By John Ney Rieber and Eric Nguyen, according to the cover, for Vertigo Comics
The first thing I have to do is confess that I haven't read many issues of the original Sandman Mystery Theatre. I think that the number of issues I have read can be counted on two fingers. One of those two issues may have been a special. I'm not sure because I don't own any of them. (I'm not counting the brilliant "Sand and Stars" storyline from Starman.)
That out of the way, I'll start with what disappointed me about this first issue: no Sandy Hawkins. I don't remember any of the solicits saying anything about Sandy appearing in the mini-series (although I can't remember if I actually read all the solicits for the mini), but he's what I expected. He's going to be called Sandman in the new Justice Society book now, isn't he?
Still, that disappoint didn't affect me while I was reading the issue.
It starts in 1997 in Afghanistan with, what I assume will be, Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont's last adventure together. Dian gets kidnapped and Wesley fights, as best a ninety year old man can, to get her back. It flashes to Afghanistan today where an embedded journalist, named Marshall, is trying to snap pictures during a fire fight. Later, Marshall gets a "meeting" with Masad, the leader, apparently, of the men the US troops are fighting. The "meeting" is cut short with Marshall being dragged to a balcony where he's going to be shot. Flash back to Wesley fighting after, literally, being stomped on to rescue Dian, and failing. Back in the present, Marshall gropes around in a box, where a gas mask can be seen, and grabs a gun. It looks like Wesley's sleep gas gun. Marshall fires saying "Sleep" in wavy letters surrounded by a wavy word balloon. He jumps out the balcony saying "Sleep" again and firing the gas gun.
The art in this book is wonderful. Nguyen's art is a bit scratchy. Almost all the lines waver a bit, which helps to heighten the confusion in the story. The color pallet in Wesley's story is muted yellows showing the heat and blinding sunlight in his time. During the fire fight when Marshall is introduced, the predominate color is red which changes to an orange as the fight moves away and then to the same yellow as in Wesley's story and then back to read when there's some violence don to Marshall. Color is hard to talk about without being able to show what I'm talking about, but trust me, the coloring is outstanding.
Next month, I'll be picking up the second issue. I want to see Wesley and Dian's last moments together and I'm curious about what Marshall's going to be doing.
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