The Sandman: Endless Nights

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I just love the concept behind it all. In here they all have their own issue to establish exactly what their purposes within the universe are. In a way, they all work together to create much of reality. Without Destiny there could be no dreams or desires. Without dreams there could be no delirium or despair. And without destruction there would be no moving force in which destiny could act or no end for death to claim. Take one element out, and the others are not quite as effective. A simple but effective tale explaining the role and the burden of the oldest member of The Endless. Desire’s tale is definitely the most sexually-charged, a fable of a young woman in early Britain who desires the handsome but playboy son of the village leader. She cuts a deal with Desire, but in typical fashion, the passions that are ignited do not conform to expectations. It reminded me a bit of the Wildlings of the North in Game of Thrones. Seven siblings that are each more powerful than gods in their own way make for one rather odd and insane family. Who wouldn’t want to be part of it? I don't know, man, this series is sort of the David Bowie of comics. It's all over the place, good and bad. Sometimes it's better suited for wall art in MOMA, other times it breaks the laws of comics, other times it tells great stories, other times it's so far up its own butt that it seems the only point is just graphic indulgence, decadence, and meaninglessness.

It contains your life. Every detail of your life. Everything that has happened to you. Everything that will happen one day. The things you've forgotten. The things you don't believe. I have a love hate with this one. Love the Death / Dream / Desire stories. Hated the Destiny / Delerium stories. The Destruction story was... sort of just there. The Delirium story was really quite charming. It's actually the funnest in the bunch because it's her calling a bunch of crazies to come and rescue her.Before the beginning was the night. And the night was without boundaries and the night was without end."

I was underwhelmed with this collection. It was, at least in part, a matter of timing. Instead of reading it when it first came out, when I would have been eager for brand new Sandman stories, I read it immediately after rereading the entire ten volume Sandman cycle and its excellent prequel. It suffers by comparison. As always chapter 5 Delirium, Going Inside fascinated me. It is a simple enough little story, well conceived, and while the Endless characters of Dream (Daniel) and Barnabas are familiar there is no indication of when it takes place that I can see. I do not believe it ties into any particular time frame of The Sandman. While the story is nice, it is the amazing artwork of Bill Sienkiewicz that makes this chapter sing. The crazy lines, often irregular panels and chaotic, yet amazing artwork let the right side of your brain wander along the colour and image of delirium, while the left side of your brain simultaneously follows the actual story line. At least, that is how it always feels to me while reading it. This one is more in line with the rest of the series, disjointed but interwoven with stories, odd artwork and sometimes painful text. In other words, part of the classic series.Gaiman tries his best to work some old magic in this one, but it's clear his attention is elsewhere. Death's story, brilliantly illustrated by P. Craig Russell, almost captures what used to be, but the ending twists what looked interesting into a simple "a killer justifies his life" plot line. There's some great ideas and Death as always steals the show, but it feels like it was rushed.

She shows detachment to her surroundings and doesn't often show strong emotions. She does, however, get angry at Dream for causing her inconvenience. This story is about several mentally unbalanced people who are brought together on a quest to save Delirium from herself. It's possible at the end of this story that Delirium is somewhat healed in some fundamental way; at least two of the people involved in her rescue are also at least partly healed. Daniel/Dream, Dream's raven Matthew, and Barnabas (Delirium's dog protector on indefinite loan from Destruction), also appear as part of the rescue mission. One of the adventurers is based loosely on Henry Darger. Morpheus invites his girlfriend, Killalla of the Glow, to a very important parliament where the high powers will discuss and delimitate their own reaches, domains, responsibilities and obligations.It contains everything that has happened, or will happen, to anyone you've ever met. Anyone you've ever heard of. Anyone you've never heard of. The histories and the dreams and triumphs of the dead are there. Dream, the character most closely associated with Gaiman, gets rather shorted here, as his story features an ensemble cast. This is a story from the past, when Dream was more apt to love. The Endless meet up with the stars to plan the future. Dream brings his girlfriend, a young from from a planet we'll hear more about in other times. Meanwhile, Despair woos a red sun into tragic plots, and Desire does what he does best. I'm a bit surprised Gaiman tries to link the Endless to the DC universe Canon--he even mentions in the first trade of Sandman that when he tried to do that, he felt he failed. This is a story designed to show why some of the things happened the way they did in the series, and I'm not sure that was needed. It's a very clever tale, however. Yet it's not a real story about Dream. In addition, other DC comics characters appear: the character Killalla originates from the planet Oa (although technically from planet Maltus), and is an ancestor of the Guardians of the Universe, who form the Green Lantern Corps; able to manipulate their characteristic green energy, but with incomplete control. Despair has a conversation with a red giant star named Rao about the creation of life on an unstable world and the possibility of a lone survivor to continually mourn the destruction of that world: this is an allusion to the history of Superman, in that Rao is the red giant sun around which Superman's homeworld of Krypton orbited, as well as the Kryptonian God. (The colors of the stars in the story follow the DC Universe's standards, not the actual star life cycle.) The story is narrated by the Sun (here identified by his Latin name of Sol) to the Earth before the evolution there of life. Dream and Desire are still close to each other, but you will find out the reason of their distancing.

