned face, which she covers by wearing a mask. Because of her injury she also speaks through word bubbles that don’t show fully formed words. Lucifer understands her perfectly, but that isn’t the case for other characters.

Now in one of the Lucifer plots Mazikeen’s burned face is made completely normal through magic, so having her face no longer mutilated in the show doesn’t actually veer too far from the comics. Also it would be really hard to fully develop a character within a show if she wasn’t able to fully express herself. In the comics it was easy to do with word bubbles, but without those it would be much more difficult and I don’t think audiences would appreciate it as much. Lesley-Ann Brandt is going to be the tough warrior Mazikeen and I’m excited to see what she’ll do.

I really enjoyed Lucifer in the comics and I’m excited to see what will happen with this series. If you want to share your thoughts about Lucifer you can comment below or tweet at us, @thenerdygirlexp. You can also tweet at me, @kleffnotes, and find me on my blog, kleffnotes.wordpress.com, and on my kleffnotes YouTube channel.