The Biggest Differences Between Netflix's The Sandman And The Comic Books

Episode 1 of "The Sandman" is "Sleep of the Just," in which we are introduced to Dream and his kingdom, the Dreaming. The Dreaming is where all nightmares and dreams make their home, and where mortals visit when they sleep. When we first meet Dream, he is on a mission to recover the Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), a nightmare who escaped the Dreaming and has been committing gruesome murders in the land of the living. Armed with his magical tools, Dream hunts down the Corinthian only to be pulled away by dark magic and held prisoner for 100 years.

The Netflix show provides a simple and sensible motive for Dream's journey into the mortal world which leads to his capture. However, the events that led up to his imprisonment in the comics are much more complex. In 2013, a prequel written by Neil Gaiman was released by Vertigo Comics, titled "The Sandman: Overture."

In this tale, Dream is called to investigate a madness that has taken over the universe and threatens to destroy it. During his journey, he befriends a young girl named Hope and a mysterious cat who claims to be another version of Dream. His efforts are unfruitful as he fails to save the universe from destruction, and so Dream takes the last remaining living beings and creates a new reality. Once the new reality has been formed, Dream finds that his powers are nearly depleted. When he attempts to return home, his weakened state allows him to be captured, and this is where the original story of "Sandman" begins.

"The Sandman: Overture" is a fascinating story that explains a bit of Dream's history, but it might have been a little too much to insert into the Netflix series. But who knows? If all goes well, we might see "Overture" unfold in a future episode.