New Movie

The X-Men were one of the first Superheroes that I ever learned about, it was the original animated series of the nineties where I first learned about them and I fell in love with them, the characters, the powers the idea of living in a world that hates you but still you defend it to the end. Then the Bryan Singer movie came out in 2000 and then the next animated series X-Men Evolution where they were portrayed more as scared fragile teenagers further developed my love of the characters.

Then over the years I discovered Grant Morrison who I loved more and more of the work I read of his. All-Star Superman is probably my favorite comic, Batman & Robin is excellent and there are plenty of others that I'm discovering now and will probably love too. So when I learned that one of (if not my absolute favorite) writer had a stint on one of Marvels biggest and best books, I decided to give it a pass...

That's right, because unlike the more streamline narrative that follows the animated series the comic book world of the X-Men is really dense and convoluted. Along with the fact that there's a million different titles that exist X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, New X-Men (no I didn't repeat myself there are two X-Men titles both named that) and probably more and more. Along with that baggage there's a million story elements that don't really make it very friendly for a new reader to come in and not feel weighted down with the years of continuity and story lines and not to forget the millions of characters (Kevin Smith put it best saying that X-Men had become the longest running Spanish Soap Opera with superpowers). So I thought that New X-Men would be something that would simply never be, until one day when I was listening to the commentary of All-Star Superman the animated movie, Bruce Timm himself praised Morrison's run on X-Men. Bruce Timm is one of my icons so when he praised this comic, there was no question that I would pick it up.

One thing that you will need to know before you start reading the comic is that there is some previous continuity and story arcs brought into the mix, but enough exposition is given so you understand what is happening. But if you need to be fluent on the subjects then go and watch the first three seasons of the original X-Men animated series and you'll be fine.

Before I talk about the comic itself its important to note that this came out in the early two-thousands, this was the time that the old ways were being pushed aside for the new and the more edgy and darker. It wasn't quite like the barrage of idiocy that the nineties brought, nor was it all bad but clearly everything, including superheroes were going in different directions, and this was some of the mindset that went into Morrison's New X-Men.

The cover for the first issue is just a solid cover, it has the members that Morrison will be using in his series in silhouette but with their distinguishable features highlighted so that we can still identify them, Wolverine's claws, Cyclops visor, Beast's blue fur and so forth. The weird digital spiral is a little distracting if you allow it to attract most of your attention but it merely serves to put the characters in an abstract space where we focus on them rather than the environment that their in. Also look at the logo for this series There were two reasons why this series was called New X-Men, the first I'll tell you about is that Morrison himself designed the logo for the series and Joe Quesada was against using that title but Morrison revealed that if you turn the image upside-down, its the same image, this can even be something that can be interpreted into the series itself but we'll get to that later. So they kept the numbers but changed the title and so starts Morrison's run.

Also we get a look at the new costumes that are featured in this series. The early two-thousands were a time when things needed to be reinvented. The X-Men are not dressed like superheroes, gone are the spandex and in with the leather jackets, one of the best examples I can think of for this is Warren Ellis and his run on The Authority, think of the character the Midnighter and instead of a cape had a long leather jacket. The direction that we see the X-Men in here are not heroes more like a rescue emergency team, with the X incorporated into the clothing for that uniform look, also the original color of the X-men was black and yellow, so that serves as a nice nod to the original. So what we have is a good amalgamation of the old and new.

I should note that unlike my Swamp Thing review were I analyzed the covers, New X-Men doesn't really have very interesting covers, there mostly just straight forward pinup shots of the characters, nothing wrong with that but it doesn't leave much to talk about or analyze, they'll be a few just not for each issue that I want to talk about.

The first story arc is a three-parter entitled "E is for Extinction" drawn by Morrison's most regular collaborator Frank Quitely. Quitely is my favorite comic book artist and he collaborates best with Morrison, able to portray his wild ideas but also being able to translate them to the audience so that they can understand it, I also love it whenever he draws long lasting characters because he always draws them looking like you imagine them but in his own way makes them look fresh.

Anyway the issue starts off with a huge splash page of Wolverine and Cyclops taking down a Sentinel. Wolverine's going crazy by clawing the hell out of the Sentinel and Cyclops casually says "Logan I think you an stop now", already the series starts off with a great image that is pure X-Men. Next we see a mysterious woman talking to a man about the end of Neanderthals and the rise of Homo-sapiens, that they slowly grew in numbers and in a pivotal moment of the Earths history the Homo-sapiens slaughtered the remaining Neanderthals, leaving the Homo-sapiens as the dominant race. She tells him this because this is going to happen to the humans...by the Mutants.

Meanwhile back at the Xavier Mansion Hank (Beast) is getting Cerebra up and ready to work, Cerebra is "Cerebro's big sister". Also we see Beast, but not as we know him, his mutation has pushed him to the next level and he now resembles a cat like creature (he's reminiscent of Beauty & The Beast). Also one really cool touch that was added was that when Professor X is using Cerebra there is a visualization of what their doing and it is called "physic condensation".

Re-reading this issue reminded me of why I love Morrison's writing, constantly while I was reading the issue I was shouting "brilliant, Brilliant, BRILLIANT!". Everything was something new and fresh with ideas that I would have never thought of, but seem logical and you wonder why nobody has ever though of them before.

Then while the professor is scanning the world with Cerebra something goes wrong and and he hears a voice calling to him through Cerebra and he demands that the voice gets out of his mind. He pulls a gun and puts it to his head and gives it one chance to get out, before Jean quickly yanks off the Cerebra helmet, cutting off the link between him and the voice.

Next issue Cyclops and Wolverine get captured by the mysterious woman. She then explains that the classic sentinels are not meant to deal with the mutants of today, in the cities of today, the sentinels need to adapt. But after the quick villain monologue Wolverine and Cyclops quickly breakout and then capture her. The professor seems to have recovered, but the new sentinels have been unleashed on Genosha  and over fifteen million mutants are slaughtered within  a few minutes.

Then we have the next issue, ow me ow my do we have the next issue. This issue is riddled from paper to staple with controversy that literally starts with the cover. The cover is a pinup shot of Emma Frost posed like a supermodel. Grace Randolph in particular has stated her distaste for this cover and has brought it up on her show more than once, she has told us that as soon as she got the comic home she tore off the cover and even wrote a letter to Marvel saying that she was embarrassed as a woman to be seen buying the comic. The awkwardness continues in a full splash page of a devastated, still smoking Genosha with Beast standing in the wreckage and holding a dead Mutants skull in hand (Hamlet style) saying "I don't know how to break this to you, but your dating days may be over my friend". Keep in mind that this came out in 2001, so in one of those awkward moments of art imitating real life in the worst way this was a few months away from 9/11, so as you can imagine this issue may have hit a little too close to home for the people who were living in New York or for anyone who had any connections in New York at that time.

During the search for the wreckage the X-Men uncover Emma Frost, The White Queen, emerging from the rubble with a dead mutant student in her arms (still awkward) but there's something else to her, her skin has transformed into diamond. Yes once again Morrison has injected another piece to the mythology of X-Men by introducing the idea of secondary mutations.

Emma Frost was a villain before she came in this series and classic Morrison, he turned a B list (or even C list) character into one of the main characters in his run and turn them into fully developed character that's just as interesting as the main roster. Emma Frost soured to peoples favorite characters and stared in a lot more books and continued to be an A Lister for the X-Men ever since then.

Anyway it would seem that the mysterious woman is some kind of entity from "beyond the twilight of reality" and her name is Cassandra Nova. For a while it would seem like Cassandra is captured but really it was all part of the plan to be taken back to the mansion and get access to Cerebra so that she can take out all remaining Mutants. This then follows some action and some weird psychic stuff with Cassandra before she gets to Cerebra.

It looks like Cassandra will use Cerebra to kill all the Mutant's before in classic last second fashion Emma Frost arrives to pull the plug on her scheme (by which I mean snapping her neck), but then Wolverine remembers that she has a healing factor and she starts getting up again before out of nowhere she gets shot five times. It was the professor who shot her saying that it was necessary being that she killed over fifteen-million mutants and would have killed all of them. Cassandra is then sent into a comatose state.

Later, after Jean and Scott talk out some of their problems they see the Professor on TV announcing to the world that he is a Mutant. ...Ow hell!

Then we come to the foundation of Morrison's run, New X-Men Annual 2001. This is a bigger seized comic than usual (of course) but there's also something else to it that makes it stick out, the whole issue is displayed sideways. My first question is why? this isn't like the issue of Swamp Thing where there was A) a reason for turning the comic on its side due to what happens in the story B) turning the comic on its side for no reason takes me, as a reader, out of the reading experience and frankly I can only think what it would look like from a third person perspective, they might mistake me for reading a porno. But I digress, my point is that the side view is unnecessary and quite frankly unwelcome.

But what about the issue itself? Well its called "The Man in Room X" and it starts off in China with a mysterious Mutant named Xorn who is being held prisoner. So naturally the X-Men move in to free the innocent Mutant. They also come into contact with a weird businessman named John Sublime who seems to be very interested in the Mutants. It turns out that John is part of the U-Men, an new enemy of the X-Men that are introduced in this run. They are about taking Mutants powers (along with their organs) and taking them for themselves.

