Written by: Nalo Hopkinson
Illustrated by: Dominike Stanton
Colours by: John Rauch
Letters by: Deron Bennett
Cover by: Sean Andrew Murray
Published by: DC Comics/Vertigo Comics
Spoilers
I don’t know about any of you, but I am loving being back in the Sandman Universe! The characters are all so fascinating, especially because I’m a big time mythology and folklore buff. I absolutely adore the cast in House of Whispers, with Mistress Erzulie, Uncle Monday and Alter Boi, along with all of the rest of them. They’re all so interesting, pretty well characterized for being so many of them and having a limited amount of panels, and I am definitely along for the duration of the ride.
In this second issue, we revisit our amazing folks where we left them at the end of the first book. Erzulie is stuck in The Dreaming, Latoya is stuck in a coma. The story is riddled with suspense and tension throughout the pages. I felt as if I was holding my breath half of the reading time.
The dialogue is pretty well done. Every now and then a phrase seems a bit of place, as if it’s not grand enough or odd enough for such…entities. I also felt like the bits of narration were just kind of thrown here and there haphazardly and didn’t really serve much purpose. I would much rather have read the exposition in some clever reveal spoken by the characters.
The drawings are wonderful, but the colors in this are somewhat flat. There is very little shading or highlights, which would give the scenes a lot of depth that seems to be missing. I’m not quite sure what the aim of this effect is, but I personally would love to see some improved colors in the issues.
Despite some of these misgivings, I enjoyed this issue quite a lot. The magic and mystery oozes from this epic, seeping out between the spirits and archetypes and mythological figures. Like I said, I’m stoked to be back.
Overall: 8.5/10
Tee LaFrance Todd writes, edits, reads, explores, and creates whenever she can find the time. When she’s not engaged in some form of storytelling, you can find Tee traversing the world with her husband and her dog, making things, reading tarot cards, and generally striving to live a life beyond anything she can imagine.
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