Broken Frontier

While Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns take readers on journeys through skewed superhero adventures to prove themselves Good Literature, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman introduces readers to a different type of superhero, one who follows none of the established rules, who is something more than a superhero, and one whose story stands firmly in the category of Good Literature.

Spoiler alert!  While it is not a standard superhero adventure, being the story of the Lord of Dreams, one of an age-old group of siblings dubbed the Endless, it nevertheless has superheroic elements.  Furthermore, Sandman is the only comic book to win the World Fantasy Award for best short story (“Award Winners”).  And what is a good Lord or King anyway, if not a hero?  And a Lord or King with the ability to walk through, create, destroy, embody, and mold dreams?  One word for that, students: superhero.  

Yes, for those of you remembering Vogler’s words, this king does take a journey.

The first volume in the series, “Preludes and Nocturnes” begins June 6th, 1916 in Wych Cross, England as a cult tries to imprison Death so their Magus, Roderick Burgess, can become immortal.  The cult fails to capture Death, but instead gets her little brother, Dream, otherwise known as Morpheus.  They take his possessions: a helm, a bag of sand, a jewel, and his robes, leaving him naked and in an inescapable cell.  The day he is imprisoned several people across the globe fall victim to a disease known simply as “sleepy sickness.”  They cannot wake up and eventually become catalysts for later Sandman stories. 

The cult holds Dream as their prisoner for the entirety of Roderick’s life.  When Roderick dies, his son Alex takes over the cult and continues the imprisonment of Dream, periodically demanding various gifts from him.  Dream does not respond, instead he waits and waits and waits, until the time is finally right.  After seventy years, he escapes and punishes Alex the only way he can, by giving him the curse of “eternal waking,” which gives a whole new meaning to the concept of waking up to a dream.  It is gruesome.  But the study of Good Literature is never for the squeamish.

This then is when Sandman’s quest truly begins because he must return to his kingdom, a kingdom that has had no ruler “for three score and ten years” and find his stolen possessions which the cult has long since lost. Morpheus seeks out the guidance of the mythological female triumvirate, the Hecateae, the Goddess of Witchcraft—the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone—the Three Witches who only speak in riddles but nevertheless help the Dream King on his quest.  

Morpheus’ quest takes him around and “under” the world.  His first stop is England, where he meets up with John Constantine, a detective and star of his own comic book.  By way of connecting this book to other examples of Good Literature, Morpheus prompts the playing of several popular songs—which, much like their cousins, poems, can and do, count as Good Literature but that is a whole other discussion— with the word “sandman” repeated frequently throughout in order to get Constantine’s attention.  When they finally meet, Constantine knows what Dream is and immediately helps him retrieve his bag of sand. 

The second stop on his trip?  Hell, where he discovers Lucifer, the Morning Star, is no longer the soul ruler of the Underworld, but two others rule with him—Beelzebub and Azazel—creating another triumvirate, only this one is made up of demon kings as opposed to archetypal females.  A game ensues.  Morpheus battles a lesser demon for possession of his helm, and wins.  Lastly, he learns that the Justice League of America (JLA) should know the whereabouts of his jewel, so, in a tribute to Jack Kirby’s classic comic book superhero, Mister Miracle (Scott Free), he confronts them and is led to a warehouse in Gotham City (where Batman lives). 

Unfortunately, Dr. Destiny (Dr. Dee), a psychotic villain from the JLA’s past, has gotten there before him.  What follows is one of the most disturbing episodes in comic book history as Dr. Dee takes the jewel and uses it to force a group of innocent people in a diner to do whatever he wishes.  Eventually, a battle ensues between Morpheus and Dr. Dee and Morpheus comes out victorious, sending Dr. Dee back to the place he escaped from—Arkham Asylum, the same mental institution housing all of Batman’s villains.

I know, it’s odd, you’d think a book about the sandman would make a person drowsy.  If you haven’t figured out how these crazy adventures can truly be described as Good Literature, come back next week for more information!

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AE Stueve is a former regular contributor to Broken Frontier.  His first novel, The ABCs of DInkology is due out this fall from WSC Press and The Wave, a line of comic books he is editing, is also due out this fall.