Sandman Mystery Theatre (Book 4): The Scorpion
The titular hero ofSandman Mystery Theatreisn't Neil Gaiman's supernatural headliner but rather an updated though period-based version of Wesley Dodds, the original comics Sandman of six decades ago. Driven by troubling dreams, Lamont Cranston-style millionaire Dodds dons a trenchcoat and gas mask and uses a sleep-inducing-gas gun to bring criminals to justice in pre-World War II New York. Writers Wagner and Steven T. Seagle offer an R-rated take on 1930s pulp magazines--in the story arc collected here, a masked vigilante uses a poisoned whip to brutally murder wealthy businessmen--and populate it with characters far richer than their unsophisticated inspirations. The contrast between Dodds' thoughtful, compassionate daytime persona and his nocturnal, crime-fighting role fascinates, and his relationship with Dian Belmont is one of the most nuanced in mainstream comics. The pulp connection is sustained by Guy Davis' pen-and-ink drawings' evoking, though with far greater animation and vitality than their models, the illustrations that accompanied the original pulps' tales.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved