The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(1993-5, 1996 – graphic novel, collects issues 57-69 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Frank McConnell. Tenth book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

From the back cover

“They have had many names: The Erinyes. The Eumenides. The Dirae. The Furies. Agents of vengeance, implacable and unstoppable., they do not rest until the crime they seek to punish is washed clean with blood. It is to them, The Kindly Ones, that Lyta Hall turns when her baby Daniel is taken from her, and it is the Dream of the Endless who becomes their target. But behind a mother’s grief and unyielding rage, there are darker forces at work, and what they set in motion will eventually demand a sacrifice greater than any the Dreaming has yet known.”

 

Overall review

Kindly is one of the most emotionally satisfying and intense storylines of the Sandman series, with recurring characters driving the sometimes-twisty events with their passions and their guilts─in the Dream King’s case, the murder of his son, Orpheus. Intertwined in the themes of guilt, grief, rage and forgiveness, there’s Gaiman’s usual skewering of sexism, homophobia, and other nasty human motives. Excellent read, one of the best Sandman offerings, this.

As in previous Sandman graphic novels, the artists, letterers and colorists who bring Gaiman’s transcend-the-genre writing to vivid, distinctive representation. Followed by The Sandman: The Wake.

 

Review, issue by issue

“The Kindly Ones: 1” (#57): Two-thirds of the triumvirate Furies (Stheno, Euryale) have tea. Hippolyta Hall, living with her baby (Daniel) and her friend (Carla), checks out a dodgy job. Matthew, Morpheus’s raven, queries those around the Dream Lord about the fates of the ravens who came after him.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 2” (#58): Hippolyta speaks with Stheno and Euryale. Clurican, the fairy Duke of the Yarrow and the Flay and brother of Nuala (Morpheus’s servant) visits the Dream King with a request.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 3” (#59): Hob Gadling, mourning the death of his most recent wife─he is immortal, or close to it─is visited by Morpheus. Hippolyta gets news about her kidnapped son (Daniel) and forms a plan.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 4” (#60): Remiel, one of the angelic guardians of Hell, visits Lucifer. Hippolyta seeks out Stheno and Euryale in real-time to achieve revenge for her kidnapped son’s fate. Carla visits her and Hippolyta’s downstairs neighbor, Rose Walker. Morpheus resurrects the Corinthian, this version slightly more obedient than the last one.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 5” (#61): The two Furies (Stheno, Euryale) try to convince Hippolyta Hall to stay with them, become the new version of their long-dead sister (Medusa). Rose Walker visits her ex-neighbor, Zelda (minus her dead sister, Chantal). Morpheus charges Matthew the raven and the Corinthian with a task. Nuala returns to her family castle in Faerie. Detective Pinkerton, creepy cop, reveals his true identity to Carla.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 6” (#62): Rose Walker flies to England to visit the nursing home where her grandmother, Unity Kinkaid, died. Rose interviews doctors and patients within the institution and is told sometimes creepy stories and sweet tales about her once-comatose relative. Larissa, the terrifying, blood-spattered witch girl with Coke bottle glasses, locates Hippolyta Hall

 

“The Kindly Ones: 7” (#63): Larissa takes in Hippolyta Hall. Odin, a.k.a. “Grim, the Death-Blinder, the High One, the Gallows-God,” visits the Dream King, speaks of a grievance stemming from events in the last issue of The Sandman: Season of Mists. Destiny grants his younger sibling Delirium a wish. Morpehus visits Gilbert, a.k.a. Fiddler’s Green, who expresses concern about the Lord of Dreams. Hippolyta speaks anew with the two Furies about vengeance and its rules.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 8” (#64): Rose Walker meets Desire. Delirium visits Morpheus. Matthew the raven and The Corinthian locate Carla’s burnt corpse─The Corinthian says he knows who killed her. Stheno, Euryale and Rose visit Morpheus, much to the dismay of one of the Dream Lord’s gatekeepers (Gryphon). Rose Walker hooks up with a nice guy with relevant secrets.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 9” (#65): Rose Walker visits Fawney Rig, a manor was called Wych Manor─the waking-world site of Morpheus’s 70-year imprisonment. While there, Rose meets Desire, who claims to be related to her.

In Swartalfheim, the Corinthian and Matthew the raven confront Loki. The two Furies and Hipplyta kill another of Morpheus’s servants (Gilbert, a.k.a. Fiddler Green). Morpheus visits Larissa, the spooky woman with Coke bottle-top glasses. Matt the raven meets one of Noah’s seven raven (“Raven”). The Corinthian locates Hippolyta’s son, Daniel.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 10” (#66): The Corinthian rescues Daniel, and while do so meets Robin Goodfellow (a.k.a. Puck). Odin retrieves Loki. Abel is visited by the two Furies (a.k.a. the Dirae) and Hipplyta. In Faerie, where Puck has recently returned, wild social changes take place. Nuala makes big life-changing decisions. Mervyn confronts Hippolyta and the Furies. Rose Walker returns to America.

“The Kindly Ones: 11” (#67): The Corinthian and Daniel meet Cain and Goldie. Rose discovers that Zelda, her ex-neighbor, has passed. Cain, Goldie, The Corinthian and Daniel reach Morpheus’s castle, as does Morpheus and the Dirae.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 12” (#68): Morpheus talks with Matthew the Raven while preparing for war with the Furies. Rose and her ex-neighbor, Hal, attend Zelda’s funeral.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 13” (#69): Everything comes to a head, the conflict between the Dream Lord and the Dirae resolving in a multi-realm-changing fashion─strange rebirths of sorts.