The The title is probably taken from a line in Robert Frost's poem Fire and Ice. Gaiman himself has said that the story is based on a historical anecdote told by George MacDonald Fraser. A woman named Kara, living in an apparently pre-Roman Britain, becomes enamored of Danyal, a handsome neighbour. Danyal travels to the coast while his father goes to negotiate an exchange of hostages; upon the latter's failure, Kara sets out to tell the former that his father is dead. On the way she meets Desire, who promises to inspire an unbreakable longing in Danyal. As a result, he courts her for three months, until she consents to marry him. Unfortunately, he is killed soon afterward, and his killers come asking Kara for shelter, which she grants in obedience to cultural tradition. Upon seeing her husband's severed head, she manipulates his killers' desire for her and has them perform contests of strength, skill, and wit, distracting them until her own warriors return the following morning to kill them all. Thereafter, she no longer desires anything. She eventually remarries and dies of old age. Preludes and Nocturnes • The Doll's House • Dream Country • Season of Mists • A Game of You • Fables and Reflections • Brief Lives • Worlds' End • The Kindly Ones • The Wake Despite not having a very close relationship with her children and her generally neglecting them, Night has been shown to have a better understanding of them than they themselves. This is seen where she was able to tell that Dream and Desire possessed many similarities in personality despite their disdain for each other and was able to tell what Dream really wanted from her during his visit. Near the beginning of the habitability of the universe, Dream and his new paramour Killala of the Glow travel to a meeting of astronomical phenomena, wherein Killalla is astonished to identify the delegates as the very stars, galaxies, and dimensions which comprise the cosmos. At an encounter with her world's own sun, Sto-Oa, Killala and the star fall in love at the behest of Desire, while Dream watches. Here, Death is an unmerciful character and Delight has not become Delirium; whereas the defection of Killala begins Dream's long-standing rivalry with Desire. The first aspect of Despair also appears in the story, quite different in appearance and more sociable than her latter aspect.Between the *mostly* gorgeous artwork (Despair aside -- there's nothing in Despair I actually ENJOYED reading) and the poignant tales of each of the Endless, it turns out I'm still a fan. Having just finished the 10-volume epic SANDMAN saga, it’s hard to imagine anything that can top this achievement. In aggregate, it is certainly the most ambitious comic of its time, and having depicted the character arc of Dream, also known as Morpheus and the Sandman, there is isn’t much to add to that. At the same time, since the Endless have lived for the lifetime of the current universe (and perhaps previous iterations), there are an infinite number of side-stories that Gaiman could conceive. So it was inevitable that he would choose to pen some stories that featured each of the Endless - this project itself could be endless, if there’s enough demand from Sandman fans. This story is about several mentally unbalanced people who are brought together on a quest to save Delirium from herself. It's possible at the end of this story that Delirium is somewhat healed in some fundamental way; at least two of the people involved in her rescue are also at least partly healed. Daniel/Dream, Dream's raven Matthew, and Barnabas (Delirium's dog protector on indefinite loan from Destruction), also appear as part of the rescue mission. She does, however, display some attachment to Dream. She fondly calls him “darling” and various other monikers, and offers to provide him sanctuary and happiness in her realm as the universe ends, saying that he would be able to see her whenever he wants. She is angry when he refuses, calling him selfish. Neil Gaiman, the writer of The Sandman said that Night plays favorites with her children. Dream is a story of a heartbreak and the not too subtle hints of superman world and many others was great and i think i finally notice Dream's story was always a tragedy it was never meant to be a comedy...