The Sandman: A Game of You
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A Game of You (1993) is the fifth collection of issues in the DC Comics series, The Sandman. Written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot, George Pratt, Stan Woch and Dick Giordano, and lettered by Todd Klein.
The issues in the collection first appeared in 1991 and 1992. The collection first appeared in paperback and hardback in 1993.
The central theme of this storyline is identity and the part imagination plays in shaping it. Barbie, a minor character from The Doll's House, is recently divorced and is trying to rediscover her own identity. But Barbie is cut off from the rich but childish fantasy world she used to dream of, as it is threatened by a strange, malevolent creature called the Cuckoo, and her hard-pressed imaginary friends reach out into the real world for help, resulting in blood and death in both worlds.
Shawn McManus, who draws the bulk of the stories, demonstrates a range that encompasses storybook whimsy, believable characterisation and apallingly concrete violence.
Gaiman often characterises Sandman stories as "male" or "female"; A Game of You, dominated by female characters and points of view, is one of his female stories. This volume divides the fans, some finding it challenging or alienating; while the others—mostly the female ones—seeing it as perceptive and rewarding.
This fifth collection continues the story of some of the characters of the second The Doll's House, and is also closely linked with the ninth, The Kindly Ones.
Issues collected
- Sandman #32: "Slaughter on Fifth Avenue" ... art by Shawn McManus
- Sandman #33: "Lullabies of Broadway" ... art by McManus
- Sandman #34: "Bad Moon Rising" ... art by Colleen Doran, George Pratt and Dick Giordano
- Sandman #35: "Beginning to See the Light" ... art by McManus
- Sandman #36: "Over the Sea to Sky" ... art by McManus, Bryan Talbot and Stan Woch
- Sandman #37: "I Woke Up and One of Us was Crying" ... art by McManus
Synopsis
The central character of "A Game of You" is Barbie, who was originally introduced as one of the people who lived in the Florida house where Rose Walker stayed during the events of "The Doll's House." In that earlier storyline Barbie was seen having a vivid dream, in which she was a princess in a fantasy realm and had for a companion a large hairy beast named Martin Tenbones. But as "A Game of You" opens, we find a drastically changed Barbie who no longer even has dreams.
Barbie now lives in an apartment block inhabited by her best friend Wanda, a transsexual; the lesbian couple Hazel and Foxglove; the witch Thessaly; and a quiet man named George. One day, out on the street Barbie runs into Martin Tenbones, who gives her the Porpentine—a quartz amulet—as he dies. Barbie is confronted by the reality of the fantasy land she used to visit in her dreams. Using the Porpentine, she is able to dream her way back to that place, known simply as the Land.
It is, well, a land that appears to have been founded on classic children's fantasy elements—most obviously the Chronicles of Narnia series. It is a realm populated by intelligent talking beasts living in picture-book locales. But the Land now faces a threat from the mysterious villain known as the Cuckoo, whom Princess Barbie is called on to defeat. Upon returning to the Land she is greeted by Wilkinson the rat, Prinado the monkey, and Luz the parrot—her allies in the quest.
Back in New York, George—a servant of the Cuckoo—magically releases a flock of birds that give nightmares to the other apartment denizens. Only Thessaly is immune, and she soon makes short work of George. But Barbie's friends find her in a coma-like state from which she will not wake.
Thessaly uses the remains of George to divine the threat from the Cuckoo. After drawing down the moon, Thessaly, Hazel and Foxglove travel to the Land to help Barbie, leaving Wanda with the unconscious Barbie and the still animate remains of George. But Thessaly's magic has serious consequences as a freak storm begins raging in the city, causing such destruction that it costs Wanda her life.
As the story reaches its climax, Barbie discovers that the Cuckoo resembles herself as a child. The Land turns out to be part of The Dreaming. It is the place Barbie had set her dreams in when she was a young girl, populating it with animated images of her stuffed toys. The Cuckoo causes Barbie to break the Porpentine on a monolith, an act that summons Morpheus, lord of dreams and creator of the Land.
Sadly, this means the end of the Land. All its hundreds of creatures—giants and centaurs and trolls and bears and so on—march in one long procession that vanishes into the folds of Dream's cloak. He then takes up the entire Land in the palm of his hand and lets it crumble into nothingness. (The whole scenario is reminiscent of events in C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle, a book in the Narnia series.)
Dream then grants Barbie a single boon. She asks that she and her friends be returned to New York safe and sound. Soon after her return, Barbie heads west to attend Wanda's funeral.
A book with less immediate impact than others in the series, this collection relies on its carefully-crafted structure, its deeply complex characters, and seemingly minor technical points to illustrate the issues of identity and the power of fantasy and dream to transform "real" life. Its ending—one of the most haunting and poignant in the entire series—shows Barbie finding a way to pay tribute to Wanda, despite her having to rest in a grave marked "Alvin" in keeping with her disapproving family's desires.