Lucifer Vol. 6: Mansions of the Silence

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Dean Ormston, and David Hahn

Now this one is more like it.  I had a hard time with Volume 5 last week, but enjoyed Volume 6 a great deal more.  Perhaps it's just because of the fact that I read this one so soon after the last that I didn't feel lost in the number of characters or what they were up to (the recap page helped), but I feel like this story was a lot more focused than the previous one.

There are three main plotlines in this volume.  The one I liked most had Lucifer's varied supporting cast traveling to the titular Mansions of the Silence to retrieve the soul of Elaine Belloc, God's granddaughter.  The crew sailed the Naglfar, a ship from Norse legend, and faced off against long-dead angels and other strange threats.

While they were sailing, Lucifer and Michael travel to a pool made of God's thoughts, and Michael learns some stuff he doesn't like.  The volume ends with a story about Elaine, which works as a nice epilogue to the events of the book.

This is probably Carey's best work, and I like the way the art shifts from Gross and Kelly's pages on the Naglfar to Ormston's depiction of Lucifer's quest.  I'm looking forward to finishing off the rest of this series.