This truly leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Neil Gaiman certainly has a way of turning my interest into a roller coaster ride. First, he writes volume 1, which is the single most uninspired piece of trash I've ever read. Then, he almost redeems himself with the gripping story and interesting characters of volume 2. Those of you familiar with momentum would expect (like I did) that volume three will continue in this upward swing. Unfortunately, those of you would be just as wrong as me. To call volume 3 a collection of chapters seems wrong, because it is actually a series of lame vignettes that are interwoven only by the fact that Morpheus, the saga's protagonist, makes an appearance in each. What a lame waste of a volume.
The first of these vignettes tells the story of Calliope, a muse captured by writers who rape her in order to harness her inspiration and use it for their own ends. Calliope, a former girlfriend of Morpheus, seeks the aid of her powerful ex-lover in order to be free from the imprisonment of the aforementioned captors. In Morpheus' revenge, we get to see just how powerful the Sandman is and his vessel of vengeance is so creepy that I had chills multiple times in this chapter. Gaiman manages to do creepy without doing interesting, which is harder to do than one would think. Verdict: Boooooooooooooooooo
The second vignette tells about the secret life of cats. Yes, that's right-- Cats. As in HOUSEHOLD CATS!!! All of the neighborhood cats are travelling at night to meet a messiah cat who gives a speech in an old clearing about her journey to meet Morpheus (who is, unsurprisingly, perceived by cats to be a cat). A pointless chapter where Gaiman's only redeeming facet is that he uses some beautiful language. Unfortunately, such language tells a crappy story. Verdict: Boooooooooooooooooo
Next, we have one of the laziest pieces of graphic literature I have ever read. The third vignette tells the story of Shakespeare's first performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the last volume, Shakespeare and Morpheus made a deal, and this deal was never revealed to the reader, but they learn now that Morpheus is responsible for two of Shakespeare's most lauded plays-- the aforementioned "Midsummer" and a second play yet to be revealed (although it's OBVIOUSLY gonna be the Tempest). There are about 5 panels in this whole chapter that feature lines not stolen verbatim from Shakespeare's play. If I had wanted to read the Midsummer graphic novel, I would've picked it up--- I'm sure someone's thought of that already and if not, they could make decent money with it. Verdict: Booooooooooooo
Finally, we see a vignette that focuses not on Morpheus, but on another of the Endless, his sister Death. This story shows Death's involvement in a woman cursed with an extremely weird superpower taking her own life. The woman's superpower is that she can turn any material into any other material, but unfortunately, the same goes for her body, so she looks really weird. She lives in her dark apartment chainsmoking her life away while she flirts with the Veteran's check clerk on the phone. Besides being depressing, this chapter is kind of gross because we get to see her failed attempt to mask her now-ghoulish appearance when she shows up to lunch with a friend and her false face falls into her pasta mid-conversation. This brief vignette gives us some exposure to Death, who is definitely one of the more engaging and equally mysterious characters. Verdict: face-pasta ewwwwwwwwwww all-in-all Boooooooooooooo
What more can I say besides....
Annie Fuller Credibility (pre-volume 3): 0
Annie Fuller Credibility (post- volume 3): -1
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Annie Fuller Credibility (pre-volume 3): 0
Annie Fuller Credibility (post- volume 3): -1
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Congratulations. You've made it over the hump. It's awesome from here on in. I promise.
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