EMPIRE’S! 50! GREATEST! COMIC! BOOK! CHARACTERS! [3 of 5]
THE SANDMAN EDITION
Well, we’re still waiting on what will reportedly be Neil Gaiman’s directorial debut with the Death film adaptation, for which he prepared by visiting Guillermo del Toro on the Hellboy 2 location shoot, to experience first-hand, the rigours of film-making.
Till we find out who gets to play the ultimate Goth girl though, here’re the two Endless who made Empire’s cut.
15 Death (aka Teleute)
It’s a strange one, this; mystifying, on the face of it.
Death’s own comic is just good, not brilliant; she doesn’t appear much in Sandman, and she’s not nearly as nuanced a character as Sandman himself, or their younger sister Delirium (formerly Delight).
But from the moment she appeared, she’s been wildly popular with fans, won over by this bright, cheery figure in place of the traditional skeletal Reaper.
Perhaps it’s because Death’s duties make such cheerfulness double-edged, and because she has an air of mystery about her that gives her incalculable depth.
What’s more, she’s the wise elder sister that everyone wishes they had, far more pulled together and at peace than any of the other Endless (except, perhaps, Destiny), and she gets to tie the whole series together come its final act.
A perfect demonstration that the best characters needn’t be overworked, and that the grim reaper doesn’t have to be grim.
FIRST APPEARED IN THE SANDMAN #8 (1989)
CREATED BY NEIL GAIMAN
6 Dream (aka: Morpheus, The Sandman, Oneiros, The Dream King, The Lord Shaper, Kai’ckul, etc…)
Ironically, Dream is not the most popular character in his own series (Death, already mentioned, takes that honour), but he is the best.
Neil Gaiman’s creation bore little resemblance to previous iterations, being a tall, pasty-faced Goth-type with unruly dark hair (usually—his appearance is subject to change without notice) rather than the hitherto-traditional white bearded sage.
Despite his near omnipotence, he is continually embroiled in schemes by his family (Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Destruction and Delirium) and the subjects of his dream kingdom, as well as having duties to protect (or destroy) humans with whom he comes into contact.
Over the course of his series, which takes him from prison to the ends of the universe, Dream truly learns and grows—which is rare enough on its own among comics to entirely justify his book’s reputation—but also takes us through mythology, history and pure, barmy, Gaiman invention.
As tragic heroes go, he is, quite literally, godlike.
FIRST APPEARED IN THE SANDMAN #1 (1989)
CREATED BY NEIL GAIMAN
Among the other characters to appear on Empire’s list, are two others who have connections to the Dream King: Swamp Thing (29) and John Constantine (3).
An Americanized version of the latter was played by Keanu Reeves in Francis Lawrence’s Constantine—a review of which can be found in the Archive.
(I initially toyed with the idea of calling this part “The Vertigo Edition” and covering all four of the characters, but the truth is, all these characters were created before the Vertigo imprint served to collect them all under one umbrella. Ultimately, this seemed the better approach.)
The above write-ups are from Empire’s list.
For more on the above characters, just click on their names; the entire list will be accessible from there.
In Part 4—Afterthoughts (98)—we note some characters from DC’s Batman franchise.
(Images courtesy of dccomics.com [Death, art by Dave McKean; Dream, art by Michael Zulli; The Endless, art by Frank Quitely] and vamp.org [panel from The Sandman 8, “The Sound of Her Wings,” art by Mike Dringenberg].)
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