Reconsidering the Superhero

I found Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman: A Game of You’ quite strange. After reading it I wasn’t completely sure if I enjoyed it. The style was consistent, however aspects of the characters would change. In one panel Barbie would have an extremely chiseled jaw with a high cheekbone and then two panels later her face is literally a circle. Sometimes I felt like the style tried to be too realistic, and then a certain angle would make a character look crazier than Batman’s Joker.

I did like the twist though, of Barbie and the Cuckoo. The range of the cast of characters was great. I also really liked how there were references to other comic books within some of the discussions. Barbie’s boyfriend being named “Ken” made me laugh. I also really loved the Sandman’s design, and especially how process of the dream world became absorbed was portrayed.

I read the ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ Vol. 2 Chapter 1 as well. Which starts out with an Arabian meets John Carter on Mars kind of feel (they actually are on Mars but eh four armed aliens look similar). Most of the dialogue is in alien scribbles, but we don’t need to read it to understand that it’s commands. War is war. The campaign keeps shifting between who has the upper hand, but the enemy seems to keep the high ground. They divert attention in the belief that they are actually leaving Mars, but in reality there are staging an attack on Earth now, where the two protagonists shown hail from. This first chapter did a fantastic job of hooking me into the story and I really want to read more.