The first promotional pic for yet another DC comics-inspired tv series emerged, and it features the titular anti-hero from Lucifer. Yes, that Lucifer. In the show the Devil, portrayed by Tom Hellis, will abandon Hell out of boredom for his “job”, and will move to Los Angeles where, for reasons yet to be explored, he will start helping the local police in solving crimes. This version is clearly based on Neil Gaiman‘s one, but will differ in many ways, starting from the look (he appears to be dark-haired, for a start). This is not the character’s first live action appearance: he was featured in the tv series Superboy as the villain of the episode Carnival, where, under the alias Deville and portrayed by Christopher Neame, he stole the soul of the people attending his carnival. He also appeared in the Constantine movie portrayed by Peter Stormare: he acted as a deus ex machina in the climax, coming to collect a suicidal John Constantine‘s soul, but ending up preventing his rebel son Mammon from taking over his realm. Now, waiting to see what the tv series will do with the Devil himself, let’s see who he is in the comics.
At the beginning, the Presence created angels and archangels, and among these, two were His favorites: Samael and his brother, Michael. These two archangels were given the power to create: Michael shaped raw matter and gave birth to the universe, while Samael infused matter with spirit and life. Three seconds after the end of creation, however, Samael grew proud and arrogant, and claimed his rightful place in the newborn universe (the top): when the Presence created humankind, giving them free will, Samael grew envious of the newcomers, and convinced some of the other angels that the Presence’s predestination was a curse for them. The rebellion of one became a revolt 
of many, and Samael, now calling himself “Light-Bringer” (Lucifer) led the angels against the Presence and the ones faithful to Him. In the final battle, Lucifer battled his twin brother Michael, but was defeated; as a punishment, the Presence cast him in the farthest place from His sight, the Chaoplasm (actually making some sort of a gift to His rebel son since, being so far from Him, Lucifer could also escape the predestination he loathed so much). The Chaoplasm became also the realm in which the souls belonging to the ones refusing God and His will were sent, and their self-loathing and guilt shaped it into a horrible wasteland, a place without any kind of beauty or harmony, in which every soul inhabiting it brought part of his or her own wish to be punished, thus giving the role of torturers and sadistic monsters to the fallen angels that had followed Lucifer in his rebellion. The Morningstar, the one who believed himself to be the source of light, now ruled alone on a world of darkness, of blood, of suffering and sadness. Things stayed unchanged for ten billion years, a time during which Lucifer grew constantly tired of his place as ruler of Hell; the first major shake in Hell’s hierarchy happened when a group of sorcerers from Earth, the Brujeria, managed to awake the Great Darkness, an ancient evil that existed prior to the creation: with a new force in the balance between light and darkness, Lucifer decided to form a triumvirate to rule Hell, and while he retained the majority of power, also two other demons, Azazel and Beelzebub, assisted him in his sovereignty. Even that, however, wasn’t enough to bring any significant change in a billions-old routine.
Eventually, Lucifer got so bored of his role, so tired of all the stereotypes that mortals had about him (the worst one about him being the source of all evil men do: mortals had always been good enough in doing awful things without any external help), that he decided to retire, going against any plan from the Presence and any rule of balance. He sent away all the damned souls, the demons loyal to him, the fallen angels, the guardians and the creatures inhabiting Hell, then he locked the Chaoplasm, preventing anything or anyone to enter; after that, he gave the keys of his kingdom to Dream, one of the Endless who had acted as some sort of rival for eons, following a disrespect 
that Dream had showed to Lucifer during his last visit. While Dream started an auction to find a new ruler for Hell (the kingdom would have been given to the angel of silence, Duma, and the guardian of the resurrected ones, Remiel), Lucifer took the first vacation since the universe was created, and found a nice spot on a beach in Perth, Australia. After some time spent relaxing, and enjoying part of his Father’s work (especially the sunset-on-the-sea part), Lucifer decided to move, and he traveled to the United States, wanting to settle in Los Angeles: he felt that the City of Angels was a fitting place for him. In L.A., Lucifer reunited with his consort, Mazikeen, one of the rare descendants of Lilith, and he started running a piano bar named Lux. Lucifer’s life in Los Angeles was the one of a sophisticated and charming club owner, a socialite with ties everywhere and a lot of friends… unfortunately, most of these belonged to a past he wished to forget. Still trying to escape a predestination whose consequences he witnessed every day (all the sins, all the chaos, all the evil were preordained by God Himself, even in the human beings’ case, despite their so-called “free” will), Lucifer found himself hunted down by demonic and angelic acquaintances, especially by Amenadiel, an archangel who deeply hated and despised him, and who continuously tried to attack him in his own club (with no regards at all for the lives of the mortals nearby… not that Lucifer cared much about them either). Even life on Earth was quite a hard and agitated one… but still a lot better than ruling over a dimension of eternal nothingness and pain.
Lucifer Morningstar is one of the oldest beings in the universe, and, despite everything he does and has done, one of the wisest and most intelligent. Selfish, cruel, cunning and deceitful, Lucifer despises God’s rule over the universe, and considers Him a tyrant who enjoys seeing His creatures suffer and struggle in a pointless life; to rebel against this, Lucifer only does whatever he wants and pleases, relating to others only as long as they can be of use to him, with no regards for any form of life or sensitivity. As the former archangel Samael, he is also one of the most powerful beings of the universe, with a power second only to the one of his father: he can manipulate reality at will, he’s immortal and invulnerable, he has an extensive knowledge of magic (and of everything else, by the way), and above all he’s a master manipulator, able to bring people to do exactly his bidding without even realizing it. Nearly omnipotent and omniscient, free from the burden of any morality and fighting an impossible battle against predestination, Lucifer is in the middle of the vacation of his (eternal) life, and the universe is his playground…
Who's Who 