![\"Trouble](\"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Trouble-Brewing.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDream was perceived as the Martian dream god Lord L\u2019Zoril by J\u2019onn. \u00a0On one hand that makes perfect sense as Dream is a universal concept and how should an universal concept be apprehended by a Martian except in Martian terms.\u00a0 But on the other hand it is clearly untenable.\u00a0 How can Dream be in on specific place let alone be captured and imprisoned for over 70 years.\u00a0 After all, Dream is an Endless \u2013 he is an incarnation of a universal concept.\u00a0 If he were an agent or an avatar it might make sense but not as an incarnation.<\/p>\n
As the series progressed, Gaiman swerved from the intimate to the large but never to the truly universal.\u00a0 All of his concepts were firmly rooted in the kind of classics education one might get at Oxford or Cambridge.\u00a0 Even Dream\u2019s undoing comes at the hands of the Furies; embodiments of the spirits of familial vengeance from ancient Greece.<\/p>\n
So it was with ever diminishing interest that the series wound on until its end in 1996 with the death of Dream and the subsequent installment of a new Dream.<\/p>\n
Little of note occurred over the better part of two decades until Gaiman decided to revisit the Sandman with his prelude entitled Sandman: Overture.\u00a0 In this limited series, he seemed to want to really \u2018fix\u2019 all that ailed the original run; addressing both the universality of Dream and how he came to be captured.\u00a0 In order to do this, he puts Dream into a cosmic quandary, where the fate of the entire universe hangs in the balance.\u00a0 And while the artwork is beautiful and the craftsmanship inspired, what actually resulted is a confused story that causes more confusion than it addresses.<\/p>\n
This time it all starts with the death of Dream in 1915 – well at least an aspect of Dream and that is one of the problems.\u00a0 This death triggers a gather of Dreams, each representing a sliver of the totality of Dream, one for each type of being in existence.<\/p>\n
Each aspect trying desperately to understand what has caused this train of events, to understand who killed them.<\/p>\n Fortunately for the exposition, an particular aspect of Dream with a strong elder-gods motif, acts as the hermetic monks of old stories did, and steps in to fill in the gaps.<\/p>\n This aspect explains, in pure vagueness, that the universe is coming to an end.\u00a0 However, before he can speak with more clarity he vanishes.\u00a0 This is not an unusual occurrence, and as time moves on, the Dream population mysteriously begins to thin as each aspect disappears from the perspective of the others<\/p>\n After consulting with himself\/herself\/itself, Dream explains that the disappearances are only a matter of a different point-of-view.<\/p>\n Our Dream, being proud and haughty (aren\u2019t they all?) takes it upon himself to seek a higher authority<\/p>\n and off he goes to consult with a level of authority above the Endless.\u00a0 Here finally all is revealed.\u00a0 This uber-entity informs Dream that the cause of the death of one of his aspects is due to a cancer eating away at the heart of the universe.\u00a0 A star \u2013 stars are sentient in this telling \u2013 has become mad and is driving existence to Armageddon.<\/p>\n And it turns out that one need look no further than Dream to find the cause of this disaster.\u00a0 By failing to totally obliterate a \u2018vortex\u2019 from existence, Dream\u2019s inaction has led to this sorry state of affairs.<\/p>\n And so begins a quest in which Dream looks for a way to correct his mistake, fulfill his duty, and save the universe.\u00a0 Along the way, he encounters his father, Time, and his mother, Night; he\u2019s cast into a black hole; and rearranges the entire spacetime continuum as he literally erases his error from history.\u00a0 The action leaves him so drained that capture shortly after is all but inevitable.<\/p>\n I suppose that Gaiman thinks he\u2019s done something remarkable here by \u2018tidying up\u2019 all the loose ends but that\u2019s not how I see it.\u00a0 Splitting Dream into multiple aspects waters down the original run, making our emotional investment in the original insignificant.\u00a0 Philosophically, the whole concept of a multitude of aspects of universal concept is also dodgy.\u00a0 If they are the same but different, why should any care if one is annihilated, and which one was captured, and so what if he was?\u00a0 Why couldn\u2019t a new aspect take over in his place?\u00a0 And if he was the aspect peculiar to the Earth, then why did a Martian see him as a Martian dream god?\u00a0 Too many questions with too few answers.<\/p>\n Gaiman is also open to criticism on his physical cosmology.\u00a0 \u00a0The work is not strictly a work of fantasy since he uses the trappings of science to make his story have a veneer of credibility.\u00a0 He even went so far as to have pictures of bubble chamber tracks superimposed on Hubble-like pictures of stellar nebulae on the insides of the front and back covers.<\/p>\n How can it be 1915 everywhere in the universe?\u00a0 What about relativity and the finite speed of light.\u00a0 I guess getting the science right doesn\u2019t matter as long as it sells.<\/p>\n Many months ago I talked about the three most foolproof ways to screw up a comic<\/a>.\u00a0 Here Gaiman indulges in all three.\u00a0 He\u2019s got illogical magic, a multiplicity of doppelgangers, and time travel with a universal reboot.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying that the whole thing is a waste.\u00a0 Certainly as a flight of fancy it\u2019s worth taking a look and the art is gorgeous.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n