sawyl | Sandman Update: Preludes and Nocturnes (Reply)

Well, it's taken a while, but I've finally achieved closure: I've finally got my hands on a copy of Preludes and Nocturnes. In an attempt to provide some small recompense to everyone who went out of their way to help me get a copy, here's a brief summary and a few random thoughts.

Roderick Burgess, magus of the Order of Ancient Mysteries, was trying to trap Death, but instead, he managed to capture a tired and despondent Dream. After confiscating his ruby, helmet and sand pouch, Burgess leaves his silent prisoner to rot. After some seventy years, Burgess' son Alex inadvertently breaks the magic circle which allows Dream to escape. After a brief pause to inflict a horrible nightmare on Alex, Dream heads off in search of his stolen artifacts.

Dream tracks his sand pouch to London and with the help of John Constantine, liberates it from the clutches of one of Constantine's ex-girlfriends. He then uses the sand to descend into hell, where he challenges the demon Choronzon to a duel of antitheses to win possession of his helmet. After bluffing his way back out of hell, the Sandman heads off in search of repository of much of his power: his ruby.

Unknown to Dream, the recovery of his helmet has allowed Dr Dee, madman and former wielder of the ruby, to escape. With help from the Justice League, Dream locates his ruby ahead of Dee, but Dee's modifications drain him of his little remaining strength when he attempts to use it. Dee then takes possession of the gem and over the course of 24 hours, uses it to drive the entire world mad. After challenging Morpheus to a duel, Dee shatters the ruby thinking to destroy his opponent, but instead returns him to his full strength at which point, Dream takes pity on Dee and returns him to Arkham.

Having recovered his power, Dream finds himself at a loose end, feeding the pigeons in Greenwich Village. Death turns up and tries to convince him to stop moping by enthusing about Mary Poppins. When this doesn't work, she chucks a loaf of bread at him and takes him with her on her rounds to remind him of his responsibilities. The collection ends with Dream, newly invigorated, creating a new dream for pure joy of it.

So, thoughts. As Gaiman freely admits in his afterword, P&N was very much a set of five finger exercises, an attempt to find a voice of his own, and boy does it show. The early episodes, especially the ones featuring some of the pre-existing DC characters, seem clunky and strained and not at all like the subtle and elegant Neil everyone knows and loves from the later story lines, but still, they do a pretty good job of setting up the Sandman and if they seem slightly disappointing, that's only because of the absurd brilliance of his later stuff.

The best story, the main reason for reading Preludes & Nocturnes, has to the very last: The Sound of her Wings. Not only does it introduce Death for the first time, but the tone is much closer to the later comics. It's very light on action, focusing instead on the two main characters talking. There are some beautiful little moments of compassion and some moments of real sadness, which serve to illuminate both Death's and Dream's characters in a elegantly understated way.