While the X-Men are resting for the night Scott cant sleep, luckily there's a knocking on the door and on the other end is Emma Frost with a bottle of champagne with two glasses. Foreshadowing!

The issue is drawn by Leinil Francis Yu. He can handle whatever is thrown at him but always gives what he's drawing weight and gravity. He only worked on this one annual, shame but his work is appreciated.

Xorn's power is one of the most interesting and unique of all the Mutants that I've heard of, he has a tiny sun for a brain, along with this he has the power to heal. Being that he has a sun for a brain he has to wear a helmet. The design for the helmet is very cool its like a big metal skull.

By the end of the annual the X-Men succeed in freeing Xorn and allow him to experience the whole world. He thanks them and says that he will always be their friend and if they should ever need him then he will be there for them. 

The next issue has the mansion opening up to all new students and the professor announcing that he will be taking a leave of absence, for he is going to spend time with the Shi'ar empire and his wife Lilandra, leaving Jean in charge as acting headmistress. So the professor boards the Shi'ar vessel with the power to "extinguish suns" just imagine that power in the wrong hands.

Issue 118 is interesting, not because of what happens in it but because within the issue itself, if you look closely at a few selective panels, there are shapes and lines that form the word "sex". I've heard it was because the artist, Eithan Van Sceiver, was fed up with editorial tampering so he decided to mess with them and get something that really shouldn't be in the comic past their notice and straight into the eyes of the nitpicky fanboys and girls out there. 

For the next issues, Igor Kordey handles the art. Frank Quitely is, by reputation a slow artist, and he's not great at meeting the deadlines of a monthly book like X-Men, so they brought in Kordey to fill in when Quitely couldn't meet the deadlines. Kordey most likely received this news on short notice and it shows because his art is rushed, and a little sloppy. Now don't take that comment as me saying that he's a bad artist or that in any way meaning that I'm insinuating that I can draw better than him. I am a terrible artist, throw a rock in a crowd and you'll find someone that can draw better than me. But his characters stray off model and they just look ugly, no offense to the man himself but his issues aren't great for their art.

Anyway there are rioters outside the mansion and Scott, Jean and Emma go to settle them down but they dont seem to be in the mood for peaceful negotiations. But they get subdued by Emma, she gives the entire riot crowd orgasms...yeah, shes awesome. After that Scott and Emma have to leave to confront John Sublime. 

While they confront him Scott and Emma get taken down through the use of a Mutant brain that Sublime keeps in a jar and drugged up...ew. Meanwhile the U-Men storm the mansion with only Jean and the other students there. Jean calms the young students and tries to call the police for help but they say "Help yourself Mutie". Even though things seem hopeless Jean rallies the students together and they all defend the mansion against the U-Men, then Jean deals the simpulan blow against them with the use of some very familiar psychic fire that she emanates. Then later, of course Emma and Scott break free before they can be dissected and Emma is seriously pissed, mostly that she got her nose broken (apparently it was expensive). Then she gets her hands on John Sublime and throws him out the window, to Scott's great displeasure. Scott and Emma return to the mansion with the U-Men cleared out and everything seems fine but then Beast emerges with Cassandra Novas body held in his arms saying "professor X is trapped in this old woman's hedd..help".

Issue 121 is an interesting comic. First of all comic books are a sequential art-form, the story must be told through a sequence of images that flow from one picture to the next with a stream of motion and continuity that follows through from panel to panel. So what greater test and or example of that than having a comic that is silent, well no word balloons. The cover really is all you need to know about what information we get out of the issue itself but the way the story is told is so interesting and unique that its worth paying the full price to see it yourself. The cover itself has the head of Casandra Nova with the image of professor Xavier within her forehead and well drawn lighting placing bars across the professors face, plain and simple Xavier is trapped within Casandra's body.

The art is handled by one of the only artist that I would trust to tell a story with images alone, Frank Quietly. Again he is my favorite comic artist so if there has to be a higher emphasis on images than dialogue I'm glad its him. What we have is Jean and Emma psychically going inside to find out the secrets of what is happening within Cassandras body and the weird, surreal images that we get of how the mind might work if we had to step inside and walk around in it are a visual delight. In the end we have one full splash page that sums up everything with only two word balloons of dialogue (OK so there is some dialogue in the issue), saying that Cassandra is Charles's evil twin (seriously) and he tried to kill her while they were both still in the womb but now shes back. Nuff said.

The explanation for how Cassandra actually exists is a little head scratching, even for me. Apparently she is what the Shi'ar call a mummudrai. The yin to the professors yang and even though he won for dominance in the womb she still came through the limits of death and pulled herself into the physical world. Yeah it's a real brain twister if you think about it for too long, just go with it.

Later the X-Men decide to hold an open to the media day, to look through the mansion and see that there is nothing wrong or sinister going on with the mansion and all they want is to educate the young Mutants. Scott shows concerns that things might be getting out of hand and tries to talk to Jean but she, rather coldly scorns him and tells him to get over it and see past his own weaknesses.

One of the landmark notes in this run of X-Men was the characterization of Scott Summers. Morrison once described him a Norman Bates that never killed anyone and that's pretty true to some degree. Cyclops has always been the professors golden boy, he has been possessed, captured, degraded, tortured and has always had to endure to pressure and responsibility of leading the X-Men. The fact that Cyclops hasn't experienced some kind of huge breakdown is actually incredible. This is not the breaking down and crying version of the character but it is the window into the mans soul version of him, we see Scott with doubts, we see him with worries and him questioning what he should do next when all his other decisions have led to nothing but more pain and unhappiness for him. None of this is helped by the fact that Jean is not so supportive and even a little disgusted with him.

After that Scott realizes that with the professor dying within Cassandras body, there is only one person to turn to, Xorn. Scott fly's to China to pick up Xorn where he seems to be more comfortable, being accepted by some monks in a temple and using his powers for good. But the temple gets bombed and Scott and Xorn both get captured and taken to the Shi'ar ship (wow a lot of people get captured in the series).

Things take a turn for the wost when Beast analyzes their blood under a microscope and discovers that the cause of their growing illness are the advanced sentinels that have adapted to microscopic size, have infected every member of the X-Men and are killing them from within.

Finally the battle with Cassandra comes and the Shi'ar soldiers invade the school, Jean backs everyone in the lower area of the mansion, while Beast and Wolverine stay on the outside to hold back the soldiers. They hold the lines very well but their no match for the head of the guard, Gladiator. Luckily they convince the Shi'ar that they are not their enemies, so they go to defend against Cassandra, only they are no match for her. At the same time Scott and Xorn breakout and quickly make their way to the mansion.

Cassandra has now harnessed the full power of professor X's brain and has become some kind of all powerful psychic monster, with psychic limbs forming around her and attacking. She easily takes out the Shi'ar guards and moves in for the remaining X-Men.

Then in classic last minute fashion Scott and Xorn arrive to take out Cassandra and cure the Mutants from the sentinels. Xorn tackles Cassandra (in professors body) then Beast injects her with syringes, she easily brushes them off. Then she makes her way down to Cerbra to wipe out all of the Mutants in the world...but. Jean took the professors mind and divided it up amongst all the Mutants into world, so Cassandra has now joined his mind together and pushed Cassandra out.

Cassandra is now just floating consciousness that is slowly evaporating without a body to contain it, it seems like shes doomed before Emma offers her original body for her to enter. Except that Cassandra's body, just like everyone else has been infected by the micro sentinels and is deteriorating along with her mind.  Cassandra is then  put into a sort of psychic prison, where she is put in some kind odd weird preschool and is constantly being lectured by professor X and Jean.

Now Cassandra is in a vegetated state and the school is still standing and all seems right. Beast offers to get the Professors chair but he says that it wont be necessary because the Professor is climbing out of Cerebra, the Professor can walk now.

One thing to know that I didn't know when I decided to buy the comic. I had previously bought Batman & Robin, that lasts sixteen issues, All-Star Superman, that lasts twelve issues and WE3 only lasted three issues. So I thought that this would be a small run, I was wrong. Being that the end of issue 126 doesn't end in the way that most writers runs would end I learned that there was a fourth paperback, then a fifth, then  sixth, then another and another that totaled up to eight paperbacks with forty issues total. This is a big epic of a tale, that you'll have to commit to more that a lighter run. Is it worth it? ow hell yes.

Issue 127 is possibly my favorite issue of the whole run with it being told from the perspective and giving some development to Xorn. The story is just a day in the life of Xorn and how he sees things, what his views are. All told through diary entries.

The cover just makes me laugh, its Xorn in a meditation position with a serious posture, however he's looking at a cheese burger. This is funny but after looking really hard at it I think I have an idea about the reason for the cover. Xorn has been in captivity most of his life and what time he wasn't he was in China, now he is in America in a whole different situation which he now must adapt to. So we have the meditating position looking at one of the big icons of western culture, i.e. the cheeseburger.

