Comic Review- The Sandman Universe #1

The Sandman Universe #1 by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I regretted the book the moment I arrived home.

Damn you DC!

Why the buyer's remorse? Well, I saw something with Gaiman's name on it, and my Pavlovian instinct to pick it up kicked in. But, this is Gaiman "at the helm" on a book which is a jumping on point for some new Vertigo books.

Hell, I even fell for that. I usually complain about the way Vertigo is ran, but this actually sounded like a cool relaunch. This was an intro for four Gaiman-themed relaunches- books that have potential for continued storylines like The Books of Magic, the Dreaming, and Lucifer.

But you can't count on DC and in their true recent post-Karen Berger style, they threw a bunch of nobodies on these titles and threw them into the lake to sink or hope that the Sandman logo will sell them.

Hey, I could be wrong, but I barely recognize this bunch. The only one I have heard of is Si Spurrier and he has, to date, not impressed me. I don't know the other names, and although recent years the comics industry has seen respected novelists make the jump; I don't seem to be pulling up anything with these guys.

So, again, DC is your local club that only lets cover bands play. Yes, if they let original bands play, they might be successful but they might bomb- better to go for expected lower but consistent returns. Vertigo is an important part of Comics History because Dc took a chance on innovative titles like Invisibles, Transmetropolitan, Preacher, Y: The Last Man, 100 Bullets, Fables and Scalped. If these comics were launched in 2018, DC wouldn't even touch them.

So it's Sandman Infintum, The Watchmen: The Medicare Years and Dark Knight Returns Once Again: DK222 (Though I am told if you didn't read DK221, you might be lost), because DC is only interested in letting play cover bands play at the club on the weekend.


The comic?

Forgettable. Having an overarching story would be a great idea if there was some payoff, but there does not seem to be. The art is mostly great (a couple of Mignolaverse artists got poached for the project I am told), but the story reads like a writing exercise.

This might not be the writers fault (I mean it might well be) that they cannot connect to the reader, since this is not a standard anthology and they seemingly get even less pages than the few they would get in an anthology setting.

Why isn't this an anthology? I don't know, though it probably helps sell more if it is dressed up like a Gaiman book. Also, I will say it has a lot pages. I am impressed they can stretch so much of a nothing into something that takes 10 minutes to read. That's surely some kind of sorcery.

This shouldn't have been $5, it should have been a giveaway to get people to buy the new series. It's an ad. They *maybe* could have sold it for a buck. Hopefully, my local comic shop owner (a friend for the best part of two decades, and a respected small business owner for the last 7 years) made a few cents off my purchase, because otherwise, I am at a loss for positives.




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