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With Netflix’s The Sandman hitting the streaming service, fans can take a trip in the mystical and often surreal world of dreams. Comic fans have long heralded Neil Gaiman’s story arc as one of the greatest stories told not just in graphic novels but in all literature. His run of comics is often discussed in the same reverence as such titles as Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns.
Fans were wondering if it would ever get turned into a live-action project that would be treated with the respect and budget it deserved. Netflix was happy to step up to the plate and make it happen. The ten-episode series has captured fans’ imaginations, and they are eager to hear about a second season. The whole series is filled with all sorts of Sandman easter eggs for comics fans and references you may not be expecting.
Warning: There Will Be Spoilers For All Season 1 And The Sandman Comics!!!!!
Dave McKean Art
If you’ve ever seen the cover of an issue of The Sandman comics, you will surely remember the mesmerizing artwork that adorned every issue of Neil Gaiman’s run. The artist was Dave McKean. His artwork has been seen in all sorts of things, from photography to children’s books and films. For each episode of the show’s closing credits, McKean returned to design them to add his flair to the show. It’s a great touch to have one of the original artists back to keep everything feeling as close to the comics as possible.
Matthew’s Origin
When Matthew The Raven appears, he says he didn’t know how he got to the world of Dreams. He says he knows he died in his sleep and then was suddenly there. They move on from this, and Matthew’s previous life isn’t mentioned again for the rest of the season. In the comics, Matthew has a direct connection to another DC Comics hero. He was Matthew Cable, who was a friend of Alec Holland. If the name is familiar, he is a scientist who became Swamp Thing. Henderson Wade played him on the short-lived Swamp Thing series that premiered on the now defunct DC Universe streaming service before moving over to HBOMax.
While DC Comics was the parent company for The Sandman comics, they were published under the Vertigo banner. DC used this imprint for titles with darker stories and characters than the usual DC Comics fare that kids were reading. Eventually, these titles like Sandman, Hellblazer, and Swamp Thing would weave their own shared continuity while still technically being set in the same DC Comics universe as their other superheroes.
Johanna Constantine
While Morpheus is looking for his missing items, he meets Johanna Constantine. She had at one point gained possession of his magical bag of sand. It’s revealed that she left it with an ex-girlfriend, and they go to find it. There we see that the woman has been abusing the sand. If the last name seems familiar, that is because, in the comics, this role was filled by John Constantine. Currently, J.J. Abrams has the rights to John Constantine to use in a Justice League Dark movie. This is also why the character left the series DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow.
Instead of creating a new character for this show, they just made her female and more directly connected her to her ancestor with the same name. In the comics, Johanna Constantine lives in the 18th century and is an ancestor to John Constantine. She interacts with Morpheus on multiple occasions. They had Jenna Coleman play both versions of Johanna for the show. The modern-day version is just a replacement for John and works perfectly. We miss John and his constant cigarette smoking but this is a Sandman easter egg we’ll take.
Nada
When Morpheus enters hell to speak with Lucifer, he sees a young woman that has been imprisoned in a tower. They speak to one another, but Morpheus tells the woman that he still loved her but hadn’t forgiven her. He tells Matthew they were a couple at one point but didn’t elaborate further. In the comics, he had a love affair with Nada. She tracked him back to the dream realm to confess her love for him. When she finds out he is one of the Endless, she begins to have second thoughts.
He convinces her to follow through with their love. As they make love on a hillside, a meteorite destroys her home and everyone in it. She becomes so distraught that she kills herself. He follows her to the Death realm and asks her to return with him. She refuses, and after asking multiple times, he becomes so enraged that he sends her to hell. He does finally release her and places her soul into a newborn baby.
I Know That Voice
One of the coolest citizens of the dream realm is Merv Pumpkinhead. He looks like a scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head. Gaiman more than likely got the inspiration for him from the Wizard Of Oz books, where a character named Jack Pumpkinhead looks identical to this character. Nicholas Anscombe plays the character in front of a green screen.
The voice, on the other hand, is done by Mark Hamill, who has a long history of playing DC characters. He famously voiced The Joker on Batman The Animated Series, and in the Arkham video games. He also played The Trickster on the 90s live-action Flash series, as well as playing him in the currently running Flash series on The CW.
Lyta Hall
Rose’s best friend on her journey to find her brother is Lyta Hall. She was a friend of Rose’s mother and now is doing everything she can to help reunite Rose and Jed. Lyta herself has lost her husband recently and keeps having conversations with his spirit. Not much is said about her familial connections in the show, but in the comics, she is the daughter of some DC heavy hitters. Her parents are none other than Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Then the Hector she married was Hector Hall, who is Doctor Fate. Their son Daniel Hall would take over as the ruler of the Dream realm in a later series. A Sandman easter egg only faithful comic readers would catch.
Jed’s Favorite Superheroes
When we meet Rose and Jed Walker, they are packing to move with their mom to New Jersey. Jed is wearing a shirt with the superhero Static on it. He instructs his sister to pack his action figures of DC characters. In the comics, The Sandman does take place in the same universe as Superman and Batman. For the show, they have contained the series into its own universe while DC Comics exists as an entertainment company. Jed enjoys the exploits of superheroes and even watches a DC cartoon with Static later in the season.
Jed’s Dream Lair
When we travel into Jed’s dreams, we see that his most common sleep activity is to be a superhero. He has his own lair, and when he enters it, various heroes and villains appear across multiple TV screens. Psycho Pirate, Captain Cold, and Pied Piper show up as the main villains, while Batman and The Flash also make an appearance. All the characters are drawn just like their comic book counterparts.
Sandman Costume
Jed finally dons his superhero costume and proclaims that his name is Sandman. The look of the costume is based on a superhero that previously had used the name of Sandman before Neil Gaiman created his character. The original Sandman was named Wesley Dodds. He was a pulp-inspired character. The character donned a cape, gas mask, and fedora to fight criminals. The character had insomnia and would go out at night.
The second character to use the name was Garrett Sanford. He would guard children against monsters that an evil wizard sent in their nightmares. This version was created by comic legends Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. This version of the character leaned more towards kid readers. The costume Jed wears in his dreams is the same suit that this version of Sandman would wear in the comics. It’s an incredible Sandman easter egg for those that are longtime DC readers.
Cereal Convention
The Corinthian is asked to be the guest of honor at a convention for ‘collectors’ called a Cereal Convention. In reality, it’s a convention for serial killers. It’s easily the creepiest episode of the series. During the convention, two killers are absent. The Corinthian is asked to replace The Family Man, who ended up not being able to make it. We also find out that the guy claiming to be The Boogieman is a serial killer fanboy who decided to sneak into the convention. The Corinthian mentions that the Boogieman was dead, but we never learn the fate of The Family Man.
To find out what really happened to these characters we’d have to turn to two other comic books in the Vertigo line under which The Sandman was published. John Constantine kills The Family Man in his series Hellblazer, Issue 30. Then over in Swamp Thing Volume 2, Issue 44, the Boogieman is killed by the green hero and presumed drowned by everyone else.
Notice any other Sandman easter eggs? Let us know in the comments.
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