Xavier wants to get to know Xorn more but however he cannot simply dip into his mind so he can get a taste of the man because Xorn doesn't have a regular mind, he has a tiny star and the professor is "blinded by his thoughts". He walks the streets, sees the sights and then comes across a young mutant who is going through the developing stages of his mutation, he looks like a baby gargoyle. Xorn does his best to help but the boy runs wild and the cops have to bring him down. At the end of the day Xorn meets an old Chinese man from his area of China and they sit and eat noodles together in the rain and "life goes on".

The art is drawn by John Paul Leon, Leon has an interesting art style, with thick black lines that look like they were done with a runny pen, or a brush. Leon's art-style has grown on me the more I've looked at it. Its not what you would classify as pretty art but with closer inspection you can see that hes drawing characters and framing them to an almost photographic level. I say If you like David Mazzucchelli then you'll like his work.

Morrison's run on X-Men has been criticized (mostly by big X-Men fans) that its too Vertigo. Yes Morrison is a very popular Vertigo writer and indeed some of his best work does come from there. But most of the criticizing says that his run is boring, its all talking and no punching and explosions. If that's the case then I'm a Vertigo guy, I love the exposition and the quite character building moments.

This X-Men story has the coin effect, with one side being positive or negative and the other, naturally, being the reverse. The first half of the book is surprisingly positive with everything seemingly getting better for the X-Men with publicity, new students, media attention that's good for them. Then the flip happens and everything goes to shit and what we thought was a good thing turns out to be their undoing.

Then eventually comes the big play, the part of the series that makes this run a landmark in all the history of the X-Men, Scott and Emma have an affair. That's right morally upright, Xavier's golden boy Scott Summers circum's to his basic needs and has a psychic affair with the seductive White Queen. Its so interesting because they really do succumb to their thoughts but its not physical. This is one of the most steamy interesting subplots that I have ever read in a comic, I mean just say that out loud "psychic affair" only in superhero comics.

We then meet the star pupil in the Xavier school, a dorky kid named Quentin Quire (he's about as popular as most star pupils are). While the professor is giving a lecture Quire shows no restraint in questioning the professor at every turn of how he believes that Mutant/human relationship should be. He even wears a T-shirt that says "Magneto was right". Quire grows more and more displeased with the professors peaceful slow way of making progress and decides that his time is done and he will take the future of the Mutant race into his own hands. One of the big pushing forces in his radical decision making is the new drug for Mutants that is circling the hallways called "Kick" (the names these kids come up with".

The drug Kick allows its users to get and incredible rush of confidence and power for five hours. It is taken in a kind of breather dispenser. After they take it their powers get increased five fold. That is when Quentin and his group assemble with a new hair style and new different clothes and they name themselves the "New X-Men!".

New X-Men started in two-thousand and one, when I first read it it was two-thousand and eleven. So when I read it the story was ten years old and it didn't feel it at all, it still read as refreshing and as sophisticated as I'm sure it was when it was first published. One of the most surreal things that happens is when we see Quintin Quires new gang, they wear what would now be considered Hipster clothes. This comic seems to be ahead of the curve by about ten years.

Riot at the Xavier school is the last story arc illustrated by Frank Quitley. It is also one of the most pivotal of Morrison's run. To Morrison, the X-Men were all about children vs adults and here it is fully demonstrated with the students rioting and taking control of the school. The old ideas are outdated and uncool and now here comes the new generation with bold new ideas and ways of doing things.

Quentin Quire has now assembled his gang of Mutants, they restrain professor X and have taken over the school. Wolverine tries to stop them but Quentin traps him within his own memories. Then the Cuckoo's gather together with Cerebra and take Quentin down while the other X-Men take care of the other students, but the victory came at a price because Sophie (one of the Cuckoo's) pushes herself beyond her limits and along with the strain from Cerebra and the drug kick overexerts herself. Quentin also sinks into a dying state and Xorn helps him enter the light. Both figuratively and literally.

With the aftermath of the riot, Quentin's other comrades get a sever talking to from Wolverine before being handed over to the authorities. The Cuckoos decide that Sophie's death was more than partly because of Emma and the way she pushed them to be heroic, so they abandon her. They also reach out to Jean Grey and tell her that they would like to be her new students next year and they have something to tell her about her husband. With Emma in a very fragile state Scott comforts her and they share a thought together, they are about to psychically have sex but right before they do Jean psychically interrupts them saying "let me guess, you can explain".

After a long awkward scene with Jean throwing Scott out of the psychic area and confronting Emma. She scolds Scott but takes Emma through a big long judgmental tore through her whole life with her working her way from rich society to rich society doing what she had to do to survive. By the end of it all Emma is in tears.

After a huge scene has been made Scott runs off, Jean goes to find some privacy and Wolverine comforts Emma who reveals that she has fallen in love with Scott. Later in the night Beast enters Emma's room to try his had at comforting her but Emma Frost is found in her diamond form and shattered into a thousand pieces. Someone killed her and everyone's a suspect. The question is who shot Emma Frost? 

The professor then calls in Bishop to solve the mystery of who committed the crime. Meanwhile Beast goes about reassembling Emma, piece by microscopic piece at a time. Through the coarse of the investigation it is revealed that it was the Cuckoo Esme that was behind Emma's shooting. But Bishop is not entirely satisfied because he believes that there is someone behind all this that is pulling the strings. Ow and Beast fully assembles Emma back together and she's fine.

Then the endgame gets put into motion. It starts with the professor  sensing a presence in the Cerebra room, it is the mutant Dust, she is almost undetectable in her dust state but she then moves to destroy Cerebra when immediately Xorn captures her in a glass jar. The professor then enters Xorn's class to find that the maps are placed upside-down. Suddenly professor X collapses to the floor and Xorn tells him that he didn't heal him, he merely used the micro Sentinels to glue his spine back together, then he takes off his helmet.

Then comes the big reveal, the villain that has been in the shadows, pulling the strings the whole time. It was Xorn. Actually it goes even deeper than that because Xorn isn't even real, under the helmet, the whole time was Magneto. That's right the whole time, the times they talked, the trouble they got out of it was their greatest enemy.

Magneto wastes no time in assembling his new brotherhood, formed from the lesser students of the school, shoots up on kick and forms a full on assault on New York.

The characterization of Magneto has been heavily criticized (again, by the fans) for being off character and one dimensional. According to Morrison "Magneto is just a mad old bastard" both are right, yes there is more to Magneto than him just being a psycho terrorist, but Morrison is also right in saying that the bastard side is there. What the fans didn't pay attention to is that there is a scene where Xorn's helmet literally speaks to him and he says that "he made Xorn too well. I am your conscious". Morrison said that Xorn was the real personality with all his intelligence and gentleness focuses into that one character, so in the end both sides are right.

Phil Jimenez draws this story arc and like Quitely, he is one of Morrison's great collaborators (built over the time they worked together in The Invisibles). He does a great job of continuing from Quitely, because he follows his character designs, along with the fact that he's just a great artist. I love the way he draws Magneto, the design itself is like Ian McKellen's from the movie's with a long cape and long tight coat underneath, but the helmet is the classic design. What I really love about it is the way he draws his cape, its as if there's a big fan following him around all the time every panel is so Shakespearean and dramatic, I love it.  
Meanwhile, in a parallel story Cyclops and Wolverine are on a journey to get to the bottom Wolverines origin. They encounter other weapons in the Weapon X project before the trail leads them to the main computer that has the information on all the candidates that were used of the weapon process. But when Wolverine is faced with all the facts of his true origin he is saddened by it. What if this is a lie as well, what if there is more secrets to be unveiled? what if in twenty, ten, five or next year this all gets retconned?

This book came out at a time when Morrison was going through some dark times in his life and it shows. The depression and cynicism that came with the twenty first century is in this comic and the long running never fully answered questions that come with being a comic book character are here and the characters are aware of it, and saddened by it.

The of course back in Manhattan Magneto has taken full control of the island and powered by the drug Kick has enormous power. He plans to turns the continents upside-down and he might have the power to do it. With his mass amount of power he hurls all the cars in New York together, killing thousands, time for the X-Men.

The X-Men eventually gather together with what they have and launch their assault on Magneto. They attack in full force barely even allowing Magneto to catch his breath, Cyclops particularly loses it with him being a ragging force of nature from the betrayal of his friend being their greatest enemy. They hit him with everything they've got, shatter his helmet but Magneto still has the Xorn helmet that works the same. Magneto tries to lead his Mutant brothers to victory but they dont even believe that it really is Magneto, even the X-Men are saying that "Xorn" should surrender.

Then with all the madness building up and up Magneto takes off his helmet and declaring that he is indeed Magneto, that's when Jean and the Professor hit him with their psychic blast and restrain him. Jean comforts him but Magneto has one last blow to strike, with an electromagnetic pulse straight into Jeans's system.

Then with all this madness the most pinnacle moment in the series run happens, the death of Jean Grey. Yes Jean Grey dies again in this arc and this time it has been a death that has stuck, until only fairly recently with Avenger vs X-Men and the Marvel Now launch. After re-reading it, it came off a little more rushed that I remember it but through Scott we do feel the pain and the effect of her going and her last line to him is so tragically on the nose "I'm always dying on you".

