Lucifer the, um, superhero?

His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. (Daniel 8:24-25 ESV)

The Fox promos for the new series Lucifer caught my eye so I watched the pilot episode on Tuesday night. I was anticipating some sort of Good vs. Evil plot line, but what I watched was a low-grade Fox-style drama about a woman-chasing, snarky, egocentric Devil incarnate, who (according to the opening scene) is taking a vacation from Hell. And, apparently, when Lucifer Morningstar (he has a last name, too!) is away, the whole system of eternal damnation breaks down and Hell becomes, well, a living hell (much to the chagrin of some dark and ominous angel named Amenadiel-- Amen for short?-- who appeared a couple of times to express his growing impatience with L.M.).

It turns out that this show is the incarnation, so to speak, of the DC Comics character in The Sandman series. According to Wikipedia, Lucifer possesses nigh-omnipotent supernatural power; he can shape the matter of Creation into anything he can imagine, including matter, energy, and more abstract concepts such as time. However, he does have certain limitations as he is still a creation of God. He cannot create something out of nothing, unlike his Creator... Despite his theological title as the "Lord of Lies", refusal to lie is central to the moral position of the character - he sees himself as a neutral or amoral facilitator of forces within individuals, and Lucifer actively and effectively combats what he regards as corrupting moral codes. While he avoids lying, his morality seldom extends to compassion, and Lucifer regards the sacrifice of millions of souls as unimportant collateral damage; there are few, if any, beings he respects and even fewer for whom he cares.

I was hoping for more than this devil-may-care rendition of Satan, who plies his trade from a piano bar in Los Angeles and who in this first episode flashed the evil-eye(s) at a middle school girl to scare her into a confession. This Lucifer pales greatly by comparison to Al Pacino's portrayal of Satan in the film The Advocate.

The real fallen angel with a holy grudge against God is probably too boring for a decent tv series because he no doubt moves about as just a slob like one of us (therein lies the real danger), loose(d) in a world where he feels very much at home. And no media depiction can do him justice-- if I were him, I surely would not use levitation, green puke, or a spinning head (a la The Exorcist) to frighten people; I would kill them with kindness. Pride, ego, and vanity are kindling enough to set a soul ablaze...

So. To watch the next episode or not to watch, that is the question...

I think I probably will. I'm curious about the single-mom cop that seems to be immune to Lucifer's hoo-doo. (I want to know why they are getting along so well.)

Besides, I'm sure the real Lucifer is tuning in himself, smiling at our folly...