A cautious return.
Creative Staff:
Story: Neil Gaiman, Simon Spurrier, Nalo Hopkinson, Kat Howard, Dan Watters
Art: Bilquis Evely, Dominike Stanton, Tom Fowler, Max Fiumara. Sebastian Fiumara
Colors: Mat Lopes
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
A rift between worlds has opened, revealing a space beyond the Dreaming. Meanwhile, a book from Lucien’s library is discovered by a group of children in the waking world where it should not exist. Lucien calls for Matthew the Raven to seek out their master, Daniel, Lord of Dreams.
As Matthew flies across the Waking World and others, he finds a young boy named Timothy Hunter who, in his dreams, has become the world’s most powerful magician-but in his nightmares he is the world’s greatest villain. A new House has appeared in the realm of the Dreaming: the House of Whispers, with its proprietor, a fortune-teller called Erzulie. And elsewhere, Lucifer has fallen again, only this time he might be trapped in a Hell of his own design.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It was with much excitement and caution that I digested the news initially of a new round of books within the overall Sandman universe. For many, like myself, the original series and much of what it spawned in the late 80’s and early 90’s is magical and filled with nostalgia and that makes me very cautious about returning – to the point where I haven’t re-read the original series since it ended and have only shared “The Dream of a Thousand Cats” with people to entice them with it. With this book serving more as a launching point for four other works that I’m very interested in, and hopefully with Neil Gaiman coming back to touch on more of our title character himself later on, what we get here is tantalizing as it sets the table for a new round of magic to come.
While I do think that those who are familiar will get more out of it, Sandman Universe is setup in a way so that with a little bit of effort anyone can get into it. The Dreaming has been functioning in a kind of perfunctory way for a while with Lucien doing his best to keep things going but he’s reaching his limits. So when a crack in the sky appears that continues to grow to dangerous proportions, he knows he’s out of his league and needs to find Dream again. There is a way to do it but it’s not something that actually helps in the here and now as Dream has left on his own journey and isn’t answering. But the Dreaming is in enough danger that they have to find a way, which means sending Matthew the raven out into the world to try and find him and bring him back to help. Matthew has long been a favorite of mine and this is really his book in more ways than one, which through his delightful speech patterns and awesome lettering by Bowland ends up delighting constantly.
Across this very extended issue, Matthew travels to different places in order to get out of the Dreaming so that he can find his master. That initially leads us to Dora, who has setup shop in the Dreaming, and we get a taste of how she operates and just how dangerous she can be. We later get to spend some time with Tim Hunter as we see him struggling in school and unable to see the truly dark dangers that exist all around him. We also spend a brief bit of time in New Orleans where we’re introduced to Erzulie that will bring us into this particular world of magic. I particularly like the use of Uncle Monday, the Alligator King as a character. And it starts to wrap things up with a visit to where Lucifer had set up shop in his bar, Lux, that is not what it once was and provides hints of much darker things going on with him. They’re all quite solid little nods to the books that are coming for them with Matthew tying it all together, and getting the briefest of tantalizing moments of what Dream may really be up to these days that I hope gets explored.
In Summary:
In the afterward, Gaiman notes that he wasn’t intending to come back to these characters after finishing with them the first time for somewhat similar reasons to my own. While he did come back for Sandman: Overture, I did not so this is my first real reconnect in way, way, too many years. Sandman Universe offers some really wonderful little teases for the Dreaming that I hope are followed-up on but I also knew going into it that it wasn’t the point. What it was is an introduction to the four ongoings that are coming with The Dreaming, Books of Magic, House of Whispers, and a new Lucifer book. All of these are on my must-have list and this special has me extremely excited about what’s to come. I love what Gaiman has done here and I hope to see more but this is the right kind of easing back into it and dealing with setting down the nostalgia and starting in on the tales that are greater than just his own.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Vertigo Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 8th, 2018
MSRP: $4.99
