Ibriel

To find the last character from the comics appearing in the penultimate season of Lucifer, we have to jump to the last episode, A Chance at a Happy Ending, to the point when Michael manages to retrieve Amenadiel‘s necklace and recompose the Flaming Sword. One of the angels aiding him, holding TJ Ross down (or at least trying to, considering that the human is now empowered), is as a violent and warmongering angel, quite racist towards humans as a whole: that’s Ibriel, portrayed by David Anthony Buglione. His portrayal is quite odd, pretty much the opposite of how he is in the comics: let’s take a look.

Ibriel was created at the beginning of times, a shining member of the Angel Host, proud to serve God and to accomplish whatever marvelous design He would have tasked him with. Since his birth, Ibriel was a creator: he saw things where others saw nothing, his mind constantly imagining new forms, new shapes, new arrangements for things that were already there. His talent would of course have been of use later on, but first, shortly after the creation of mankind, he was sent along with Samael just outside the borders of the Garden of Eden, to face Lilith, Adam‘s rebellious first wife, to deliver a warning to her. The intended Mother of All, Lilith was mating with demons, giving birth to the Lilim, a monstrous race of creatures who didn’t belong to any domain: this was seen as an abominable sin and an aberration from the higher spheres, and the two angels were ordered to force Lilith to stop with her constant mothering. While Samael was quite bored with the task, not interested the least, Ibriel was full of holy indignation, and chose a hard approach with Lilith… but things didn’t go exactly as planned. Lilith was an expert seductress, she was born to be so, and while she obtained Samael’s favor by discussing with him of free will and self-determination, she found a more direct approach to be much more effective with the self-righteous and bigot Ibriel. Before he even knew what was happening, the innocent Ibriel had been seduced by Lilith, and albeit being an angel, with no proper genitals to speak of, he discovered the pleasures of sex with the woman… and ended up being the father of other Lilim, the abominations he had been sent to erase form existence.

In the moments of intimacy with Lilith, Ibriel learnt that all the woman wanted was a home for her many, many children, since they weren’t welcome in any domain, not in the Garden of Eden, not in Hell, most definitely not in Heaven. The angel had just the solution to that: finally putting his talent to a test, he had been tasked with building the Silver City, a majestic home for the Presence and his angels, a place so beautiful and splendid that it would have melted even the hardest heart. His imagination was even greater than his ambition, and among ivory towers and fountains of fire, pits of shining stars and walls of pure silver, Ibriel simply lacked the manpower to build a city worthy of his project… but everything Lilith had, on the other hand, was manpower. Lilith promised to her new lover that the Lilim would have built his city for him, and in exchange, Ibriel promised her that he would have welcomed them all within its walls once it was completed: it was, after all, a simple act of charity, something that, he was sure, would have been smiled upon by God himself. The works proceeded with an impossible pace, with Ibriel coming up with new ideas even during the construction of the city, but the Lilim were talented, strong and committed, and they scrupulously followed the angel’s instructions. As the Silver City was almost completed, though, Gabriel paid a visit to his creative brother, and told him that a place worthy of God’s presence couldn’t possibly be also the home of a whore and her mongrels. Ibriel, conditioned by Gabriel, started believing that the Lilim’s presence would have made his work less magnificent than it was intended to be, and at the very last minute, he broke his deal with Lilith, casting her and her children out as soon as they finished their work. This was quite an offense, and two of Ibriel’s children, Briadach and Mazikeen, were more than willing to not let it go unpunished…

Ibriel is an enthusiast and ambitious angel, so innocent and self-righteous that he is actually quite gullible, but gifted with an incredible artistic sense, that makes him the greatest architect in all creation. Being an angel, he is virtually immortal, he can fly even between dimensions, and he possesses superhuman strength, speed and stamina. As strong of heart as he is weak of mind, Ibriel is easily conditioned by stronger personalities, and is unable to form a personal, autonomous thought… but all he cares about is his work, and to that he concentrates all his love and attention: the rest simply doesn’t matter.