Dream’s family is so messed up. I really wish I could just leave that as my review, but dang. We get to see Dream’s Father and Mother in this one. We also get to see Dream’s messed up siblings, Desire, Destiny, Delirium, Despair, Destruction, and Death as well. And we get to see some new characters such as Hope I was fascinated by.
“The Sandman: Overture” is book #0 in the series. When I bought the first 5 books eons ago, I never got this one because it looks like it came out after I got these. This volume stars with something wrong on a planet and a plant seemingly about to burst into flames. Dream, consults with the oldest Aspect of himself and someone known as “Glory of the First Circle” where he learns that the cause of what he feels is wrong is that a star has gone insane and it is going to spread and destroy the entire universe. Glory also tells Dream it’s all his fault. We get to read along about how things were born/created, how Dream keeps getting captured, and how things unfold because of something Dream failed to do.
I do love Dream. He keeps insisting that he is not lonely, that he does not feel guilt, that he is in many ways not human, but he is. The things he goes through in this one in order to undo the end of the known world was great. I loved his conversations with his parents, a cat (no spoilers) and Hope. Dream trying to undo and put things back no matter what it meant for him shows why you can’t help rooting for him.
Dream’s parents are a mess. Time and Night were interesting and I wonder if they pop up again.
The writing is so good and I love Gaiman’s take on how the universe came to be and how one day all things must end.
The illustrations are so beautiful. And this graphic novel is more interactive than the other ones. Some panels open up and you have to carefully unfold them. Sometimes you are forced to turn the novel upside down to read what a character is saying. It draws you in so nicely.
The ending of course leaves us with Morpheus/Dream right before volume 1.
