Correcting another oversight of mine…I had never read Matt Wagner’s Sandman Mystery Theatre, but I just picked up a few of the early issues to sample it. Judging by #1, I might have to pick up a lot more.

This is a Vertigo series from the heyday of the imprint, so keep the kids away. But for adults, the first issue gets us off to a compelling start. Set in 1938 New York City, the book stars the original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, early in his crimefighting career. (No relation whatsoever to the Neil Gaiman version.)

The book predates the advent of DC’s superheroes, so a mystery man with a gas mask and strange sleeping-gas gun rates as highly bizarre and downright creepy in the context of this world. However, we see only a little of the Sandman in action and spend far more time with Wes Dodds as he meets his future wife, Dian Belmont, for the first time at a benefit function. Dian isn’t just a romantic interest, though—Wagner writes her as co-lead.

We get a sense of Wesley as a driven, sober man and Dian as a lively, curious woman. They already display some initial chemistry and stand on their own as distinct characters. Wagner takes his time introducing them, giving them time to breathe while still making sure important developments happen in the issue.

The plot of this initial arc involves a criminal named Tarantula who kidnaps a friend of Dian’s, and this will inevitably put her on a path to meet Wes’s other identity.

I’ll have to read more.

Writer: Matt Wagner

Artist: Guy Davis

Cover: Gavin Wilson

Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)

How to Read It: back issues; Comixology; included in Sandman Mystery Theatre Book One (TPB)

Appropriate For: ADULTS ONLY