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jpskewedthroneI'm reading the Sandman series with a friend of mine who is also a comic artist (a stripper, if you will). So the reading goes slowly (we only read an episode a week on average), but the discussions about the writing and the artwork and how they combine are interesting.
We just finished up Sandman 4: Season of Mists. I have to say that the premise of this, and some of the points brought up during the execution, were extremely interesting. I absolutely loved the idea of the confrontation between Dream and Lucifer while he attempts to go save Nada, and the twist that Lucifer pulls on Dream was incredibly original. The cast of characters who seek out Dream after this in hopes of gaining the power he has been given is also intriguing. I can see many options for great plotlines stemming from some of these characters for the future. In particular, we have the hints about Dream's hidden/missing brother and what the Egyptian cat goddess knows about his whereabouts (even though it appears that she doesn't really know as much as she's letting on). We also have the release of Loki from his confinement, which could bring a little playful trickery into the plots in the future. (Didn't we have enough of this with Desire messing around though?) Then were was . . . well, let's just say there were lots of characters who can obviously be used again, since they left their plot threads open: Nuala, the faerie left behind; Nada and her rebirth; Lucifer; the angels; etc.
What is interesting to me as a reader is that even though there were many, many intriguing questions raised in this volume, and many interesting and thoughtful questions brought up about God and goodness and redemption, etc., the main plotline--Dream returning to Hell to free Nada--was NOT interesting to me. I wasn't caught up in Nada's fate or whether Dream would be able to save her. That seemed like a flimsy backbone for the rest of the interesting stuff. Part of this is because I was never invested in Nada and Dream's relationship and its outcome in the first place. I thought what Dream did to her was horrible, of course, but their story came from a single episode in a previous volume. So it provided a nice catalyst to this volume, but I was never fully invested in it. And in fact, I never got any extreme emotion from Dream regarding this either. HE never seemed emotionally invested in freeing Nada. He was doing it more because others were pressuring him to, not because he felt he needed to. So that was an issue for me.
But overall, this was a good volume. Much more cohesive than some of the previous ones, a much tighter plotline overall. The art was spectacular in some places, only ho-hum in others. My favorite episodes here were the prologue--because we get a more defined set of characters regarding Dream's family, plus the hint of more to come with the mention of his missing, unnamed brother--and Episode 2, where Dream enters Hell and meets Lucifer for their confrontation . . . and it isn't what Dream expected at all. Some of the other episodes had interested parts to them, but these two episodes were interesting pretty much all the way through. Good characters and interesting twists.
On to volume 5!
We just finished up Sandman 4: Season of Mists. I have to say that the premise of this, and some of the points brought up during the execution, were extremely interesting. I absolutely loved the idea of the confrontation between Dream and Lucifer while he attempts to go save Nada, and the twist that Lucifer pulls on Dream was incredibly original. The cast of characters who seek out Dream after this in hopes of gaining the power he has been given is also intriguing. I can see many options for great plotlines stemming from some of these characters for the future. In particular, we have the hints about Dream's hidden/missing brother and what the Egyptian cat goddess knows about his whereabouts (even though it appears that she doesn't really know as much as she's letting on). We also have the release of Loki from his confinement, which could bring a little playful trickery into the plots in the future. (Didn't we have enough of this with Desire messing around though?) Then were was . . . well, let's just say there were lots of characters who can obviously be used again, since they left their plot threads open: Nuala, the faerie left behind; Nada and her rebirth; Lucifer; the angels; etc.
What is interesting to me as a reader is that even though there were many, many intriguing questions raised in this volume, and many interesting and thoughtful questions brought up about God and goodness and redemption, etc., the main plotline--Dream returning to Hell to free Nada--was NOT interesting to me. I wasn't caught up in Nada's fate or whether Dream would be able to save her. That seemed like a flimsy backbone for the rest of the interesting stuff. Part of this is because I was never invested in Nada and Dream's relationship and its outcome in the first place. I thought what Dream did to her was horrible, of course, but their story came from a single episode in a previous volume. So it provided a nice catalyst to this volume, but I was never fully invested in it. And in fact, I never got any extreme emotion from Dream regarding this either. HE never seemed emotionally invested in freeing Nada. He was doing it more because others were pressuring him to, not because he felt he needed to. So that was an issue for me.
But overall, this was a good volume. Much more cohesive than some of the previous ones, a much tighter plotline overall. The art was spectacular in some places, only ho-hum in others. My favorite episodes here were the prologue--because we get a more defined set of characters regarding Dream's family, plus the hint of more to come with the mention of his missing, unnamed brother--and Episode 2, where Dream enters Hell and meets Lucifer for their confrontation . . . and it isn't what Dream expected at all. Some of the other episodes had interested parts to them, but these two episodes were interesting pretty much all the way through. Good characters and interesting twists.
On to volume 5!
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Date: 2011-03-25 03:25 pm (UTC)Volume 5, Brief Lives, is my favorite. Definitely interested in what you end up thinking of it.
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Date: 2011-03-25 08:51 pm (UTC)I think Dream's lack of attachment to Nada is very intentional, and one of the things that sets up the ending. He does things because it's his role, and because he feels pressured, not necessarily because they're right.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 08:52 pm (UTC)Hopefully without being all spoilery... this is pretty much a key point to the entire Sandman cycle. It's about what we do, and about why we do it, and in Death's case, emotion doesn't really come into it. If anything, he becomes less emotional as the series continues, for perfectly good reasons.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-26 12:45 am (UTC)Also, as an aside, w00t Loki.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-26 03:36 pm (UTC)As for later stories - Lucifer had a 75 issue spinoff series of his own. Most or all of it written by Mike Carey - not sure if April ever recommended his books to you. Nuala had a mini-series I think? Or just some issues devoted to her in The Dreaming spinoff.