Dream’s logical and actionable advice contrasts with Delirium’s chaotic approach.

Together, Dream and Delirium make for an intriguing search team along the road to find Destruction. But when he can’t escape a sad funk after a relationship ends, he agrees to journey the world with Delirium, even after Despair and Desire cast her aside. He is often painted as cold and calculating, justifiably so. He is the embodiment of sleep and the things our brain conjures during slumber. His speech bubbles are pitch black with white text. Dream is black and white, a stoic lord of his domain. Delirium feels alone, because the Endless treat her as a forgettable youngest sibling, and the only person who stood up for her, Destruction, is hidden away in some far corner of the world.Ĭompare Delirium to Dream, and the contrast is stark. Delirium’s looks morph at a moment’s notice. Delirium’s speech bubbles are always tinged with a cacophony of color, and the lettering undulates in size. Her characterization is a marvel to behold here, both in storytelling and in the book’s art. By nature, Delirium is chaotic and unpredictable, sometimes unable to hold herself together (literally) for long stretches. The opening scenes of Brief Lives paint Delirium as somewhat of a pariah, a pest to the other Endless. It’s everything Marvel’s Eternals thought it was, only it’s actually worthwhile. Gaiman treats us to a road trip with Dream and Delirium. But throughout, brother and sister begin to understand one another in new, meaningful ways.īrief Lives now sits among my favorite Sandman stories. As they venture through the Waking world, the people they encounter along the way meet untimely deaths, derailing their trip. But Morpheus, aka Dream, is hurting on the heels of a break-up and agrees to join her, though with ulterior motives. She first goes to Despair and Desire, hoping they’ll join her on her quest, though they both decline. Destruction was the only one of the Endless to treat her with kindness, and Delirium wishes to reconnect with him. Delirium seeks Destruction, their long-lost brother. Sandman Volume 7: Brief Lives brings us on a road trip with two of the Endless: Morpheus and his little sister, Delirium. What started as an attempt to get a comic baseline has apparently evolved into a completionist obsession The Netflix adaptation looms, lighting a fire under my ass to plow through the remainder of the series so I know all there is to know about Morpheus and his entourage of mystical friends and enemies. Welcome back once again to the Dreaming, where we continue our jaunt through Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

Brief lives the sandman