The Sandman Vol. 02: The Doll's House (1990)

(4.5 out of 5 stars)

For me, The Doll's House is where The Sandman first starts feeling like the series it'll become known for being. A lot of seeds are sown for later arcs - Rose, Barbie, Desire's beef with Dream, etc - and a lot of the series' rules are first codified in these issues. But it also maintains some of the problems found in the series' first arc as well and also manages to rank among the arcs that have aged the least well.

The Doll's House has a much stronger story than Preludes & Nocturnes. It's a story about Rose Walker and her family, continuing to tie up story threads left dangling from the previous arc. While everything takes a bit of time to get moving - the arc starts with one of those one-shots The Sandman is famous for having, which ends up being a muse on the very act of storytelling, a central theme of the series - once the story gets going, it never really stops. We're taken from England to Florida to Georgia (and a serial killer's convention) all the way back to the Dreaming as Rose Walker tries to unravel the threads of her family history.

I still find the narrative to be a pretty good one, but there are elements of it that haven't aged well. For a start, Desire is frequently referred to by the "it" pronoun. I understand that it was the early 90s when this was published and the singular "they/them/their" pronoun wasn't as widely used as it is today, but hearing an explicitly androgynous character like Desire referred to as an "it" hits in an unfortunate way. I don't think there was any mal intent on Gaiman's part, but it's something that hasn't aged well. The same is true for some of the scenes depicted in the serial killer's convention plot. To be fair, Gaiman never comes close to sympathizing with these killers, but some of those scenes are so disturbing that it's almost not fun to read them. Perhaps that's the point, but I think it'll be hard for some modern readers to fully get behind that.

Still, there's a lot to love in The Doll's House, though, including its artwork. This time, the bulk of the issues are illustrated by Mike Dringenberg, giving more of the artwork a kind of uniformity that I felt was missing in the first arc. A few of the issues are illustrated by other artists - Chris Bachalo tackles issue #12 while Michael Zulli illustrates issue #13 - but both of these issues act more as side plots of the main story and so their differing art style feels intentional and appropriate. Dringenberg's art style is still not my favorite, but it certainly does the job. There are some beautiful images in this book - often a mixture of reality and surreality - but they are deftly balanced with the kind of artwork needed to ensure the story is visually understandable.

At the end of the day, The Doll's House inches The Sandman closer to what the series is known for. It features a main storyline that, while featuring some elements that haven't aged well, remains devilishly interesting and captivating to read. It's impressive seeing just how much of the series' overarching storyline is seeded in these early arcs and it's clear, even from this early on, how well Gaiman understands the world and the characters he's created. I think that if readers can make it to this arc, they'll be hooked into the world of The Sandman. ( )

I remember not really liking The Doll's House, so I was surprised when I enjoyed it even more than Preludes and Nocturnes! It has a real anthology feel without feeling disjointed, and sets up a lot of the skulduggery between Dream and Desire to come later. No big negatives here, just great comics. ( )

There was a point in the second half of the book where I felt the story lagging, but on the whole, I really enjoyed this installment in the series. I can't quite say it lived up to the first volume, which had me entranced from page one on through the duration, but where the story here held to the main characters it followed, I truly enjoyed it. As would be expected, the storytelling and the artwork were both stellar, and I look forward to moving into the next book in the series. ( )

This series is so weird and creepy and surreal, yet I can't stop reading it! I don't know if a three-star "liked it" rating is the best description for how I feel after reading this one, but it definitely packs a punch. ( )

The most frightening dreams are the ones that reveal our darkest selves. ( )