Dave Schaafsma's Reviews > The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists

A 2020 reread.

Okay, when I first read I thought: this is obviously very good, but unlike most of the Gaiman universe, I liked the intimacy of volume 3 more than this huge, epic, operatic occasion where Morpheus decides what to do with Hell after Lucifer hands it over to him. But this time I see that this is what Gaiman does best, to alternate between a grand operatic canvas and the intimacy of the simple story. And it is a simple story, a kind of mythical allegory: With some poignancy Dream determines (influenced by his sisters!) that the best thing he could do to right a wrong he did to an ex-lover is to Go to Hell himself and release her (yep, he did that, not okay at all). Then, when he is in Hell, many gods from various worlds vye for ownership of Hell, and he creates ingenious solutions to both dilemmas (especially, that Nada, thus released, becomes transformed into a babe, without memory). What he did--ugh, this doesn't make it right, but it's still a fine sweet ending after all the High Fantasy.

Dream realizes, in other words, that he has made a mistake, as he has himself just been recently released from captivity. He was a colossal jerk, and almost as if human, makes restitution for his sin.

There's another interlude that is deliciously creepy about a kid who goes to a school with ghosts from Hell. It doesn't quite fit with the rest, I think, but I liked it. This Sandman is like the Paradise Lost of comics, an epic, and this volume is as good as it gets. And sets up Mike Carey's Lucifer spin-off.