Norman Mailer famously described the series as “a comic strip for intellectuals.” Yet, despite the obvious case to be made for a live-action adaptation, built on the devoted fanbase and critical praise associated with the source material, it is only in 2022 that one has finally reached the screen, and the screen in question is the smaller one. The series is widely cited alongside works like Watchmen and Maus as a work of intellectual and cultural importance, as significant as any work of twentieth-century literature. The original comics, released in monthly installments and then as a series of graphic novels (both under the DC imprint Vertigo and now under its Black Label), ran from 1989–1996 and have been both popular and influential, winning multiple awards, and sitting on bestseller lists for long stretches of time. Many of the reviews of The Sandman, Season 1 (Netflix, 2022) note just how long it has taken for a live-action adaptation of the comics to reach the screen. And yet, while there is a transgressiveness to the way Gaiman adapts, alludes to, and sometimes changes both his own and more ancient themes and characters, the series stays faithful to the perennial questions of human nature it initially engaged: hope, redemption, even death. Indeed, in this adaptation, Gaiman, himself one of the show runners, allows his own myth to be modified for the screen, with changes to characters, narrative, and occasionally aesthetic. This surprising portrayal of Death, more often personified as an austere faceless figure with hood and scythe, is typical of Gaiman, who is famous for his modulation of mythic and religious themes in storytelling. Around her neck Death wears an ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life that looks like a cross, but with a circle on top.Īt least, that is what Death looks like in the long-awaited Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s groundbreaking comic series The Sandman. She cherishes joy in the simple things of life, like the gift of an apple to be enjoyed along the way. She takes the deceased by the hand and with gentleness and compassion ushers them into her realm. Death is no skeletal grim reaper, but a joyful young woman.
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