Next Wolverine goes into his berserk rage mode and decapitates Magneto, just as he did before Morrison's, run began. 

"Always", Jean dying again, Wolverine cutting off Magneto's head just the way he did before Morrison's run began. The tragedy of the symmetrical logo comes into view with the characters both beginning and ending the same, until the end of time.

The last story arc is "Here Comes Tomorrow". When I first read this I wasn't a fan of it and I thought that it should have ended at the end of "Planet X". But after thinking about it more and having re-read it again I realized that what Morrison was doing was that he was writing the last X-Men story. Of course there's no such thing as the real last X-Men story but still if you give a story an ending it gives it shape and form, so good for him.

The cover of the issue is Wolverine looking behind to the viewer and the landscape itself is of iconic landmarks huddled together with weird tubes moving through them. The cover works by the viewer catching up to Wolverine, who's in the future and us seeing what the future hold for us (or at least these characters). The art for the story is handle by the popular Image artist Marc Silvestri, he's pretty good, he has a real Jim Lee feel to his work with lots of extra lines that run across the characters. He's not even a Jim Lee imitator (like so many are) he is a generally good artist that draws good bodies and big landscapes, so his work is very enjoyable.

The story takes place one hundred and fifty years in the future and Wolverine is still a bad-ass, Cassandra Nova is still alive and working again, but for the good guys, there's only one human left on Earth and Beast is now the ultimate enemy (what the hell?). Beast has learned to harness the Phoenix force and use it to his own diabolical ends, in this we get to see Wolverines end and the end of most things. But we also get to see the never ending cycle of the Phoenix and its reincarnations throughout all of time and Jean with the whole universe in the palm of her hands sends Scott that one simple word "live".

Even though this did come in a bad time in Morrison's life and it still shows there is always hope and optimism for the future, and that is how the story ends with something new and wonderful being formed with the new relationship between Scott and Emma.

One of the biggest mistakes that Marvel made after Morrison left the X-Men was retconning the Xorn/Magneto part of the continuity. Apparently as soon as Morrison left the book, they turned the title back to Uncanny X-Men and revealed that Xorn was never Magneto and that it WAS a mutant named Xorn, who it turns out has a twin brother...also named Xorn (comics are confusing). This just goes to show that Morrison had a point with saying that these character lives are just a continuing series of seeming progress but always the rewrites and retconnes will hold them back. Now I know why Marvel did this, because they needed to say that Magneto was not really dead, of course he's not dead, he literally says in the book that he always comes back. You don't have to retcon this so you can bring the character back. Frankly I would have bought that it was a clone or he was brought back to life, either one would be better than this excuse.

I once read that Morrison had an idea for a story where the Xavier school accept their first human student. The human student gets picked on because naturally he has no powers, but he can play guitar. He can play guitar so well that the other students consider it a power and he is eventually accepted by the other students. I would have loved to see this issue, it would have been a great read. The story would have been encouraging to readers and encourage them to embrace their gifts and talents and realize that it is what makes them special. Shame that it didn't happen.

Saying that New X-Men is my favorite run of X-Men would be silly because it is (so far) the only comic run of X-Men that I've read. But even so I can still appreciate it for how much it changed the status-quo of X-Men and implemented changes that have lasted to this day. It has great characterization and huge themes and stories, I recommend it to people that have never read an X-Men comic before to pick this up.

New X-Men is available in eight trade paperbacks, three thicker paperbacks and one giant fifteen hundred page omnibus edition.

Despicable Me 2 is the start of another franchise for Illumination Entertainment. Like the first movie it has its charm, wit and color as well as a little heart for luck. It has the same characters, some new characters and gives you more of what the audience has been asking for.

The movie picks off where the last one left off, with Gru a former villain and now a full time father. Looking after all three of his daughters. Civilian life is going well for Gru but its not meant to be because he is soon requited by the Anti Villain League, an organization dedicated to battling super-villains. They have brought in Gru to tackle a villain who poses a much bigger threat.

The first Despicable Me is the Frenchest movie that I have ever seen, from its comedy to the drawing style. Director Pierre Coffin is French so that makes scenes but he really turns the dials up to ten on everything he does. This movie is just as French with...well everything. This really is a sequel that stands on the same level as the first movie, nothing is less but also nothing is topped form the first movie. 

The minions this time get more screen time and more emphasis from the last movie and you really see that both the director is playing favorites and the movie is listening to popular demand. That's not really surprising seeing that they are in fact voiced by the director himself. Yes they are funny but frankly their charm is beginning to grow thin, not too much...yet. But they need to be aware of this, its like having too much candy, you just begin to feel sickly. I dont feel reassured that they are getting their own spinoff movie.

One of the delights of this movie is the new character of Lucy Wilde, Gru's new partner. She is voiced by Katolik Wiig and that's a big plus for me. I love her work as Lola on The Looney Toons Show and she brings her great comedic talents to this role to. She is essentially Lola as a spy and that's just great. I got the feeling that Wiig was working on the script level of her character because so much of the character was her exact style of comedy. My favorite character in the movie and was worth the experience for me.

One of the problems with the comedy is that I was always able to predict where the joke was going or what the punchline would be. A huge part of comedy is the surprise, the unexpected, so if your able to predict everything and there's no new twist or something unique to the comedy then it will never reach the point of true hard laughter and just reach grinning and/or chuckling stage which is what I was in for most of the movie.

The villain this time is El Macho. He is now voiced by Benjamin Bratt, but he was originally voiced by Al Pacino. Yes, Pacino voiced the character, the animators dubbed the character to his performance but at the last possible moment Pacino pulled out of the movie and he had to be replaced three months before the movie was to be released. The reason for why Pacino pulled out is a little unclear, apparently he was unpleased by his performance so he pulled out. As for Bratt, he has the rather unfun task of having to match his performance to what has already previously been performed by Pacino, which weighs down his performance. I'm not sure if I would have picked up on that if I didn't know that, but I did so it was on my mind. Still what we get is a rather fun villain, who's colorful with a flare for life.

What I admire most about the movie is the scale. Nearly all the jokes are visually based and they go to very extreme lengths to get the joke across. When a joke needs to happen which involves multiple characters, then there are many characters on the screen etc. 

Despicable Me 2 has enough going for it so that the children will definitely have more than a good time. The adults will be fine they wont hate themselves for. The movie wont really teach your children anything or carries itself with any great weight but it still does no harm. Its a simple fun kids movie that delivers a simple fun time.

Rating: 3 stars out of 4

Elysium is the follow-up for director Neill Blomkamp, greatly successful District 9. Which is one of the best science fiction movies in the last decade, but as the saying goes your only as good as your last movie.

The plot of Elysium is something that I feel is born from the Philip K. Dick fountain of influence. There is Earth in the far off future of two thousand, one hundred and fifty four. The land is a wasteland and resources are scarce. Then there is Elysium, a space station that floats above Earth where the rich live in comfort as-well as devoid of worries. Elysium also has pods that can literally cure anyone of anything, this of course makes them very desirable. The poor risk everything to get to Elysium and into one of those pods where they can be cured of infection, from disability, to cancer.

We then meet Max (Matt Damon) a working stiff on Earth who has a past of stealing. One day he accidentally gets a lethal dose of radiation where he is given five days to live. Max needs to get to Elysium, he seeks the help of a gangster friend that specializes in transporting Earth people to Elysium, but Max is weak from the radiation so he gets equipped with an exo-skeleton where he can now pull his own weight as well as a few others.

The movies look is like that of District 9, with a dusty garbage filled world that is on the brink of the air being breathable and its shot in shaky cam. At least on Earth. What makes the movie interesting is that the visuals and the style of directing changes for the scenes that take place on Elysium, the sets are clean and colorful and the shots are executed with super smooth cinematography, like in 2001. It is a smart move that shows Blomkamp's growth as a director.

Our villain is Kruger, a sadistic agent for Elysium who has to get his hands very, very dirty and that's just fine with him. He's played by Sharlto Copley, who has worked with Blomkamp before in District 9, in that movie he was the pahlawan and here he gets to switch it up as a villain. Copley is an amazing actor and I just want to keep seeing him in more and more stuff. It is amazing that he is capable of pulling off a complete one-eighty in his acting, from a small scared guy to a big scary villain.

The other characters are all either greatly or decently executed. Jodie Foster plays Jessica Delcourt, the head of defense of Elysium, she is one of those dragon ladies that rules the environment that shes in with efficiency and minimal expression. Wagner Moura plays Max's gangster friend who is the head gangster for a reason, he's pretty smart and even a good person deep down. We also meet Max's old childhood sweetheart Frey, played by Alice Braga, who is one of those characters who wants to do the right thing for her child.

