In season one The Sandman covered the first two-and-a-half volumes of the comic series. For reference there are ten volumes in the main run of comics a prequel story and numerous spin off titles in the wider Sandman Universe.
Sandman is rich with amazing oneshot stories. Look no further than the bonus episode A Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope.There are plenty more where that came from. With the show officially coming back let’s look at five stories we could see in the future.
1. Tales in the Sand
Season one of The Sandman teased some of Dream’s past relationships. From Calliope to Nada he’s pretty terrible at them. Tales in the Sand dives into his relationship with Nada which has something of a fairy tale feel… but also reaffirms that Morpheus love life is an absolute disaster.
Tales in the Sand was a surprising omission from the show’s debut season. In the comics the story is told in the first issue of The Doll’s House story arc. The show decided to push it aside in season one so we’ll almost certainly see it play out in the next batch of episodes.The issue takes place in ancient Africa where Nada is the ruler of a beautiful glass city.
She has everything she could ever want except for someone to love. That all changes when on one night a mysterious stranger who is Dream of the Endless enters the city. She falls in love with him. However when she seeks him out in the morning he is gone.
She then travels far and wide to find him. Without going too much into spoiler territory Nada becomes worried after learning that she has fallen in love with one of the Endless and she tries to escape the relationship. When she refuses to join Morpheus as his queen he condemns her to Hell for all eternity. Yikes. The Netflix show teases their relationship when Morpheus enters Hell in pursuit of his missing helm. Remember this scene?
2. Season of Mists Episode 4
After Lucifer Morningstar abandons Hell in Season of Mists the dead begin to roam the Waking World. This story follows Charles Rowland a boy who lives alone in St. Hilarion’s boarding school during the school holidays.
With the dead returning suddenly the abandoned school becomes awash with old students long since dead. Even the former Headmaster Parkinson (who served from 1901-1916) resumes his duties. Parkinson is cruel making the dead boys bathe in the school pond and since everyone is dead he doesn’t feed them. As a result Charles the only living child sneaks into the kitchens to feed himself. After being caught by a group of bullies Charles becomes gravely injured.
Thankfully he’s rescued by Edwin Paine another former student who takes him to the attics so he can recover. However with his injuries too severe Charles descends into delirium and ultimately death. When Death arrives to take him into the afterlife he refuses to go without Paine. Death is too busy to argue and so she leaves Charles and Edwin to roam the world.
This issue was the foundation of a four issue miniseries Dead Boy Detectives written by Ed Brubaker was based. Moreover there’s even an upcoming live action TV show in development. The show recently switched from HBO Max to Netflix. Perhaps a crossover with The Sandman could happen.
3. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the only comic book ever to win the prestigious World Fantasy Award. This story is set up in season one of The Sandman in episode 6 The Sound of Her Wings during the epic saga between Morpheus and Hob Gadling the man who wants to live together.
During his meetings with Hob in one century Morpheus overhears the William Shakespeare from across a the bar as he is laughed at for his poor pursuits in writing great plays. Believing in Shakespeare’s intentions Morpheus takes him to the side and seemingly strikes a bargain with him. He gives Shakespeare the ability to have his words remembered forever in return for two plays about dreams.
Later down the line in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Morpheus once again meets with Shakespeare and watches the first-ever performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There is a twist however. Morpheus invites the people of faerie including many of the play’s characters as the performance’s audience. There are no better critics after all.
The idea for this story is genius and it’s an absolute pleasure to read. It’s one of The Sandman’s most iconic issues. Seeing it translated to the screen is bound to be very special.
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