Monthly (Comic) Book Club - May - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes14547
 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite Some Wiki reading for folks who want a little more detail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer#Christian_folklore |
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Quote:Originally Posted by xkonk Definitely agree with you there. Gaiman seems to be planting seeds for many future stories like the woman in the jail cell and Lucifer’s revenge against Morpheus. As to what was previously mentioned about Morpheus’ self-contained adventures for his artifacts. We’re only halfway through the reading and Morpheus already has two of his three objects so it seems like the last one might take him a bit more work. |
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| So issue 5 feels about as close to a filler issue as we’ve gotten so far. There is a lot of talking but not too much of significance happens. Arkham is having one of its weekly breakouts. Doctor Destiny has escaped Arkham, possibly with the aid of the protection trinket he received at the end of the previous issue with the goal of either ruling the world or destroying it. He hijacks a car and forces the driver to take him somewhere all the while telling his life story. Morpheus, meanwhile, goes to the Justice League in search of his ruby. I had to look up who Scott Free was. Turns out it is Mister Miracle. He doesn’t know what happened to the Ruby so they go to the remaining old school JLA member they can bother at that time of night, Martian Manhunter. We see another instance of Morpheus appearing differently to different people as Manhunter recognizes him as a Martian God. He tells them that the jewel was put in storage and Morpheus takes off, showing his gratitude by bestowing a pleasant dream. I thought it was pretty unique and appropriate how Morpheus travels through dreams. It is both different in a way unique to the king of dreams but also not so overpowered that Morpheus can appear anywhere at anytime. Morpheus finds the jewel stashed in a run of the mill storage unit. You’d thing with the money to build satellite space bases they could afford a more secure storage solution but I digress. It turns out Doctor Destiny had manipulated the trinket so when Morpheus tries to possess it, it hurts him. Doctor Destiny arrives shortly afterward to claim the jewel, feeling it stronger than before, possibly because Morpheus had touched it. And Doctor Destiny is now free and complete to carry out his evil. So yeah, not my favorite issue so far. In part because the previous issues told more self-contained stories. Since this issue is setting up pieces for a slightly longer encounter it feels less significant than previous issues. As for the annotations, they are suitably drab, mostly pointing out the comic book references (Scarecrow, Mister Miracle, Martian Manhunter, the JLI, etc) as the issue is pretty straightforward, although it turns out the clip of Alfred Hitchcock presents we hear on the radio was actually a quote from the show, which I thought pretty neat. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| I read 5 and 6 together earlier in the week. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for it; I thought they were the two worst issues of the arc so far. But it sounds like maybe you agree! I'll see if I can reread them before putting down more thoughts, but issue 6 didn't offer much on the first go either. | ||
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Week 4 (5/24-5/30): The Sandman #7-8  |
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| Post 30 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Going back through... #5 does have some decent elements. The Scarecrow's implicit understanding that they all end up back in Arkham is sort of funny, in an actual humorous way as opposed to the guy hung in the next room. The Kirby-esque art for Scott Free's dream is also a nice touch. But if you thought #5 was a filler issue, wait until you read 6! There's absolutely nothing to it besides showing us Dr. Destiny's depravity, which we already got a sense of in earlier issues (including the end of #5, where he needlessly kills the woman who was pretty decent about driving him across town). It feels like it could have been a horror short in an anthology with pretty much any character, and if you change the source of the gem's power it could be in any series. I don't remember if this pays off at all going forward but I hope so. |
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| So issue #6 is again, not my favorite but I think I enjoyed it more than #5 because, as you said, it does feel like a short from like Tales of the Crypt or something so it can be appreciated on that level. Issue #5, by comparison feels purely transitory, just trying to get us from point A to point B in the story with little interesting going on. Here we at least watch these various characters interact and slowly crumble. That said, as part of a larger story it doesn’t feel like it contributes too much that couldn’t be done more quickly while still moving the rest of the story along. Instead of the whole 24-hour gimmick it could’ve been something we cut back to maybe three times while Morpheus regrouped. The annotations don’t mention anything too interesting. It does mention that the soap opera, “Secret Hearts” was the program Supergirl worked at for a short period, along with being the title of a DC romance series. Most of the other annotations include Gaiman’s descriptions from his script providing a little more background on some of the characters but nothing that really adds too much to what we actually got in the comics. Occasionally there’s mention of small changes or omissions from the script, like Garry’s fantasy being in a station wagon in the script or some more suggestive lines removed. For the third-to last page, showing the aftermath in the diner, Gaiman’s script references the first few pages of Watchmen #12 as a reference for the horror the page was meant to convey. While on a completely different scale I can definitely see how that idea connects with what ended up on the page. I personally thought there was a bit of Dark Knight Returns in there with the cutaways to the tv providing information of the world outside. Which reminds me, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any additional information about The Amazing Herschel and Betty. The former appearing on a tv interview when the news had to resort to local heroes for commentary. Sure, they’re not that important in the story but I’d like to think Gaiman has an entire biography written about these second string super heroes. