ABSTRACT
The comic book Lucifer, from the publisher DC/Vertigo, ran for seventy-five monthly issues from June of 2000 to August of 2006 with Mike Carey as author and Peter Gross as the primary illustrator. Although there are a number of smaller publishers, American comics- particularly superhero comics- have been dominated for the last half century by two companies, the Marvel Comics Group, creator of Spiderman and The X-Men, and their main rival, DC Comics, creator of Superman and Batman. In order for Lucifer's amoral schemes to hold the audience's sympathy, Carey cannot limit the story's moral ambivalence to Lucifer, even within the framework of his borrowed Judeo-Christian mythos. The overall amorality of Lucifer's persona is thus tied to the business model of his creation's organization. Indeed, the final issue of Lucifer ends with the title character escaping the universe altogether, finally frees from the last traces of responsibility.
