There are so few sure things in life: Water's wet, sun will rise in the morning, and Neil Gaiman writing Sandman will always be great. This Endless Nights Special is a weird cross between promotional item and standalone comic, featuring a story that will be reprinted in just a few weeks as one of the stories in the new Sandman hardcover Endless Nights but being priced as a regular comic, and available to retailers in proportion to the numbers they ordered on the hardcover. Most folks probably already know whether they're buying Endless Nights or not, but if by some chance you're on the fence, a quick read of The Endless Nights Special will probably make up your mind for you.
Most long-time comic-book fans don't need to be told that there's magic in the Marvel and DC universes, something powerful and appealing about these characters and their shared universes that gives it claim to being modern mythology and not just pop culture. However, Gaiman, like Alan Moore, is one of the few writers who can make this power felt for readers who aren't necessarily super-hero fans, and to some degree, that's what "The Heart of a Star," the story featured in The Endless Nights Special, is all about. It features cameos from names that DC readers will recognize like Rao and Oa, explored in a way that they have never been in super-hero tales.
However, while Gaiman does wink at readers who are familiar with the legends of Superman and Green Lantern, that's not to say that Endless Nights is really about super-heroes. Instead, it's an early, early story of The Endless, before any stories we've seen before, when Delirium was still Delight, Destruction hadn't gone walkabout and Dream and Desire were close friends as well as siblings. It's a story of Dream's first love, and gives a pretty good insight into why he doesn't love much anymore, and why he and Desire aren't such good friends anymore. It has the same cosmic feel, done in a style that's easy to relate to, with anthropomorphic cosmic phenomena like suns (Sol is a young character) and cosmic constants (the Endless) having some of the same relationship difficulties that mortals have, just on a grander scale.
I must admit, I was a little disappointed that Delight seemed just as flaky and strange as Delirium, as I was hoping to see that her personality had shifted more, but her personality is always fun anyway. Certainly it was a lot of fun to see Gaiman touch upon these characters again, and it's interesting to see some of these characters very early on, when their relationships hadn't developed to the places where they were during the Sandman run.
The art on this story is by Spanish illustrator Miguelanxo Prado, a name I'm not familiar with. Which is clearly my loss, because Prado's work is beautiful. Lush and imaginative, it reminds me of some of Michael Zulli's strongest work on The Sandman, but there's a whimsical, innocent quality that really works to depict these characters before their long lives had forced so many hardships upon them. He captures the light and airy natures of the various stars, the regal but not quite so distant Dream and a beautifully gothic Death.
I have a little difficulty recommending this Special, not because of any failings in the story, but because the packaging is so odd. If you buy this and the Endless Nights hardcover, you'll be duplicating material, and if you're a fan of this material I suspect you'll want the hardcover. I suppose this is a good recommendation for those on a budget, or those who are holding out for a softcover of Endless Nights but can't wait that long for new Neil Gaiman Sandman stories.
