Review: The Dreaming #1

It is hard (at least, hard for me) to believe that Neil Gaiman created Sandman 30 years ago. Although less talked about than The Dark Knight, it provided just as much a pivotal shift for comics as anything Miller did. With the series, Gaiman took apart the ideas of superheroes and villains and put them back together with new meaning and relevance for modern comic book readers.

Now he, and his creation, are back again, this time letting a number of writers and artists into his toy box. He is overseeing four series, House of Whispers, Books of Magic, The Dreaming, and Lucifer, where he and the editors at Vertigo have picked the creative teams to see what they can do.

In The Dreaming, Si Spurrier (Motherlands, Godshaper) and Bilquis Evely (Wonder Woman, Legends of Tomorrow) explore what happens to the kingdom of The Dreaming without Dream to defend it. He has been missing for an indeterminate time and things are going from bad to worse. Cracks the the very substance of the realm are appearing allowing in mindless, faceless hordes.

Lucien, the librarian, and Matthew, the raven, are trying to lead the realm during this crisis but don“t feel adequate to the challenge. Then they discover one person in The Dreaming is dealing with a demon and accidentally gives him access to the kingdom of dreams. Lucian and Matthew are forced to face their shortcoming in dealing with this takeover by Hell.

Evely tackles the idea of presenting a place where anything can and does happen as simultaneously truly imaginative and yet coherent. Throughout the issue she maintains the tension of the fragility of dreams with the cracks in the sky. Sometimes they are deep, black voids that disrupt the world, other times they are hairline fractures spiderwebbing along like a windshield about to give way.

Her character work is equally deft and surprising. She seems completely comfortable in a world without rules and her assured artwork shows it.

Spurrier is equally comfortable working in a world ruled by fantasy and imagination. It is almost like his Spire series was a test run for this. I love how all of the characters he introduces, even those we just meet for a panel or two, individuals who are fully developed. It is a real talent backed by hard work to make this book such an easy read, but one that stand up to going back multiple times to find deeper nuggets of what is to come.

I was concerned that these new books would go off the rails in the way that some of the later Lucifer series did. But so far these teams have managed to find a balance between Gaiman“s version and their own vision of what these people and places are like. Sometimes it takes two or three issues for a book to find their way. Spurrier and Evely know what story they are telling right out of the gate.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Bilquis Evely
Colorist: Mat Lopes
Letters: Simon Bowland
Cover Artists: Jae Lee and June Chung

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!