While The Tarantula is a reprint of an earlier edition of Sandman Mystery Theatre, The Face and The Brute represents a new trade paperback, and hopefully the beginning of a complete run of the series. This trade contains two story arcs, rather than one, hence the higher price than The Tarantula, but it's well worth the price of admission, and the two story arc format means a faster completion of the stories if the trades do indeed keep coming out. At any rate, while The Tarantula more clearly represents the strongest aspects of Sandman Mystery Theatre for me, The Face and The Brute introduces two more of the series' artists, a pair of new villains and a confirmation that exploration of racism, violence and sexuality in 1938 was going to be the focus of the series as much as pulp adventure or the burgeoning romance between Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont.
The Face is a story of gangland warfare in New York's Chinatown, spurred on by an outside interest and his sadistic master of disguise, known only as The Face. It delves into the casual and accepted racism of the period, even amongst otherwise likable, even noble characters like Dian's father, and in so doing, it also serves to heighten the idiosyncratic tendencies of both Dian and Wesley, whose relations with Chinese people is considerably more civilized. At the same time, while Dian's romance with Jimmy Shan shows her to be more open to the notions of viewing people as personalities instead of their race, the difficulties that society places on them ultimately makes their relationship a tragic one. It's especially interesting that Jimmy Shan, while a likable and charming fellow for the most part, is revealed to be what Dian's father fears in some respects, driven by anger and a code that Larry Belmont finds alien, although certainly no one could fault Jimmy for where his anger comes from or his violent reactions to it.
The notion of vengeance being a devourer enters into both of these tales, and it's interesting to contrast the violent, revenge-driven nature of Jimmy or The Brute's "Rocket" Ramsey with the more quiet, driven methodology of Wesley Dodds. The former is more the kind of thing you expect to find in a pulp story, a hard-boiled tough guy who uses violence against those who would do harm, but Wesley's methods of operation are much more gentle, more Eastern, clearly driven to some extent by his childhood and maturation in "the Orient." It is never spelled out for the Sandman the way it is for Batman, but it's clear that much of Wesley's skill and success comes from his calm ability to analyze what is going on, his ability to plan as well as improvise and his combat skills, which are based on martial arts rather than pugilism.
For all that the Sandman's crime-fighting is important, however, what drives both of these stories are the mystery of who is behind the crimes, the real people affected by them and the romance between Dian and Wesley that is beginning to bloom more and more in these pages. Wagner's stories seem to always involve manipulation of some sort at this stage, as some industrialist or crime boss or otherwise powerful figure is using a pawn to his own ends to manipulate other powerful figures. There's a stink of corruption on all of his villains as well, from the sexually voracious Reisling in The Brute to the duplicitous figure behind the murders and gang wars in The Face. Wagner doesn't just settle for easy answers, though, as Reisling has a soft spot for one of the characters, as revealed in the bloody conclusion of The Brute, and the "good guys" don't often get off unscathed, as we see in the terrible and tragic tale of Ramsey and his daughter. Ramsey, who starts off trying to do the right thing, is quickly locked into a spiral that costs him everything, and his daughter Emily receives no better, despite being a true innocent of everything. In fact, the abuse that befalls Emily is so powerful that it has stayed with me all of these years, and is one of the story points that remains etched in my brain from the entire 70-issue run of the book.
While Sandman Mystery Theatre, and the stories contained here, are dark, however, there's a light of hope that shines through, and that light is embodied by Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont. Wagner does not flinch in showing the dark days of the depression, and the various problems that faced so many, but he also presents two crusaders who are doing what they can to stem the tide. Dian's determination to make something of herself, and her caring nature, is flagged up quite effectively when she stops abuse that everyone else was quite content to watch in The Brute, and Wesley of course spends money, time and no small amount of pain as the Sandman in trying to put an end to the evil-doers in his city. There's plenty of realism to be found in Sandman Mystery Theatre, but there's idealism too, and while the continuity and general tone of the book might not match exactly with the original tales of the Golden Age Sandman, the notion of a good-hearted superhero doing his best to combat evil is definitely found here. Miraculously, this one example of standard heroic morality does not come across as unrealistic or jarring in contrast with the more realistic and noir tone of the book, and that's down to Wagner's exceptional characterization.
If I'm being totally honest, the artwork in this volume did not hold up as well as the writing did when compared to my memories of the series. John Watkiss and R.G. Taylor are both solid artists, but I found Watkiss's take on Wes a little too standard heroic, as opposed to the small, gentle figure that Guy Davis originally created, and while Taylor's visuals were generally very strong, his design for The Brute is a little bit too abstract to really have the right kind of power. That said, the artwork in general remains impressive, especially in terms of creating a believable 1938 New York, and Taylor in particular excels in capturing the human emotions in the faces of the characters, which is essential to conveying the power of the story. 10/10
