Sandman’s entry into The Gauntlet is absolutely brilliant (notwithstanding that it’s a standalone story that doesn’t overtly tie into the Gauntlet event). This may be the best Sandman story of all time.
A young girl named Keemia lives in a castle that literally builds itself around her. Yes, it’s Sandman. Keemia is his child, and he wants to use his powers to give her a safe and peaceful life–as all father’s want for their children.
Keemia’s mother doesn’t know that the man she slept with years ago was actually Sandman, and when her daughter goes missing, it becomes a news story.
Spider-Man goes to rescue her and learns the full story along the way. It’s actually a powerful and sad story about how Marko is unable to “go straight” and be a proper father due to his history and his powers. By the end, Marko also is forced to admit that his powers rendered him sterile and he is not, in fact, Keemia’s father–he just desperately wanted someone to love as a father loves a child. He has heroic motives, but kidnaps a child in service of those motives.
Keemia, largely a pawn in all of this, winds up in foster care–holding on to a hope that one day she will be a princess again who lives in a castle.
Yeah, this is tragic. Heartbreaking, even.
It’s also cute. It takes place during winter and Spidey is all bundled up.
From a continuity perspective, this story establishes that Sandman has the ability to make sand-clones of himself. I really liked how Javier Pulido shows all the various artistic iterations of the character–it serves to emphasize that this story is an attempt to unify the various version of Sandman. Throughout his history Sandman has repeatedly tried to be a hero. Past Marvel writers have largely ignored this, and simply pick him as a hero or villain depending on how they want to use him. This is the first story I can recall (and the only one I’ve read) that attempts to put both the hero and villain versions of Sandman in a single story, and offer a version of the character that can contain both.
The story is great, and so is the art. Pulido uses inventive layouts for the battle scenes that occur “inside Sandman” (i.e., in Keemia’s castle), and captures the various versions and expressions of Sandman beautifully. I usually take colorists for granted, but Javier Rodriguez’s work here is nothing short of extraordinary.
This is a flawless comic.