What this movie does so well that is so essential to science fiction movies that most people forget is world building. If you don't build the world then the audience will be lost and confused and reject the situation and the characters because they cant accept their surrounding that they are in. Elysium's world is one that is thought out and executed well. We understand how everything works and the economics and politics of the world. Elysium is in the same vein as District 9, but its so in the same vein that I wonder why it wasn't just announced that this is a spinoff, or at least a spiritual sequel.

District 9 had a rock bottom budget (for a science fiction movie) of  thirty million. Here Blomkamp gets an extra one hundred million to play with and it shows and is payed off. The C.G.I. is great looking and the scope of the movie is appreciated. There is also so much loving attention to detail in this dirty, lived in world.

Blomkamp has indeed delivered a solid movie here but he needs to look into other influences or different genres to take because if he doesn't he will become a one trick pony. This is a word of caution not a negative. Either way if you've seen District 9 then you'll enjoy this movie even if it seems a bit less new but still with that in mind a really good movie is still a really good movie.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4

"I have no idea where this will lead us. But I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange"

-S.A. Dale Cooper

Being that DC had great success with bringing in a British writer for Swamp Thing they wanted to see if they could replicate the same results and started holding talent scouting meetings in London. It was through these meetings where they discovered such talent like Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan and the all-black wearing, messy haired writer Neil Gaiman.

Karen Berger was the Chief Editor for DC's Vertigo imprint and is a living legend. She is also responsible for supporting some of the greatest talent in comics. It was her who was in charge of recruiting in the London branch and she accepted Neil Gaiman's pitch for Black Orchid, an old Superhero nobody remembered. It was a sort of a prettier Swamp Thing.

After the meeting Berger phoned Gaiman and told him that he was currently an unknown and his comic had a girl for its main character and those typically didn't sell well. So she asked him if he could write another project to help sell Black Orchid. Off the top of his head he didn't have anything until Berger mentioned "that dream character, thing".

Gaiman got a little stuck in the development process of the idea but then a hurricane hit Britain and Gaiman was stuck in a little cottage in Nutley. There was no power and Gaiman had nothing to do put think and think about the idea and then it was on that dark night, surrounded by a hurricane that Sandman was truly born. As soon as the power came back on Gaiman rushed to his computer and typed out his ajuan for the first eight issues of Sandman, it was approved and Sandman number one hit comic shelves in October 1988.

I got the first volume of Absolute Sandman for my nineteenth birthday. It was easily one of the best presents I got that, or any other year. Mostly because I thought that I would be kidding myself in thinking that my family would get it for me, but they went the extra mile just like they always do. Absolute Sandman volume One contains Sandman issues 1 to 20 and so I settled down one dark October night and read the first issue of Sandman for the first time.

The introduction is written by former DC President & Publisher Paul Levitz. He writes a very sincere introduction about the feel and mood of the series and the reoccurring themes of it as a whole.

The cover is beautiful, it is so surreal with its illustration, with the image looking like scratched film. I do however struggle to come up with an interpretation for it. There is a figure head at the center of the cover as well as certain objects placed around the face. The Sandman covers operate on a different level from the other American comic books, there will be no images of Sandman trading punches with the villain of the month, these covers are off-beat, surreal and I wouldn't have them any other way.

The covers, all the covers, are illustrated by the great Dave McKean. McKean illustrated all the covers to every single issue of Sandman, all seventy five of them. All of them are unique and visually appealing and I can only imagine what they looked like on the shelf of the local comic book store in the late eighties. They invoke a feeling of the work of David Lynch (at least to me) with the use of photograph and scratchy film. His covers are also so abstract that there isn't really much I can analyze from them. What I can definitely say is that I love all of them. 

And so the first issue starts like so many other issues will start, with an old house. It starts in 1929 and there is a mysterious group of people in robes that gather around a circle that is drawn on the ground (of course), their leader is a man named Burges. They seek to capture Death itself to gain eternal life, they perform the ceremony and a man appears, dressed in an all-black robe with flames dancing at the bottom, skin as white as snow, carrying only a small sack, a ruby and a strange helmet made of bone and metal. 

This man is not Death but he is also not human, so they imprison him in a huge glass bowl. The man sits there, says nothing, responds to nothing. He merely sits there, staring with eyes that are like bright stars in a pool of darkness. Burges knows that he is not Death but thinks that they can still use him to their advantage.

The design for The Sandman came from a very unusual source. There were a lot  of designs floating around, but it was Dave McKean that came up with the simpulan character design of The Sandman from, of all places, a U2 music video. The image of Bono walking around in Ireland with long hair and a big black coat seemed to resonate with McKean.

Over the years the magic fades and the guards grow less and less enthusiastic about their duties. Burges dies, the objects that the prisoner had on him are scattered and all that's left is Burges son left in charge. Then comes a night where one of the guards lays his head down to take a little rest and that's all it takes. With that one little dream the guard takes the prisoner is able to get into his dream and take some sand from within that dream, which is all he needs for his escape. He then confronts his captor of seventy years, he tries to explain that they got him by mistake and they really wanted Death. He then tells him that they captured "Deaths younger brother" and his rule is not Death but Dream, his name is Morpheus and he is The Sandman. He punishes Burges by giving him "ETERNAL WAKING" where he will always be waking up from a bad nightmare, always he will think that the nightmare has passed when in fact it is only the start to another.

The letters are done by Todd Klein, one of the greatest letters in all of comic books. Klein gives great character to all the letters he does. For Morpheus he reverses the color, making them black balloons with white text and the balloons themselves are always wavy and drippy.  The trick of reversing the colors was something that Gaiman tried out with writing Batman in Black Orchid and he thought it was so good he applied it to Morpheus. I love it. It is so unique, looks great and makes you aware of the work that the letterer does, before they were unsung heroes but now I know they are a vital piece of comic story telling.

The second Issue stars with Kane and Abel. They are doing what they've been doing for the past hundred or so centuries, arguing, or at least Kane is. Suddenly they hear a noise and they think that Kane's pet gargoyle has caught something, they go to see and lo and behold it is Morpheus. Morpheus rests at their house to regain a little of his strength and then heads off to his castle of dreams. When he gets there he is in shock to learn that the castle has withered away. He enters and searches the faded withered hallways that are just about abandoned, almost. There is still Lucien there, Lucien is The Dreaming's librarian. Apparently in the time that Morpheus has been away The Dreaming has lost its power and many of the castle staff has abandoned their posts.

Of Neil Gaiman's influences, there are many. But one of the most prominent ones within his work on Sandman is Alan More's run on Swamp Thing. Gaiman himself has said that it was an issue of Swamp Thing that made him have hope in comics again and was the push he needed to really pursue doing it seriously. In the first story arch it is very prominent, it remains a prominent entity within the whole run but throughout it he delves into different influences and finds his own voice more but still it is clearly the main driving force for Gaiman's comic writing. But here is the first reference by including Kane and Abel.

Morpheus knows that he must regain his tools so he calls on the Hecateae, three witches, or one witch with three heads, one old and ugly, the other old but charming and another young and beautiful. They are ancient creatures that will offer him three answers for three questions. The first is where is his sack? In the possession of a man named John Constantine. The second is where is the Helm? traded with a Demon. Finally the Ruby? it was passed from mother to son and then taken by the "League of Justice". The Hecateae take their leave and Morpheus decides that he will go after the sack and Constantine first, after all he is "Just one human".

Issue 3 starts in London with that good old English, chain smoking, trench coat wearing John Constantine. Waking up in his flat in London. Morpheus suddenly appears in Constantine's flat and asks for the sack, Constantine tells him that it's in his storage garage. An extremely fun line is when Constantine says to Morpheus "I ought to introduce you to the big green bloke. You'd like him. He hasn't got a scene of humor either".

Gaiman injected another Swamp Thing reference within Sandman in this issue by having Constantine (who first appeared in Swamp Thing). By him saying "big green bloke" which he is clearly referring to Swamp Thing, just not by name.

They take a taxi to Constantine's warehouse and its not there, but Constantine thinks he knows who took it, his old girlfriend. They drive to her fathers house but there is a mysterious aura coming from within the house. The Dreaming is leaking out from the sack and is warping the real world, luckily this is the Sandman's area of expertise. They make it to the center of the house where the girlfriend lays in a virtual zombie state, Morpheus reclaims his sack but Constantine asks a favor, for her to go peacefully. He obliges and lets her go with a dream about better times.

Issue 4 has Sandman going to Hell, yeah. The cover has deep burgundy for the color and has pages of burned bible or Dante's Inferno across the panels and within the center figure itself. Burgundy is red which is associated with hell and the pages of the bible or Dante across it signifies the type of trials and tribulations that will be faced in the issue.

There was a time where Dave was falling behind on the covers because of his other commitments (like Batman: Arkham Asylum) and in a monthly comic book that cant be allowed and there came a time where Karen Berger almost had to fire him. So as soon as he learned this, McKean went straight to his office called Neil Gaiman and asked him what the next three issues of Sandman were about. Fourteen hours later Dave had the next three issue covers done and there was never another word about Dave getting fired again.

