The Sandman: The Wake
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- This article is about the graphic novel. For the 1985 progressive rock album, see IQ (band).
The Wake (1996) is the tenth and final collection of issues in the DC Comics series, The Sandman. Written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Michael Zulli, Jon J. Muth and Charles Vess, and lettered by Todd Klein.
The collection opens with James Elroy Flecker's poem "The Bridge of Fire," which acts as a prologue and description of the events that occur.
The stories in the collection first appeared in 1996. The collection first appeared in paperback and hardback in 1996.
[edit] Synopsis
As a collection it more or less stands alone. It forms an epilogue to the entire series, its mood being restrained and reflective. The first half of the collection is a storyline which follows the wake for Morpheus, who died at the end of the ninth collection, The Kindly Ones. Many characters from the series appear, and talk to each other, sometimes to slightly comic effect. A series of speakers, ending with Death, appear to give their point of view on Morpheus' life. Meanwhile, the new aspect of Dream, who used to be the child Daniel, starts to build relationships with the inhabitants of the Dreaming.
After this come three seemingly unrelated short stories. The first, "Sunday Mourning", features Robert Gadling and a new girlfriend in what seems to be the modern day, at a Renaissance Fair. Hob has managed to pop up several times in the courses of the Sandman stories. This time we see how disillusioned he has become with living. He mooches about the fair, somewhat depressed over the passage of time and the sugar-coated depiction of his past. Later he enters a condemned building, where he encounters Death. Death tells him of the death of Morpheus, and offers to let him die as well, now he no longer has his agreement with Morpheus to fulfil, but after some consideration Robert turns her down.
The second, "Exiles", is something of a companion to a story from Fables and Reflections, "Soft Places". It features a man, an adviser to the Emperor of China, who is sent into exile after his son allied himself with a take-off of the historical White Lotus Rebellion. In the course of the story we are drawn through a contemplative narration which sometimes leads one to think the old man has gone senile. With a significant nod to the parable style the old man's act of saving and caring for a stray kitten saves his life when he is lost through a soft place in reality and meets Morpheus, then the new Dream of the Endless who alludes to both former and future events. In the end the old man is reunited with his guide, his loyalty to the Emperor intact.
The final story of the series and of the collection is "The Tempest", the companion piece to "A Midsummer Night's Dream", from the third collection, Dream Country. "The Tempest" is more reflective than "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and features less of the original play, though it echoes it cleverly in several ways and sequences. It is principally about Gaiman's Morpheus and his issues with himself and his place in things. Here we see in detail the Morpheus only briefly fleshed in former issues - the vulnerable, emotional, confused Dream King. Gaiman uses "The Tempest", a play fundamentally about change, endings, and new beginnings, to finish the series.
[edit] Issues collected
- Sandman #70: "Which occurs in the wake of what has gone before" ... art by Michael Zulli
- Sandman #71: "In which a wake is held" ... art by Michael Zulli
- Sandman #72: "In which we wake" ... art by Michael Zulli
- Sandman #73: "Sunday Mourning" ... art by Michael Zulli
- Sandman #74: "Exiles" ... art by John J. Muth
- Sandman #75: "The Tempest" ... art by Charles Vess
[edit] Trivia
- Issues 70-73 did not have an inker, and were done only in pencils and color.
- Issue 74 did not have a penciler, and was done entirely in inks.
| Preceded by The Kindly Ones |
The Sandman collected editions |
Succeeded by ' |
