Reviews - Merv Pumpkinhead & The Furies (The Sandman)

Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of D.R.E.A.M. is a quite short and sweet comic. It's pretty amusing, based around Merv Pumpkinhead after his recreation by Daniel, and is full of references to James Bond, who Merv fancies himself to be rather like. There is some considerable doubt about that, considering the trouble he gets into!

This one is basically just light and funny, nothing incredibly new or deep, and it's nice that way.

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The Furies is another Sandman Presents comic. This one takes up the story of Hippolyta Hall, set sometime after the final volume of the series. In it, she is still an 'imago', a channel for the Furies, and she's drawn into the quarrels of ancient gods -- Greek gods, unsurprisingly enough. This time, a quarrel between Hermes and Chronos. The story ends with some resolution for Lyta, which is nice, and we also briefly see the new Dream King.

The art in this comic is quite pretty, but it kind of hits uncanny valley for me. Also, Dream's new character design is odd.

Review - Death: The Time Of Your Life (The Sandman)

Death: The Time of Your Life is another story which includes Hazel and Foxglove, their son, and Death. You need to have read Death: The High Cost of Living and the volume of the main series which involves them, or you won't really get what the big deal is. It's quite a strange story, in which Hazel actually makes a deal with Death -- something apparently unheard of, and which certainly doesn't seem to fit into The Sandman canon. It basically has a message about/from Death: that she and her job, in a sense, remind us to live. Still, it's not really a story about Death, despite the title, it's a follow up on Foxglove.

It's an interesting little story, the art is good, and it's good to see some old characters again. Again, like many of the spinoffs, not wonderfully special.