I almost said something snarky about how we only had to wait four years for more Sandman stories, when the last wait was seventeen years, but I didn’t feel like being snide when I’m so happy we get to jump back into Neil Gaiman’s world. Read on for a review of The Dreaming #1.
I get nervous anytime a completely new character suddenly shows up in a well-established story. Even professional writers can insert themselves into a story in the form of an OC, and when you first meet Dora she sounds a little like a Mary Sue that a 15 year old would write about in the margins of her notebook: “She has a mysterious past that no one knows! She has powers even she can’t explain! She can travel through dreams! She can shapeshift! And she has beautiful bird’s wings instead of ears!”
However, if a 15-year-old was putting herself into the story she might make herself a thief, but probably not a liar, a vagrant, a bit of a coward, and a bully with a chip on her shoulder the size of the Sahara and a voracious appetite for everything up to and including spur of the moment sex with fire demons.
Not surprisingly, the less perfect Dora got, the more I liked her. She sure isn’t boring.
If you read last month’s Sandman Universe #1 you’ll know that Morpheus is missing, the Librarian is losing his mind, and a crack in the Dreaming is making everybody very nervous. Well, everybody except Dora, because she doesn’t get nervous easily, and the chip on her shoulder is about the Dream King, who she haaaaates. I’m looking forward to hearing about that little backstory.
And it could be a coincidence, but if Dora’s backstory ends up having a friend of the family who sexually abused her, a psychiatrist who thought she was asking for it, or a dream about burning houses and train stations, I’m pretty sure I know who she’s supposed to be. (Maybe don’t click that if you’d rather be surprised.)
I’m enjoying Simon Spurrier’s writing, and how he’s doling out little pieces of all the mysteries (what’s happening to Lucien, where Dream has gotten to, who Dora is, and how they’re all connected.) And I love the uses of dream logic that crop up here and there: In Greek Mythology, Tantalus is punished by eternally standing underneath a fruit tree that sways out of reach when he tries to pick some. So if you’re Dora and are constantly hungry, what would be more delicious than Tantalus’ dream of the fruit that he will never eat?
I’m enjoying Bilquis Evely’s art too, which I think is equal parts splashy and subtle. There’s a dramatic image of Balam, Duke of Hell, surrounded by mystical symbols, glowing tattoos and fiery animal heads, and it’s just gorgeous. But there’s also a small panel of Balam and Dora looking at each other through a portal, and neither of them says a word but you know exactly what they’re thinking. It was such a small moment but it was one of my favorite panels, just because it was so subtle.
Seeing as how it’s part of the Vertigo label it probably goes without saying, but just as a heads up: this is a grown-up comic, with sex and violence and at least a couple f-bombs. Which is another reason why I liked it.