Meeting him at the gates is the rhyming demon Etrigan, this is the first and last time that Etrigan appears in the whole series, this is a huge disappointment to me because of how much I love the character from his guest appearances on Swamp Thing. The two work their way through Hell, which I believe draws influence from Dante's Inferno. On their way to see Lucifer, Morpheus comes across a cage with a woman named Nada trapped in it, she asks if he has finally forgiven her after a thousand years, he says no and the two move on. They then reach the center of Hell where Lucifer Morningstar watches over the entirety of Hell.

The design for Lucifer is interesting. He's drawn as a normal man, with long red hair and a beautiful face. His body is normal except for the giant bat-wings that come out from his back and is dressed in what looks like a white robe (from his days as an angel perhaps?).

Sandman asks for his helmet back, they summon the entirety of Hell, he finds the demon and challenges him to a game to reclaim the helm. They play and as you would expect Sandman wins, the helm is his and he gets ready to leave but Lucifer and the entirety of Hell stands in his way. Lucifer claims he has no power in Hell and they can do to him as they wish. Sandman stares at them and says that "What power would Hell have if you were not able to dream of Heaven?" and the hordes of hell slowly part and the Sandman walks out. While he walks out Lucifer swears that one day he shall "destroy him".

Parallel to all this is the story of Dr. Destiny, an old Justice League villain. He is in Arkham Asylum where his mother is paying him a visit. Dr. Destiny (or Dee) was a villain that attacked through dreams (uh-oh). He claims he did this with the help of his ruby that he has altered through science so he and only he could use it. After one of her visits Dee gets word that his mother has died and she sent him one last present. The present is some kind of medallion, eyeball necklace

Next Morpheus moves onto the ruby. It starts with Mister Miracles dream about his time on Apokolips, he dreams about falling before Morpheus pulls him out of his dream (literally), they have a talk and all is explained that Morpheus needs his ruby, so they talk to the Martian Manhunter. When he sees Morpheus he sees him as a huge, terrifying flaming skull.

One thing that happens with The Sandman, is that everyone sees him differently. Some see him mostly the same, only with variations on his size, shape and features. While others again see him completely different. This is a great aspect to the character because it means that all the different images that exist in the world of what the personification of what dream looks like could all be true and be one entity.

Dr. Destiny is able to break free from Arkham, but on his way out he comes across a very peculiar sight, its Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow) he's hung himself as a study of the shock that appears on peoples faces. 

The reason it is the Scarecrow is actually because of editorial demands. Originally it was meant to be The Joker who had hung himself for an April fools prank but Gaiman got a call from his editor saying that it couldn't be Joker because in Batman continuity he was presumed dead in a river. This is something that doesn't hold up in the grant scheme of things, its obvious that The Joker will return and having to have this constraint on the writing deteriorates the experience. I hold out hope that one day the issue will be re-drawn so that it will be The Joker, but that will probably never happen.

Morpheus reaches the warehouse first but as soon as he touches the ruby it drains his power, because of the tampering by Dee. Dee then gets to the warehouse, ignores Morpheus and picks up the ruby in glee and noticing that is seems to be more powerful than when he last had it.

The first five issues were drawn by Sam Keith. Keith is a good artist having a very stylized, slightly cartoony look to his characters. Sadly he simply didn't fit with the book, he described it as "Being Jimi Hendrix in the Beatles" he simply didn't belong  and apparently had a miserable time drawing those first five issues, so as soon as possible he was replaced by his inker Mike Dringenberg and the inking duties went to Malcolm Jones III.

Mike Dringenberg draws the best Morpheus, in my opinion. I'm not sure what makes the best Morpheus, but I think its the way he draws his cheekbones and the straw-like hair he has. Dringenberg's Morpheus is the Morpheus that comes to mind whenever I think of him.

Issue 6, 24 Hours, is one of the darkest issues of Sandman. It is so simple and yet it could only ever be pulled off by a great writer, luckily this is Neil Gaiman. It opens in a small town diner where there are many people simply having pie and drinking coffee. There is a mysterious dark figure that lurks in the corner. The people dont seem to notice the time, they just keep drinking their coffee and having whats on the menu. At one stage they are blissfully happy, then they worship Doctor D. after that for a moment they realize whats going on, then they descend into savagery. By the end they are all dead, with Doctor D. admiring his handy-work. Then a man enters and Dee greets him, its The Sandman.

The battle comes to a conclusion in the next issue "Sound and Fury" where Morpheus and Dr. D. meet together in the diner and agree to settle the matter in a battle of dreams. Morpheus has his helm and his sack, but the ruby still took some of his strength and Dee has the ruby. Morpheus flees into The Dreaming immediately and Dee follows, at first Dee is distracted by all the illusions that are cast but Dee breaks through them and starts attacking The Dreaming itself. Then Dee gets the idea of destroying the ruby, he does in a flash of red light...then nothing. All that is left is Dee alone in nothing, until he hears Morpheus voice behind him. With  the destruction of the ruby Morpheus has gained all of its power, Morpheus is now more powerful than he has been in years and there he stand, the seize of a building in a full splash page.

The battle comes to an end and Morpheus walks Dr. Dee back to his cell, on their way there The Scarecrow jumps out and yells "BOO!". Then he apologizes and walks with them both, he also says that he cant go back to his cell because there's a rat there and hes "frightened of rats". Morpheus and Dee are about to part ways before Dee says that he "doesn't sleep" and Morpheus say that "perhaps tonight you will". And he leaves and declares that tonight "humanity will sleep" and all of Arkham sleeps, does not dream, but sleeps quietly and peacefully.

Ending the first story arc is issue 8, The Sound Of Her Wings. It opens with Dream casually sitting down and feeding the birds bread crumbs, when out of nowhere comes a pretty young girl, dressed all in black and sits next to him. This is his sister, this is Death.

The character of Death is probably mine, as well as most peoples, favorite part of Sandman. She is one of the most wonderful, coolest characters ever. I find myself struggling to describe her to other people, I always end up saying something very simple like "shes really nice" or "Death is lovely".

Originally Death was meant to look very different, Gaiman wanted her to "look like rock star Nico in 1968, with the perfect cheekbones and perfect face she has on the cover of her Chelsea Girl album". But it was Dringenberg who took influence from his goth friend who had a sort of "warped beauty". 

After he's done talking about how he feels he sulks his head, this doesn't last long because as soon as he does Death gives him a whack with a piece of bread, tells him to get over himself and see past his own problems and see things for what they are rather than get weighed down with his own self pity. I love this so much because I have a big sister and I can tell you that this is what big sisters do, tell you how it is and dont stand for any of your nonsense.

This shows that the comic is already operating at a different level from other comics. If this were a conventional comic they would probably have this status-quo and keep to it for as long as any writer could possibly write it for and then keep going. But Sandman avoids this and tells its stories at the right passe and at the right length. It never gets boring and it never outstays its welcome.

So the issue proceeds by Dream following Death around on a day of her doing her duties. They see an old musician that never accomplished anything, a comedian on stage that gets a lethal electric shock from faulty wiring in her microphone and a baby. Death cradles the baby and it asks her "is that all I get?" and she somberly replies "fraid so". By the end of the day Dream and Death part ways and Dream decides to move on to his duties.

Neil Gaiman knew the shape and form of the whole Sandman run but he really didn't think that it would get past its original eight issue run. There were a lot of new different comics coming out at this time and they barely lasted a year, so once Gaiman had finished the first story arc...Sandman was outselling Batman.

Issue 9, Tales in the Sand is one of the first of many self contained (or at least it seems self contained) issues of Sandman that just tells a great short story in twenty four pages. It stars with a father and his son walking into the center of a desert. The son has become a man and he is about to go through the initiation that all men of his village must go through. He and his father walk out into the desert, the son is sent to find something in the desert, he will know it when he finds it, he comes back with a glass heart. The father then tells the tale of how the desert was once a vast city where there was a beautiful princess named Nada who would turn down every suitor, until one day a stranger came to the city, a stranger with eyes like bright stars. She tried to find him and eventually did, but once the gods saw their love they burned the city to the ground. The princess then learned that their love could never be, but the stranger didn't want to let her go. In the end she turns down his offer to make her a god and he condemns her to Hell. Father and son get up and walk back to their village, the son will one day have to tell his son the same story.

Next story-arc is The Doll's House, a tale of dreams and reality. The story starts with a house like no other, a human body. This is our introduction to Desire, the middle child of the family of The Eternal's, Desire lives in a giant human body that is so huge you could walk it all your life and never go the same place twice, but Desire chooses to reside in the heart. Desire is also neither male or female, Desire is never bounded so. Desire then goes to his/her gallery and speaks with his/her twin sister Despair. Despair is fat and short and a creature of absolute misery, together they talk about their plans for Dream and how Desires plan will end with Dreams downfall.

We are then introduced to a girl named Rose Walker, a pretty young blonde girl with rainbow highlights in her hair. Shes on a plane on her way to England with her mother, a limo meets them an takes them to a house. Rose slowly slips into a dream and her dream takes her into The Dreaming.

