For the second issue, with Dream ending up needing help from Cain and Abel–who appropriately bookend the tale–Gaiman doesn’t do a lot except continue to setup Dream’s eventual quest. He needs to regain his talismans or whatnot; all the exposition about what’s happened to his world in his absence is secondary.
Until the end of the issue, at least, because there’s where Gaiman introduces the next steps Dream may take. It’s a promised tour of the DC supernatural universe–with Constantine–but also the superheroes. There’s a Batman connection, including an Arkham Asylum visit.
The result is Gaiman doesn’t really do anything to establish the series, which is fine, but he also has a floundering Dream. For a protagonist, in a second issue, it doesn’t help. It leaves the series–and the reader–without footing when relying on the lead.
Nicely, the art’s consistently strong throughout the issue.
B
CREDITS
Imperfect Hosts; writer, Neil Gaiman; penciller, Sam Kieth; inker, Mike Dringenberg; colorist, Robbie Busch; letterer, Todd Klein; editors, Art Young and Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.
Neil Gaiman starts Sandman with the world changing. Except it’s in flashback, so it’s entirely possible the reader has been living in this changed world without realizing it. Except it’s sort of in DC continuity–the Golden Age Sandman shows up–so the reader isn’t really in that world anyway. Gaiman plays with the ideas a little, but doesn’t go particularly far with them.
Gaiman wastes a bunch of time on the bad guys hunting the Black Orchid sisters through the rain forest. Sure, McKean paints a pretty rain forest, but it goes on for half the issue and the series is double-sized. On and on the hunt goes while the Black Orchid sisters frolic.
Based on the first issue–and maybe even the first half of this issue–I wasn’t expecting much, but Gaiman writes a darn good comic here.
Black Orchid, conceptually, is a disconnect. That disconnect gets the reader to pay immediate attention. Neil Gaiman is doing a very “real life” superhero story. Sure, it’s a fantastical superhero story, but he makes Lex Luthor into a corporate villain. Bad guys kill superheroes; they don’t mess around.
One should never hope for too much from finales. Especially not from an extremely uneven anthology series like Wednesday Comics.
Azzarello writes Batman as a rube while Risso tries to ape Sin City as a Batman. Gibbons once again summarizes the action too much on Kamandi. Sook’s barely got anything to do.
Batman versus dogs, Azzarello’s inspired and Risso can’t even draw a cool Batmobile. Kamandi comes back a little; there’s a big battle scene, lots of panels. Arcudi misses a great Superman: The Movie homage on his dumb Superman strip.