A delightful tease amid the chaos.
Creative Staff:
Story: Simon Spurrier
Art: Bilquis Evely
Colors: Mat Lopes
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Wan’s takeover of Dream’s realm is nearly complete. As his identity slips away, Abel only has one secret left in his pocket. And poor, tortured Lucien, lost and without purpose, longs for nothing but release, and to return to the foundations of the Dreaming. So why can’t he go? Does he have a purpose yet to serve? If he wants to die…why must he continue to pay the high cost of living?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Dreaming continues to be one of the few books where the struggle to read it is worth the effort. Simon Spurrier continues to be just a little too verbose for my tastes and that combined with so many different styles of dialogue from Simon Bowland to be lettered in small spaces makes for a hard read for me. But the artwork from Evely and Lopes continues to make for some truly striking visuals that makes it easy to soak up and enjoy, a little more osmosis style story understanding than I usually care for. It’s a book where Spurrier is playing with a lot of little character moments but it’s the 30,000-foot view that makes it accessible to me.
There’s still some uncertainty as to whether Wan really knows what it’s doing in its upgrades, enhancements, and unmaking of things and that’s something that Abel is aware of even as he spends time close to Wan. The two have managed a relationship of sorts here because of Abel’s nature but he realizes that it’s going to be up to him to deal with Wan, which leads to an ill-thought-out assassination attempt. The thought that Wan could be killed even by a magical blade is kind of silly just from start to finish. But Wan’s reactions are almost parental in how he views it, feeling that it’s his fault combined with Abel not having his brother and therefore unable to fulfill his true and original role as intended, causing this emptiness. That Wan seeks to remove Abel from the game is a little more surprising and using the Black Chest and opening up the nightmares is a surprise.
The other interesting piece explored here, mostly as a bookend kind of thing, involves Lucien as he had begged Wan at the start of all of this to be let go from all of it and returned to the foundation of the Dreaming. That denied, the changes to the library and more have ruined an otherwise incredibly capable being and sent him toward madness. I like the exchanges about it at the start but I particularly like that the residents of the Dreaming work to solve it for him by the end. But there’s also that possibility that they’re using him as well to try and reach outside of this realm, which is suffering in many ways that Wan is oblivious to, and by placing him in the dirt of the Dreaming for death, he may actually attract Death there and can make some larger move. There’s a lot of questions about Wan and his ownership of this place that I suspect could be easily contested.
In Summary:
The ending tease is something that the series has certainly needed earlier than this to establish things better but at the same time I understand why they kept separate for so long and that beings of this nature do not act quickly at all. Spurrier has a lot going on here and I’m not following all of it anymore as things feel more complex than they need to be at times. But I’m enjoying various character stories since they’re smaller and easier to connect with, making for a more engaging time. And with such rich and gorgeous artwork as we get, even if there was no story it would be worth it just for that alone.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 1st, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
