Tomorrow I’m getting a tattoo. It’s my “Goodbye NYC” tattoo and my “closing one door and opening another” sort of tattoo. I tend to get them as a rite of passage or to mark something interesting/important that is going on. Also, I’ve been known to get a tattoo for the sake of the sensation of being poked, prodded, and having a needle that is spinning dragged across my skin and then the burning, throbbing feeling afterwards is very cool. It also releases major adrenaline and what not – so I tend to get a bit perky and goofy or at least walk around grinning like a happy puppy with a new toy.
I had thought about what to get for a long time – at first I wanted Jen to complete the drawing of a Sandman tattoo I had asked her to create for me – but she’s hesitant to do so and I’m not sure why… anyway, I couldn’t wait and found another symbol that I’ve always liked and is from the comic book The Sandman. It’s the key to Hell that Lucifer gave Morpheus when he decided to quit his job as keeper of Hell and cut off his wings.
The story is as follows:
Morpheus leaves his realm to travel to Hell, where he imprisoned his former lover Nada, to release her. Having left Lucifer, lord of Hell, very angry with him the last time he ventured there Morpheus is apprehensive about the task. He sets about it, wanting to do what is right, but prepared for a confrontation which he knows he may lose.
In the event, his apprehension is somewhat misplaced. As he arrives, Lucifer is busy closing down Hell. Morpheus follows Lucifer around in a state of some bafflement before Lucifer finally persuades him this is not an elaborate trick, that he indeed intends to leave Hell, and his obligations as its lord, forever. His final act before leaving is to throw out any demon or damned souls still hanging around, lock all the portals to Hell and cut off his wings; he then hands the key to Hell to Morpheus, to do with as he will.
Morpheus does not want this volatile piece of real estate and quickly discovers that there are numerous entities who want to control Hell or prevent their enemies from controlling it. Odin wishes to control Hell in order to avoid Ragnarök. Anubis, Bast, and Bes from the ancient Egyptian pantheon wish to trade information in exchange for the key to Hell. Susano-o-no-Mikoto, a storm god of the Shinto pantheon, travels as an individual deity, and not as a representative of Shinto gods. He wishes to add Hell to a new underworld controlled by his family, which has been formed by assimilating other lesser pantheons as well as objects of worship including, he says, Marilyn Monroe.
Azazel a Biblical demon, arrives with two other demons who held great power in the old Hell: Choronzon, here described as the former Duke of the Eight Circle, and Merkin, the mother of Spiders. Azazel had previously ruled Hell in a triumvirate with another demon and Lucifer, although Lucifer tells Morpheus that this was only part of a game he played, and demands that Morpheus hand him the key. In exchange Azazel offers to hand over Nada as well as the demon Choronzon who had previously fought Morpheus. Order and Chaos also arrive. Order is in the guise of an empty cardboard box carried by a floating Djinn-like being, while Chaos appears in the form of a small girl in clown makeup. Order offers to trade the dreams of the newly dead, while Chaos simply threatens Morpheus before offering a balloon. Two representatives from Faerie, Cluracan, and his sister Nuala appeal to Morpheus to give control of Hell to no one. Cluracan offers his sister as a gift to the Dream Lord, in the name of Faerie Queen.
Two angels are also present, Duma the angel of silence and Remiel here presented as the angel of those who rise. The angels have been set to simply observe.
After much bargaining, wheedling, bribery, trickery, Norse drunkenness, and threatening behavior, Morpheus manages to get rid of Hell without much anger from the other participants: he gives it to a pair of angels sent by God, after Remiel relays a message claiming that as Hell is a reflection of Heaven, its true creator should control it. Dream then enters Azazel and frees Nada. He apologizes to her, and though he still loves her, she chooses not to stay with him, and he reincarnates her in the body of a newborn baby, telling her that she will always be welcome in the Dreaming in any form that she chooses.
The graphic novel ends with Lucifer sitting on a beach, bloody scabs where his wings once were, and watching the sunset which God created, and begrudgingly admiring it.
