Feel free to spoil - The character Mazikeen in the Sandman/Lucifer stories - does it ever explain why she only has half a face, and then gets it back by the 5th volume of Lucifer? I’m missing out on about 3 of the Sandman TPBs, and vols 2-4 of Lucifer, as they never seem to be in at the local library.
Cheers
Nah, it’s never explained as far as I know. She’s a demon; they look weird.
Actually, in Lucifer it’s stated that Mazikeen chose to look as she did, in part as a reminder of the transitory nature of reality. In, um, Children & Monsters I think, Jill Presto comes across Mazikeen who had been burned to a cinder during her battle with Cestis, a creature who’d broken into Lux. Jill told the Basanos to heal Mazikeen but didn’t understand why they were going to leave her with half a face, so Jill, trying to be helpful, forced the Basanos to give Mazikeen a human face. When Mazikeen woke up, horrified with her new appearance, she told Jill that she’d kill her next time she saw her. (That’s why, in Mansions of the Silence, which it appears you’ve read, when Jill smiles at Mazikeen and says “Lookin’ good!” Mazikeen blows up at her.)
–Cliffy
Now that makes sense. Cheers. I’ll get round to reading all of them sooner or later, like I say people love sitting on the middle TPBs for some reason at my local library.
My copy’s hidden, but Gaiman explains this in the SANDMAN COMPANION. Unfortunately, I don’t recall what he said, but you can pick the book up at most comic stores.
Close - it was in the last part of The House of Windowless Rooms, the story that shares a TPB with Children and Monsters. I don’t recall where Mike Carey explains Mazikeen’s appearance, though - do you have an issue number?
Pardon the hijack, but is the Lucifer series good? I know that Gaiman’s not involved so before buying them I was wondering if they are on par with Sandman in terms of quality and wit.
Depends what you mean by quality and wit. Mike Carey weaves a better storyline, but he doesn’t do intricate little fiddlings about like Gaiman did. I’d recommend it, but then I would.
Yeah, I’ve been getting the collections one at a time, and they’re very intriguing. THe main plot is that Lucifer has decided he can create a universe better than God can, so he’s done it while facing Heanven’s ramifications. He also looks up lesser known fallen angels and foreign demons and suitably manipulates them. Individual humans who follow him wind up dieing purposeless deaths, so it is, to borrow from Leminy Snickett, a series of unfortunate events.
No idea. I think where I got that is a passing narrative reference in one of the issues where Mazikeen is coming back to Lux after her trial by the Lilim – would that be Purgatorio, maybe?
–Cliffy
It’s great. Lucifer is a somewhat different character. He is simply unconcerned with the consequences to others that his actions visit on them; everything and everyone – even those people he “likes” – is a tool he can use, and if they end up destroyed in the process, it’s all the same to him.
The book is really wonderful. Not only is Lucifer a compelling protagonist, there are several well-developed characters each with their own agenda and the whole thing hangs together. In some ways it’s better than Sandman (it’s certainly more carefully constructed), in some ways it’s not, but it is indubitably worth seeking out.
–Cliffy
That is, Lucifer is a somewhat different character in this book than he is in Sandman.
–Cliffy, again
Nope - Mazikeen returns to Lux in The Ancestral Deed (#16) and there’s no narrative reference to her face at all. I’ll just have to keep looking.
It is. The only Sandman spinoff that I’ve read, but I wouldn’t reccomend is The Dreaming, which was rather a let down.