His hands were red long before yours.
Keep reading for a review of The Dreaming #4.
(Warning, minor spoilers below.)
I was going to say “this has been a heck of a slow burn of a story” but when you think about it, a lot has happened in the previous three issues:
Dream, Lord Daniel, has disappeared.
Lucien the Librarian is losing his mind.
A crack in the Dreaming has let in a horde of faceless but harmless creatures.
The Judge was brought in (I’m not familiar with him but he’s been around a long time.)
He promised to oversee things with a gentle hand, just for a little while.
(That turned out to be a great big lie.)
He told Dora the Monstress, in all truthfulness, “you’re not real.”
(She’s practically catatonic because of it.)
(Seriously, the image from the cover? Artistic license. She’s not very heroic at the moment.)
And Cain’s brother Abel has been acting very strange.
So, in this issue the Judge continues to be a villain of very little nuance (he’s got a very long history, so long-time readers will probably see him with more depth, but for the rest of us he’s just Evil And He Must Be Stopped.)
We still don’t know what’s going on with Lucien, or exactly where Daniel’s gotten to, but we find out a little more about Cain and Abel this issue, and how Cain might’ve been misunderstanding the nature of his and Abel’s relationship this whole time.
I’m definitely a fan of Bilquis Evely’s intensely detailed art, which ranges from beautiful (some excellent panoramic shots of the Dreaming) to grotesque (a horrific monster rips someone apart, with a lot of gore but not much blood, because of the circumstances.) I did notice that if you gave Lucien a beard and swapped out his glasses he’d look a heck of a lot like Cain (pointed ears, reddish hair, light eyes, wrinkly foreheads) but that’s been the case for a very long time, so props to Evely for doing everything possible to keep them distinct.
MOST IMPORTANTLY (to me anyway) we get the tiniest hint this issue that maybe some of the other Endless will eventually make an appearance. Because I have to tell you, a book about the Dreaming that doesn’t have Dream in it is not what I was hoping for…even though I know that was standard practice for the old Dreaming series. And we did get some amazing stories back then. But still. Having Death drop by to give the Judge a piece of her mind would be awesome.
