Page 45 Review by Stephen
"Everyone kills, little brother.
"They even kill their dreams.
"And you have waited too long."
Everything is ending: life and afterlife, birth and rebirth. Eternity will be extinguished because Morpheus made a mistake born of compassion. When he failed to cauterise the chaos in time the universe itself went mad.
He has one last Hope and an unexpected ally. But then what greater driving force is there than the will to live?
Neil Gaiman returns to SANDMAN with a prequel which is integral and reminiscent in so many ways of Alan Moore's PROMETHEA whose metaphysical musings on the nature, power and achievements of the human imagination weren't just illustrated but illuminated by one of comics' most inventive artists, J.H. Williams III. Once more Williams brings his very best to bear on a script which would have overwhelmed many others and sheds the most spectacular light on some pretty dark matter.
SANDMAN Synopsis: Morpheus is the Lord of Dreams, his family are The Endless. Each of them is older than you can comprehend, though some are older than others. They are as gods to mortals, though they can surely die, and they change as we change for they are aspects of our everyday existence. Drawing on so many elements of prior mythologies, this was one of the 20th Century's very best comics and Neil Gaiman's prose readers will love it.
In a story which leads straight into the original book, SANDMAN VOL 1: PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES, long-time devotees will discover so many answers to questions they may not have realised existed. For example, if Destiny holds in his hands the book of everything that was, is, and ever will be, then who gave that legacy to him? Who gave birth to the Endless? You will finally meet Morpheus' mother and you will meet his father. So will Morpheus, after such a long time. Their last encounters didn't necessarily end too well. Parents and their children, eh?
You'll meet Delirium when she was once known as Delight. Indeed, you'll meet all of The Endless once again but before you first did so. Including the one they don't speak of who went away.
I promise you a complete and satisfying pay-off during the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters regarding the siblings, their relationships with each other, themselves ("Despair is now another aspect of herself") and with those who gave birth to them. Their parents have very specific names and very specific roles and they both make so much sense.
But perhaps most satisfying is the further exploration of Morpheus. Both of his nature as Dream itself...
"It is the nature of Dreams, and only Dreams, to define Reality."
... and as an individual, and how that impacts, has impacted and will impact on his role, both here and hereafter.
"Am I always like this?"
"Like what?"
"Self-satisfied. Irritating. Self-possessed, and unwilling to concede centre stage to anyone but myself."
"I believe so, yes. In my experience."
And he of all people should know.
I'd love to about talk responsibility – which is key both here and throughout SANDMAN – and specifically about someone whom Dream deems his self-serving opposite in that respect. I'd like to talk about promises too which are not unconnected, but I made you a promise and I keep them.
As for this comic's exquisite beauty, I remind you of the most inspired choice of artists imaginable in J.H. Williams III.
Like Will Eisner, Jim Steranko and Dave Sim, Williams truly experiments when constructing individual pages or sequences of pages from the most unusual, often organic panel compositions which are additionally apposite to the proceedings. As in, you'll be presented with a defiant predator on the prowl through panels constructed from teeth when teeth are both that protagonist's signature aspect and the enamelled elements between which he literally perceives what surrounds him. You'll see!
Then, like David Mazzucchelli, within and beyond that backbone Williams also ensures that as many constituent components of comics storytelling as possible serve the story itself.
Please don't think that colour artist Dave Stewart of lettering legend Todd Klein have been slacking, either.
You'll relish being astonished by Williams', Stewart's and Klein's contributions while immersing yourself in this book. That's all you could really want. But when you turn to this edition's considerable back-matter material including interviews with the artistic orchestra and composer Neil himself, you will surely need to reacquaint yourself with that misplaced mandible currently residing on your carpet.
Such are the elaborate lengths they all went to achieve specific effects for individual sequences as a team that you will wonder no longer why this series took so long to materialise before you as one of the pinnacles of comics' construction.
As I always say on the shop floor when a project's delayed, quality is worth the wait. No one wants to read something cobbled together without caring for the sake of a corporate cash-cow. No one wants their treasured dreams diluted by the shoved-out second-best when what we desire above all is a comic which lives up what we once loved.
Prepare to have your expectations exceeded.
You will travel through time and you will travel will space, as will Morpheus himself. If not of his own volition. That's how this begins and that's how it ends, which is where it all began in the first place.
"And I am pulled halfway across the universe in one fraction of forever, with a pain that feels like birth…"
Don't miss the epilogue. *shivers*