Then we see Morpheus talking attendance of The Dreaming, Lucien says that there are four missing from The Dreaming. The first two are Brute and Glob, two members of the palace staff, the other is one known as The Corinthian a nightmare created by Morpheus. Finally the fourth is something named Fiddlers Green. Morpheus and Lucien continue to talk and Morpheus says that there is a new vortex that has come into existence and says that "the vortex is a she" and points right at the reader.

Instantly Rose wakes up and passes off what she saw as a dream and nothing more. They get escorted to an old English manor house in the countryside and then they meet an old woman. The old woman's name is Unity and she says that she is Rose's grandmother. It turns out that she got pregnant while she was stuck in a deep sleep, one of the effects of Morpheus imprisonment.

Unity explains everything to Rose's mother, in the meantime Rose walks around the old house. She comes across one room filled with darkness and three voices speak out to her. They say that they can give her three answers to three questions, she asks the wrong questions. The voices say that she wouldn't want to meet them as "The Kindly Ones". Rose switches on the light and there is nobody in the room. She goes back to her mother who has now accepted the fact that the old woman is who she says she is.

The next issue starts with Rose back in America and she is moving into a bed and breakfast in Florida so she can look for her brother Jed. She first meets the landlord  named Hal, then she meets the couple living there named Ken and Barbie and yes they both look and act like dolls. Then while being shown to her room Rose meets two women dressed in old bride gowns, with veils down, these are Chantal and Zelda. After she meets them Hal shows Rose her room and says that's about everyone except for Gilbert, who lives on the top floor. Rose instantly lays on her bed and Hal asks why she's here and Rose tells him she's here to find her brother.

Instantly we see Jed in a wonderful, magical dream world bouncing off the clouds and he beats up monsters, with the help of his pal The Sandman and his wife. This Sandman however is not the one that we have come to know over the course of the book, this Sandman wears read and yellow and is clearly a man in a costume. Then he wakes up and he is trapped in a leaky basement.

Yes this is the Jack Kirby Sandman. An interesting move for Gaiman to choose to include the Kirby creation within his own. Its also interesting because the panels layouts are like the old Nemo in Slumberland comics from the twenties. Its a nice nod to older classics as well as a great offset for the horror that occurs within the story.

Meanwhile Rose is writing a letter to her mother, giving her an update on the search for Jed (not much progress), she also gets news that Unity has fallen gravely ill. At the same time a raven fly's and looks at Rose through her window. Rose knows that Jed used to live with his grandfather until he died and now lives with his uncle and aunt. Meanwhile the raven fly's off into The Dreaming and to Morpheus. This raven is named Matthew and he is Morpheus aide.

Later Rose goes for a walk in a near by town and runs into some trouble in a alleyway, it looks like going to go bad before the muggers are clobbered by a huge man with a cane and fine vocabulary. This is Gilbert and after coming to Rose's aide, very gentlemanly, escorts her home for the night.

The next day Rose decides to head off  to Jed's aunt and uncles to see if she'll be able to find him. She takes a few steps out the door before Gilbert proclaims that he will escort Rose on her journey. At the same time Morpheus has found Jed as well, because it is Brute and Glob that have been letting The Sandman exist within Jed's mind. So Morpheus arms for battle with his helm and makes his move.

Next issue starts with Jed being abused by his uncle and aunt, they say that he has to put on a good show for the inspector coming and they cant loose him because he gets them welfare. Also Morpheus is trying to get into Jed's head to Brute and Glob, so they send their Sandman to stop him telling him that he's some big stupid monster. At the same time Lyta (short for Hippolyta), The Sandman's wife wonders through her home and thinks that shes been pregnant for a long time but still she hasn't had the baby yet. At the the same time again Rose and Gilbert check into a motel where there is a "Cereal Convention" going on and Rose wonders what kind of geeks go to a breakfast cereal convention, this however is not about breakfast cereal but about cereal killers. This might possibly be the worst place to be, ever.

Then comes the big collision of Sandman vs Sandman. Morpheus charges and The Sandman meets him but Morpheus is very uninterested in him, simply calling him "little ghost", while at the the same time The Sandman thinks he can handle Morpheus easily but he of course has no idea who he's dealing with. After the battle goes on beyond Morpheus patience he ends it. Jed's aunt and uncle hear a noise coming from the basement, Jed's uncle goes to beat him and as soon as he turns the door knob the room explodes. 

Brute, Glob, Sandman, Lyta and Morpheus are all standing around the basement. Morpheus punishes Brute and Glob for their betrayal, it was their intention to create a new Dreaming, starting from Jed's mind.   Sandman apologizes to Morpheus but Morpheus says that it is wrong for the dead to walk amongst the living and The Sandman fades into nothingness. Lyta blames Morpheus for killing him, but he shrugs it off and also says that when the time is right he will come for her child. He himself fades away saying he has a "prior engagement".

The issue ends with Jed walking out onto the road and a car almost runs him over the man in the car offer's to give him a ride, Jed gets in the car and sees that the man driving is wearing sunglasses at night. This man  is the Corinthian.

I cant help but ponder on the confrontation between Kirby's Sandman and Gaiman's Sandman. The obvious victor and superior power is Gaiman's, but even beyond that it feels like he's really putting Kirby's Sandman down. I know Gaiman wouldn't do that because he loves Kirby but that's just what it feels like to me.

Issue 13, Men of Good Fortune, is an issue that takes a slight divergence from the main plot but is crucial in
the main scheme of the Sandman in the whole. It is also one of my favorite issues. The cover has a broken watch on it, with pieces of the face scattered around the cover, the watch is of course symbolic of time and because it is broken and scattered it means that the dispersion of time plays into the story. Also the skeletons are of course symbolic of death. So within our story we are given two themes, time and death.

The story starts in an old, medieval tavern where the locals are drinking and making jokes, then enters Dream and Death. Death is saying that Dream should get more involved with the people. Meanwhile there's one man named Robert Gadling, that says to all the other men that dying is a fools game and its not for him. Dream and Death exchange looks then Dream approaches the man and says if its true that dying is a fools game then lets meet here in the same place in a hundred years. One hundred years pass and they meet again in the same tavern. Gadling has become immortal, over the centuries they meet again and again and catch up on what hes been doing with his immortality. One time they notice a struggling up and coming writer named Will Shakespeare, Dream quickly gets up and offers to make him a deal. Another time they get ambushed by a woman by the name of Lady Constantine. In the end they meet in present time in the same place as it was all those centuries ago, the setting and clothes have changed but nothing really has. And two old being's meet up again like they have for the past handful of centuries.

One of the things that makes Sandman so great (and one of the main driving forces that inspired Gaiman to write it) is that it has one of the best story engines ever (on par with Doctor Who). A Sandman story can literally take place any time, any where with no restrictions (except for the time when he was imprisoned). As long as there is a possibility to dream a Sandman story can be.

Issue 14 "Collectors" is a really dark one. The cover has a face placed within darkness and the eyes are not eyes but a pair of teeth  and scattered across the cover are pieces of an old torn map. The face is the face of the Corinthian and the shatters of map gives a scenes of loss of direction, with the Corinthian at the center of everything.

Rose and Gilbert are killing time in their motel room, they dont know where Jed is but the police has contacted them and they've been told to stay put. Later the Corinthian arrives to the convention as well. What is so spine tingly creepy about the way the convention is handled is that the killers behave just like regular people, only they are talking about whether they skin or decapitate their victims.

There's a moment in the issue where there is one man who claims to be a killer named "The Boogeyman". The Corinthian says that The Boogeyman died in the swamps in Louisiana. Again another Swamp Thing reference.

The issue comes to a big conclusion when the Corinthian makes a huge speech for the cereal convention, saying that they are "gladiators" and "soldiers of fortune" when he suddenly sees Morpheus sitting in the audience. Morpheus then gets up and approaches him telling him that he was huge disappointment. The Corinthian declares battle on him, removing his sunglasses to reveal not eyes but a pair of teeth, but Morpheus says no and simply dissolves him.

Rose runs out and finds Gilbert holding Jed in his arms and together they drive off to safety. And all the killers at the convention walk off into the darkness where that is all they will ever meet.

Issue 15 "Into The Night" allows the reader a look behind the veil and into the characters dreams. It starts with Rose settling down for the night with a much deserved sleep. Along with her dreams we see Ken dream of being a successful businessman, Barbie dreams of a magical land where she is a princess and she has a magical creature named Martin Tenbones that protects her. Then all the dreams start to merge together and one twisted dream is introduced to another and all the characters psyches are mixed together before Morpheus swoops in and takes Rose to a secluded part of The Dreaming. While at the hospital Gilbert meets Mathew and he asks for Mathew to take him to Morpheus, because he knows in order for Morpheus to protect The Dreaming he will have to kill Rose.

Morpheus now has Rose in The Dreaming and he very calmly explains to her that every kala a vortex is born and they become the center of The Dreaming and he must kill her to save the world from the collapse of The Dreaming. He says that it happened once, aeons ago a world was lost and he will not let that happen again.

Gilbert then burst in on them, Rose hugs him and Morpheus says "Fiddlers Green?". Gilbert sadly can do nothing to help Rose so he kisses her had and takes his leave, and the whole desolate area becomes a luscious meadow. Fiddlers Green was a place in The Dreaming.  