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| #7 wraps up the Dr. Destiny arc. I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of it, as issues 5 and 6 weren't great, but I do see the thematic importance. It isn't so much that Dr. Destiny is a bad guy, although he clearly is and is happy to use the ruby to do bad things just for giggles. It's that humans aren't meant to have power like Dream's. We saw that before when Dream was imprisoned, and we saw what the bag of sand did to Constantine's girlfriend, and this is another big example of it. The first showed us what happened simply with Dream's absence, the second what happened when people use his power simply for their own pleasure, and this arc what happens when someone really wants to use it for evil. Staying on my theme of complaining, I found it a little weird that Dream thought that Dr. Destiny would just give back the ruby. He hasn't been out of prison all that long. He's lived for quite a long time. Wasn't it obvious what Dr. Destiny was doing? But Dream seemed vaguely surprised that Destiny didn't just stop what he was doing and turn the ruby over. Maybe Dream is an optimist? The conclusion is also somewhat thematic, and not very superhero-y. Instead of Dream defeating Destiny or tricking him or anything, Destiny defeats himself by accidentally destroying the ruby, which returns Dream's full power. It's also kind of in line with the 'hubris of man'/'order of things' issue that's come up in the series so far. Dream isn't all-powerful; he's been trapped for decades and had to trick and luck his way back to his full power. Different people, or beings, have different roles to play in the universe. Destiny stepped out of line on his, not knowing what he was doing exactly, and that was his downfall, which also happened to be Dream's victory. Fairly different from, say, Spider-Man lifting a ton of rubble or Superman punching his way out of a problem. Destiny's punishment, such as it is, is interesting. If this were a Greek myth or the like, he would've been turned into a tree or chained to a rock for eternity while birds pecked at him. But I guess that isn't how Dream rolls. He returns Destiny to Arkham and gives everyone a good night's sleep. When he was fighting with Destiny, Dream was worried about how Destiny was hurting the dreamers. Maybe this is part of how Dream sees his role in the universe, as more of a caretaker than anything else. Although he did seem pretty unconcerned about doing bad things to his kidnappers. I guess he decided that Destiny had been affected by the ruby as much or more as he originally had bad intentions and so he got by on a plea of insanity, more or less. Pretty generous though, I think. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| #8 introduces Dream's sister Death. It's kind of a fun contrast, in that Death is pretty happy-go-lucky while Dream is in a rut. Kind of a reversal from how they might ordinarily be characterized. We do get a bit of an answer to my questioning of Dream's treatment of Dr. Destiny. The revenge he took early in the series wasn't all that satisfying, and so perhaps that's why he went easier on people in the past few issues. Destiny in particular was warped by the ruby, which humans were never meant to have. But now that he has his stuff back, what is Dream to do? The answer is kind of a trope, where someone burnt out or questioning their job gets their groove back by going through a day in the life of someone doing theirs. Dream goes with Death as she travels around to meet people when they die, transporting them somewhere. It reminds Dream about his role and responsibilities. There's also a discussion of how humans fear death (and Death) but don't mind dreams, although Dream says he is far more terrible. It's also kind of interesting that Death wears an ankh, which is an Egyptian symbol for life. I wonder if it points toward some possibility of reincarnation in this world, although we've already seen that some people end up in Hell. Or it could just be part of Death's goth look. But if there is reincarnation, or perhaps the Endless view the afterlife as more of a 'life' than living on Earth, then it would certainly make sense to wonder why humans fear dying so much. You spend far more time not alive than living. I enjoyed this issue overall, both because it's a nice change of pace from the previous three issues and because of Death's characterization. It's a filler issue, in that there's no particular plot or arc that it fits into as far as we'll read right now, but it introduces a new character and provides more emphasis for the world of the story. It was a good one. |
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| I’ll probably read issue #7 when I get home from work today so I’ll read through your responses as I catch up but in the meantime I wanted to share this that I found on ebay. I was checking out custom bound comics on ebay and just seeing how/if the market for them is right now. Mostly curious since I am currently working on getting a Marvel vs DC/Amalgam bind going. One of the sold listings was this, a custom-bound set of the whole Sandman Run    It’s probably one of the better-looking sets (I still think mine are better lol) though it is a little painful seeing key issues like issues #1 and #8 cut up for the book. I probably would’ve chosen reprints like the Essential Vertigo line for some of the more expensive books |
