Back when I collected actual comic books on a weekly basis, I remember picking up a new series to try out. It was like no other comic I had read before. It was called Sandman.
In fact, when I sold off most of my comics and had to make the difficult choice of what to keep, the early issues of Sandman were some of the few that made the cut.
There has been talk for years of making a live action Sandman movie or series. It finally happened and it is now streaming on Netflix. It is amazing.
You might think that with a name like ‘Sandman’ and the fact that is based on a DC Comic, that this is a superhero show. Even though there had been at least two DC heroes called Sandman, this is definitely not about superheroes.
Sandman is a being called Morpheus and Dream. He is one of the endless, immortal beings who are anthropomorphic forms of eternal concepts, all starting with D: Dream, Death, Desire, Despair, etc. The world of Dream draws on numerous sources ranging from the Bible to Greek myths to fairy tales.
The story begins with the capture of Dream by a human overly interested in magic. The goal was to capture Death but instead led to the captivity of her brother Dream. Dream is imprisoned for a long time and by the time he escapes, three of his tools (sand, helmet, ruby) have gone missing.
The first half of the season deals with Dream’s quest to retrieve his tools. This brings him not contact with Johanna Constantine, Lucifer, and John Dee (who in the comics is an enemy of the Justice League, named Dr. Destiny).
Johanna Constantine is used instead of John Constantine, who played the same role in the comics. The episode with Lucifer, specifically the ‘battle’ between Morpheus and Lucifer was amazing. And the episode with John Dee in the diner, well, that was just deeply disturbing.
The second half of the season deals withe runaway nightmare, the Corinthian, and the appearance of a human Vortex, who is breaking down the barriers between the Dreaming and the Waking World.
Not much of what happened in this season was a surprise to me as it was based on the early issues of Sandman and the stories had stuck with me. It is remarkable how closely they kept to the source material. This was likely because of the involvement of Neil Gaiman.
The only major change was that they sought to have a much more diverse cast. Some characters who had been white males in the comics became female, people of colour, or both. There was also an increase in LGBTQ characters. This actually felt natural as it came across as the way Gaiman would have created these characters if he were writing them now rather than thirty years ago.
I found this series to be extremely compelling. Part of it is because the source material was such high quality. However, many television or movie versions based on even the best books have fallen flat. Sandman was able to remain faithful to the sources, while feeling fresh and not coming across as a wooden reproduction.
Sandman is not for everyone. There are many disturbing parts to it and it may be effective enough to give real nightmares. But it is the sharing of a beautiful fantasy world that reveals much about what the real world is about. Excellence and and imagination permeate through the entire season. I’m thankful that there will be a second season.