Meanwhile back in England Rose's mother and Unity are together and Unity slips into a dream. Then as soon as she does she is in Fiddlers Green, also she looks as old as Rose, she confronts Morpheus and says that he's not going to kill Rose, he's going to kill her. At first everyone is confused but Unity explains that she was meant to be the vortex but it was passed to Rose because Morpheus was imprisoned. Rose is able to pass the powers of the vortex to Unity and Morpheus kills her. Now everything is fine, The Dreaming is safe, Morpheus can go about his business and Rose can live her life.

Months pass by and Rose, her mother and Jed all are living happily together in a big house that they can afford now because of their inheritance from Unity. She learns that Ken has sold the Bed and Breakfast, Ken and Barbie have split up and Barbie is now living with friends in New York. But still Rose remains shaken up for the experience, wondering if it was all real or not. But in the end she shrugs it all off just saying "Dreams are stupid" and she dyes her hair and cuts it and goes outside to play with her brother.

The issue, as well as the story arc, comes to an end with Dream paying Desire a little visit. He knows that he/she had a hand in recent events and knows that Rose is the grandchild of their missing brother and he cannot spill family blood. He sternly warns him/her that he will forgive this because they are family but next time he will show no mercy. But also that it is them, The Endless, that are humanities toys, him, Despair and "poor Delirium". He then leaves but Desire does not dwell on his words because Desire lives in the present.

Sandman The Doll's House is one of the greatest comics arcs that I have ever read. All the elements play into one another and even set up the dominoes to be put into play later down the line of the series as a whole. Is it my favorite? Hmm well that's tough, its up there certainly and it was definitely when the series began to find its own voice and stands as its own unique creation.

Sadly Mike Dringenberg, great artist that he is, couldn't keep up with the heavy deadlines and workload of a monthly comic book and he had to be fired. He simply didn't have the engine to keep him going and produce the work. This however lead to one of the linchpins of Sandman.

What made Sandman so different and unique in its grand scheme is that it had a regular cast of revolving artists. Unlike Transmetropolitan where it was Darrick Robertson as the artist throughout, Sandman would have different artists for different stories. After Sam Keith left and Mike Driengeberg had to leave, Gaiman recruited artist of different talents and and wrote to their strengths rather than just make them unhappy. He would ask the artist what they wanted to draw and he would then write an issue depending on what they said. If one didn't like drawing cars then he's write a medieval story, if there was one who liked to draw Greek architecture then he'd write an issue that took place in ancient Greece.

Issue 17 Calliope, is a twisted tale of writers and ideas. The cover has a woman but also Peacock feather across the side. A Peacock doesn't actually feature in the story so the feathers must be symbolic of attraction. Attraction is linked to the girl and is the core of the story.

It starts inside a house and inside that house is a writer. He in the state that all writers find themselves in at one point in their careers, staring at  a blank screen. He has a deadline approaching very soon and he has yet to write a single word, luckily an old writer contacts him and tells him that he can fix his problem. He goes to his house where the old man shows him a naked woman that he has locked up in his attic, he gives her to him and tells him if he has her he will be able to write. He takes her back to his place and rapes her, after a while nothing seems to happen when all of a sudden he cranks out an entire book in a blaze of writing. The book is a success and he keeps writing best seller after best seller. He learns that the girl is named Calliope and she even once had a son. When the writer is at his highest point The Sandman appears before him, he tells him to let the woman go but the writer refuses because he needs the ideas, this sickens Sandman so he gives him all the ideas he could ever want.

When the writer is all alone he begins to get some new ideas, then more  and more and more. He writes them down on paper with pen before he runs out of both paper and pen. So he resorts to writing it on the walls with blood from his own finger tips. The writers doctor friend tries to tend to him but he knows that he has to free the girl. The doctor does, even though to him he only opens a door to an empty room. The issue ends with Sandman and Calliope standing together and having a few words about their son.

Issue 18, A Dream of a Thousand Cats is a wonderful story about, what else, cats. I love cats, I'm a cat person so this story hits me in my soft spot. But as for the story itself it is about a gathering of cats that get together in a cemetery where there is one cat that has something important to tell all of the other cats. The white cat tells the tale of how it grew up in comfort, with owners that took care of her, one day a beautiful stray came to her, she bore his kittens. The owners were not pleased and they killed the kittens, the white cat sought vengeance, she travels for a long time before she has a dream where she enters  a deep dark cave and at the end of the cave is a huge black cat, with glowing eyes. They talk and the black cat tells the white cat once there was a time when cats ruled the Earth and it was the humans that were their prey, but one day many humans, maybe a thousand, maybe a million, maybe just a hundred dreamed a dream that humans ruled the world. And the next day the entire order of the Earth had changed into what it is now. The humans dreaming changed the Earth now and what it always was and so the white cat asks for all the cats to dream one thing together so that cats can reclaim the mantle that was once theirs.

These issues were drawn by Kelly Jones. Jones is a good artist and his work is good with real surreal faces. What I dont like is the way he draws Morpheus. He draws him with a heavy emphasis on his cloak, he has said that he thought that the cloak was the key to his emotion with it flaring up when he's angry and so forth. What rubs me the the wrong way is the way he draws his face, really, Really stylized, with a very long face and chin, with swirling eyes and a bobble head of hair. It just looks wrong to me. I love the issues as long as Morpheus isn't in them.

Issue 19, A Midsummer's Nights Dream, does that title sound familiar? Well it should because this issue is all about the classic Shakespeare play. The story is about the plays premier and how it was performed, on commission, from Morpheus. Morpheus and Shakespeare have an agreement, his work will be immortal if he writes two plays for Morpheus, this is the first. Charles Vess illustrates this issue and he is one of the Sandman's greatest artists, he has an amazing clean European style to his work.

The story itself really just follows Shakespeare and is grup band of actors meeting Morpheus on a hill in the countryside. Morpheus opens a portal to another world and a huge group of fairies, troll goblins and so forth come out. This is their audience.

I love the idea that A Midsummer Nights Dream was in fact based on true events (so to speak). Did you think that the play was a parody of the monarchs of the time? NO! It was very accurate to the actual fairies and goblins that really existed.

The issue was incredible and it was recognized as one by winning the World Fantasy Award for short fiction. But then as soon as it won the award the rules got re-written so that a comic book could never win the award again. This infuriates me so much, the fools that made that decision are literally blocking the progress of comic books to be held at a higher standard of literature. This rule needs to be revoked.

Issue 20, Facade, tells the story of one of the more obscure DC characters, The Elemental Girl. It tells the story of what it would be like to be a girl with these kinds of powers. Sure when there's a bad guy to take down its all fun times. But when there's not and real life has to settle in, it becomes a dark lonely place to be. She just sits in her apartment and waits for that one point a week when she can call her phone therapist, she cant leave the apartment because her appearance terrifies people. All she wants is to die, except she cant.

Then while she is at her lowest point crying and begging for death, Death appears. Yes Death just shows up and strikes up a conversation with her. She asks her whats wrong, they talk it out and she explains that in the end we all meet Death. Then Elemental Girl quietly dies.

Death is a great character but the duduk perkara of why she could never star in her own ongoing title is exactly the reason Neil Gaiman himself explained. He said that she was too smart of a character to get into stories, she can see a story coming a mile away and move out of the way in time, while Dream is not. Its a bit of a shame but it makes me aware what a great character she is. She would of course star in two miniseries so that's something.

Sandman was published in the late eighties and the early nineties and obviously because it was, it was printed on customary paper-stock for the average comic in the late eighties and early nineties. Over the years it would get reprinted again and again and every time it did the paper would get better and better but the color would remain the same so whenever it would get reprinted the comics would get brighter and brighter. This is bad. For the special release of these Absolute editions the entire Sandman issues were recolored to more properly fit the higher quality paper stock.

I have to say that whenever I read a comic, I read each character with a voice running through my head. For Morpheus I imagined a soft American kind of accent. For Death I imagined a Londoner. Desire is the funnest to read because I imagine her sex changing along with her mood. For Lucifer I imagined Ron Perlman, there could be no other.

The special features of the first Absolute edition are very generous and appreciated. The first is Neil Gaiman's actual pitch to DC comics for the first eight issues of Sandman, you can really see how the man had planned out this run with the right amount of detail and the proper room to add or take anything away should anything change, or comes up with a better idea or there need to be more or less issues. What follows through this is a series of concept pieces from Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman and others of how Morpheus will look. I really like the ones by Leigh Baulch that draws Morpheus like David Bowie (I don't think any of the other artists have even tried to draw Morpheus like David Bowie...shame). There is also a copy of Neil Gaiman's script for Issue 19 followed by Charles Vess original pencils for the issue.

There are times when I think that I've seen it all, whether they be movies or comics. But to my delight I always get proven wrong, there is always something else out there that will be doing something new and interesting that will invoke that great feeling in the audience. Sandman was a comic that changed everything when it started and one of its great declarations of greatness is that its still one of the greatest reads that anyone can have today.