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| Just wrapped up issue #7. No particularly interesting annotations, pointing out brief depictions of character we’d only seen in passing or pointing out lines of Shakespeare that are quoted. I was a little surprised that Dream’s brother Destiny did not factor into a fight with a character calling himself Doctor Destiny. Just seems like something could’ve been done there. Anyways, the issue basically a battle between Doctor Destiny and Morpheus. In a way it feels a bit like a more literal version of his game in hell. The image of the three women/fates shows up for the third time. The first being the three witches, then the three women in the bar. I agree that Dream very much feels like a caretaker of his ream. He is not so much ruling as he seems to be ensuring that nature takes its course and not thrown out of balance by outside forces. Of course his extended absence allowed for just that and I think that’s why Dream is not entirely antagonistic toward Doctor Destiny. To some extent it is not all his fault. While Dream’s captors knew what they were doing and did so willingly, Doctor Destiny was somewhat thrust into it. He was given the relics by his Mother without ever knowing their origin and his madness was at least in part due to not sleeping due to Morpheus’ absence. In the end Doctor Destiny seemed more of a pitiful, misunderstood creature wielding a power that never should’ve been his in the first place. I’m not saying he’s innocent but at the same time Dream inflicting more hurt on him wouldn’t really make the world a better place or help restore the cosmic balance that was thrown out when Dream was captured. While we saw how catastrophic abuse of Dream’s artifacts could be in both Doctor Destiny and Constantine’s girlfriend, I don’t think we really saw the purpose or capabilities of the helmet. Overall, the issue ended the cycle of Dream’s ruby about on par with the other two issues though it did start bringing more of the supernatural/mythological element I really felt was lacking since Dream left hell. Hopefully we get to see more of that going forward as the “real world” feels even less remarkable by comparison. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite Yeah, that's certainly the vibe I got from reading the story. It also fits into DC mythology well - everyone does end up back at Arkham eventually. |
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| Oof! So mostly inspired by the month’s reading I started picking up some Sandman books. Unbeknown to me, I guess there is some talk building up a Sandman tv show or movie. I picked up a decent copy of Sandman #8 that came in this week but in the last week Sandman #13, first appearance of Lady Constantine and the second appearance of Death has shot up from a $10 book a couple weeks ago climbing to $30-$40 sold with the remaining copies on ebay listed for about $50. Mile High might be a little behind but I bought a copy for $22. We’ll see how good it looks when it comes in. I also picked up a small lot for about $20 mostly for the PSA comic Death Talks About Life but also including a couple other Death issues. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Someone was just announced as playing John's ancestor Johanna Constantine in something. I obviously didn't pay a lot of attention so it must be on HBO Max or some service I don't have  |
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Just checked it out. Looks like the cast for a Sandman Netflix series has been announced a couple of days ago |
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| That's the one. I do have Netflix so I guess I'll be checking that out some day. | ||
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| Starting Monday, New Month (kinda), New Reading, New Thread! Powers #1-11 (aka vol 1 Who Killed Retro Girl and vol 2 Roleplay) Wk1 (5/31-6/6): Powers #1-3    |
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Quote:Originally Posted by xkonk I think it qualifies as a filler issue but I do feel that it serves as an epilogue to the opening arc we’ve just read as it is about Dream setting all the baggage he’d accumulated since his imprisonment behind him and moving on to whatever is next. It is interesting that the first Sandman collection was actually of the next arc, A Doll’s House and this issue was included there but it would later be moved to the Preludes and Nocturnes collection, which I think is appropriate. I really enjoyed Death and Dream’s relationship as they have a recognizably brother-sister camaraderie and despite her free-living, goth appearance, Death really plays the role of older sister, both concerned for his well-being and imparting guidance when needed. The annotations pointed out a few things like the songs, the Jewish prayer, the Mary Poppins movie, but most interesting was the poem Dream remembers about death is pointed out as coming from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Not sure if it’s meant to tie back to the Ankh she wears or it was just inevitable to include references to a great civilization. that was pretty much obsessed with Death in an issue about death. I’m definitely interested in reading more of Gaiman’s Sandman. The way Gaiman weaves the occult, spiritual, religious, mythology, and literature at times is engaging. The selection this month sagged a bit when ignored most of the that but the last chapter hopefully indicated that much of the mundane is now behind us. I’m also wondering how much more the book will weave into the main DC universe as it hasn’t entered the Vertigo imprint yet where I assume it silently breaks away into its own continuity. |
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I couldn’t help but get one last purchase in. I just bought a copy of Sandman #2 supposedly signed by Gaiman. I’ve been pretty lucky with VSP so far so hopefully this passes as well to go alongside my signed Sandman #1. There was also a signed Sandman #3 a few weeks ago that I wanted to get but it disappeared before I had the money. |
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| Okay, I was wrong, that was my second to last purchase. My last purchase is this copy of Sandman #3, supposedly signed by Gaiman and Dave McKean. I actually used Beckett’s signature review for this book since I wasn’t confident in gaging McKean’s signature myself. McKean’s not an easy signature to find on comics and having it alongside Gaiman was a big plus and the fact that it’s on one of my favorite issues of the early run with Constantine on the cover is just gravy. There are Gaiman-signed copies of Sandman #4 out there but they are a bit more expensive since that issue is the first appearance of Lucifer. Still I might pick one up a little later to keep my Gaiman-signed run going. The long-term goal would be put together a collection of Preludes & Nocturnes all signed by Gaiman.  |
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