The one disappointing thing about drifting from the Lucifer fandom to The Sandman...
I am a Lucifer show fan who accidentally got obsessed with Sandman when reading The Sandman to research the Lucifer show character’s origin back in 2017.
And since that drift over, I have to say only one thing truly disappoints me about the Lucifer show’s fan base. ...How few Lucifer show fans want to give The Sandman comics a fair chance.
It’s like they’re either discouraged because they’re told The Sandman is very different from the show and so they dismiss it by taking that as code to mean “It’s bad.” or they act like there’s some sort of invisible rivalry between the upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Sandman and the Lucifer TV series.
There’s even the very stupid rumor that The Sandman is why the show Lucifer is ending. That rumor existed back when Lucifer was canceled the first time, by Fox, at the end of season three, by the way. Somehow (this was before the Netflix Sandman show was even announced) a rumor had started that an upcoming adaptation of The Sandman was why Lucifer was being canceled and so the majority of the “Save Lucifer” Facebook groups got flooded with “BOYCOTT THE SANDMAN!!!” sort of messages.
There are Lucifer show fans who genuinely don’t know that the story where Lucifer quits ruling Hell, and he and Mazikeen both go to Earth, where he opens Lux, and takes up piano, is in The Sandman comics. Some of them know there are Lucifer comics by Mike Carey but don’t know that Lucifer is a spin-off of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and that the story where Lucifer quits Hell is in The Sandman.
I have nothing against these fans. They just haven’t done the research but there are others that actively and aggressively avoid The Sandman like it’s some sacred duty or like The Sandman is their enemy.
Some even act disgusted by The Sandman because they have this misconception of comic books being lowbrow. When I was in one of those Save Lucifer Facebook groups I remember being very annoyed by someone who kept calling The Sandman comics a “comic strip.” A comic “strip” is specifically a row of comic panels in a newspaper. A very different thing entirely. And even one person saying “Lucifer show fans would NEVER like the comics. It’s far too different of an audience.” But... that’s how I fell in love with The Sandman, because I had liked The Lucifer TV show and then read The Sandman comics...
In 2017 I had been asked to play Lucifer for a DC comics Role Playing game on IMVU and was only familiar with the show. But I did know that he originated in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and that was where I’d find the story where he quits ruling Hell. I learned he quits ruling Hell in the fourth volume of The Sandman but I figured if I started there I might be confused so I started at the beginning. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes. To my surprise it felt like a Gothic fantasy story or old Gothic Horror novel, at least in the first two issues (chapters if you’re listening to the audible audio drama version). It did not feel like a comic.
And by the time I got to issue 4 of The Sandman, “A hope in Hell” where we first meet Lucifer of this continuity, I realized I was hooked and reading something truly special. I realized I cared more about the story’s protagonist at this point than I did about finding out comic Lucifer’s backstory.
I’ll confess when I first read The Sandman I fully anticipated skimming the drawn outfight scenes or explosions because I find those boring, only to be very surprised that those... don’t exist in The Sandman at all. Morpheus never even throws a punch.
The Sandman is not taking away Lucifer, nor is it in direct competition with Lucifer. Resenting it and avoiding it does no good. The Sandman is what gave you the version of Lucifer that you love so much. It is not your enemy.
Remember those conversations with Linda and later Amenadiel where Lucifer talks about how he doesn’t buy souls, and how there are masochists in Hell who only go there because deep down inside they feel they deserve it and they’re just giving them the punishment they want? That’s all dialogue originally from The Sandman, from a conversation between Lucifer and Morpheus when Lucifer was explaining why he was shutting down Hell.
Another example of how some Lucifer show fans have reacted negatively to The Sandman is in one of those Save Lucifer groups, back when season three had just ended on Fox, I recall one person even saying “I like the angel of Death on Lucifer better than the one from The Sandman because Goths are mean, jaded, cynical, and cold. I like our friendly, nerdy, Azriel, the Angel of Death, a lot more than some bitch Goth.” And I was like “...You didn’t even try to read The Sandman, did you? You just saw a picture of the character somewhere and jumped to conclusions by appearances.”
Death in The Sandman is a perky Goth girl who loves and quotes Mary Poppins. She tries to be friendly with everyone. She’s just as (if not more) friendly as Azriel from the Lucifer TV show. The biggest difference (besides her Goth fashion) is she says “Be seeing you.” instead of that “Smell ya later” they gave her in the Lucifer show. She even helped save the domestic relationship of a lesbian rock singer she liked. She likes Disney films and happy endings. She has pet goldfish. And she hits her younger brother with a loaf of bread when he’s being annoying. She’s generally supposed to be seen as sweet. Being a Goth doesn’t make you a bad person or “mean’ by default. I was a bit taken aback someone had said something like that.
The Lucifer show fans who have gone out of their way to avoid The Sandman or make up excuses to not read it are doing themselves a disservice. They’re also missing out on a glorious opportunity to ship Lucifer and Dream (AKA Morpheus)...
TL:DR: Lucifer show fans need to stop making excuses to avoid The Sandman or resenting it (even on a subconscious level) and need to give The Sandman a fair chance.
