Sandman Universe #1
Written by Si Spurrier, Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Watters and Kat Howard Art by Bilquis Evely, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Max Fiumara, Seba Fiumara, Tom Fowler and Matt Lopes Lettering by Simon Bowland Published by Vertigo Comics
9/10
What an awesome way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sandman. An entire line devoted to the characters created by Neil Gaiman. In my opinion Sandman is one of the greatest comic book series of all time. You can hand that book to somebody that doesn't read comics and chances are they're gonna fall in love with it. When this was first announced I could hardly contain my excitement. Then I read this issue, and I was not disappointed. When the book starts there are unusual things happening in The Dreaming and Daniel, aka Dream, is nowhere to be found. Lucien the Librarian tasks Matthew the Raven to find him and from there we are given glimpse in to the other books that will be filling out the Sandman line of comics.
First up, we are introduced to the new take on Tim Hunter from the upcoming Books of Magic. While I never read the original, I'm very intrigued, Tim is at a new boarding school and his new teacher definitely has a mysterious and terrifying background. She seem to know about Tim, but I'm not sure if Tim is aware that he has some hidden power. Next we are transported to Louisiana, where the new book House of Whispers takes place. I can't wait to see how this ties in to the House of Secrets and House of Mystery. Finally we catch up with Lucifer, he has given up his powers and status in Hell to find his lost son. Who knew Lucifer had a son. Of all the new books. The Dreaming and Lucifer have caught my interest the most.
All of the stories were tied together through Matthews narration. By the end of the story we see Dream, dressed very differently then the last time we saw him. by the time Matthew gets back to The Dreaming, he has no recollection of where Dream is. The ending has me very excited at all of the possibilities of this entire line.
All of these creators were hand picked by Neil Gaiman himself, and you can clearly see why he picked them. Usually a book written and drawn by multiple people feels disjointed, but book flowed flawlessly from story to story. This is an exciting time for old and new Sandman fans alike.