Reading Comics #94 "The Annotated Sandman Volume 1 #3"

(via vertigocomics.com)

The third issue of Sandman as annotated by Leslie S. Klinger is probably my biggest exposure to John Constantine to date.  The erstwhile star of the long-running Vertigo series Hellblazer (final issue being released on 2/20 ahead of a DC relaunch as Constantine) is something of a legend, if not simply a cult favorite, originally found in the pages of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and recently brought back to the mainstream thanks to Brightest Day and Justice League Dark.  He was the subject of his own movie in 2005 (also named Constantine) starring Keanu Reeves (physically and nationally the opposite of the part).

Morpheus, also known as Dream and of course Sandman, is trying to reacquire certain totems that contain the bulk of his power.  He was previously informed that Constantine was in possession of the pouch of sand, or at least was the last-known possessor.  The whole issue is basically a Constantine comic guest-starring Morpheus, with a minor in pop music (I'll explain that in a moment).

I've tried reading Hellblazer in the past, but it seems most of the writers in the title's history were less interested in making it accessible than telling bizarre tales.  The series, in fact, seemed the main depository of everything Vertigo was supposed to be, short of establishing its own distinct identity.  Constantine was basically the host of his own series, the main character but mostly a guide to whatever the writer wanted to explore.  It happens.  I could also be wrong.  Like I said, I don't have any real experience with the series or character, part of the lore of the medium that's always just eluded me.

Yet in Sandman #3, Constantine ends up being pretty engaging. Neil Gaiman is a writer who understands character pretty well, so it's not so surprising that he's able to make Constantine pop.  Klinger has a number of notes about his life and career, context that I find lacking whenever I try to read Hellblazer.  To me, Gaiman's approach is the only way to do a character like this.  I read Mike Carey's Devil May Care, the first in a series of novels about a similar character, and that was comparable (Carey is another notable Vertigo writer, I might add), as is Gaiman's own Shadow from American Gods and Anansi Boys.  I guess what I'm saying is that Constantine is prosaic.

Gaiman's Constantine is concerned with one particular relationship, which also explains what happened to the pouch of sand, and its nasty effects.  While we follow Constantine around, the story ends with Morpheus being a pretty good guy for the first time in the series, giving Rachel a last moment of peace after years of the pouch ravaging her.  There's not so much to know about Rachel other than Constantine's relationship with her, but that's enough.

Throughout the issue Gaiman takes the opportunity to invoke the pop music that references the topic of dreams, some obvious ("Mr. Sandman"), some I wasn't as familiar with ("In Dreams" from Roy Orbison).  I've already mentioned that Klinger is doing a service for readers of the future as much as those of the present.  We sometimes believe that pop music will live forever, and in some ways it will, now that we keep recordings of everything, but the music that was popular today, much less yesterday, will not maintain its popularity forever.  What you may take for granted as being ubiquitous today may very well be obscure tomorrow.  Short of providing a soundtrack with the collection, Klinger's notes will help to keep Gaiman's references relevant.

One thing I learned in the notes was that Constantine is one of the few characters (the Psycho Pirate is the most famous example) who are aware of Crisis on Infinite Earths.  To most of DC's characters, the exact details of the Crisis became immediately fuzzy.  If you yourself don't know much about this seminal event, it was the original attempt to rectify the continuity of the multiverse, basically by collapsing it into a single universe.  While various Elseworlds tales allowed DC to keep alternate versions of characters around, it wasn't until 52 that the multiverse returned.

For the fledgling Sandman, Gaiman does the same for Morpheus that he accomplishes with Constantine, grounding him in a little more concrete context.