#dc/vertigo backstory

[nightmares--child]

The First Years

Since his first thoughts, Terry had been able to sense the fears of those around him. His first senses picked up on the fear that he would die in the process of child birth from his mother, or that she would die in the process from his father. He retained his memories from infancy, recalling the strange ways his parents would look at him, and the hushed whispers they would say around him. They still made every attempt to try and live as a normal family, but he knew there was always something strange about him. He was never able to dream like other children or people, only floating in the darkness of a void every night.

Eventually his baby brother, Stephan, was born, and he cared deeply for the boy. However, he and his father were never able to get close – not as close as Stephan could. For a while, Terry had wondered why, but would soon discover for himself. When he was twelve years old, he and his mother got into a heated argument about his gender identity. As he insisted he was a boy, his mother insisted he was a girl. In anger, he went through his first shift, picking up on her fears. He watched himself change in the mirror behind her, seeing the visage of a demonic man he’d never seen before, but knew with the depths of his heart. Pale skin, black eyes with piercing light coming through them like a single star in the night sky, talon like fingertips, and a laugh so wretched it made him feel sick to bellow. His mother’s mind cracked from the horror, and she was sent away to a psychiatric care facility for treatment. She would stay there for the rest of her life.

After she was taken away in the ambulance, his father sat him down to fill in the blanks, revealing to him that he was in fact his stepfather, and not blood related. The resemblance Terry had grown to have of his father was a by-product of his powers. He was born from an occult union of his mother with a man possessed by the entity known as Nightmare, and his stepfather had rescued her from the cult she’d been inducted into afterward. He was not human, at least not entirely.

The Thought Collective

The next years of his life were difficult, as he chose to hide his nature from Stephan at his father’s request. Several nights, when his brother would have nightmares and seek him out for comfort, Terry had to lock his door and shoo him away, because he had uncontrollably turned into the monsters from those very dreams. As much as he loved Stephan, he had to distance himself to keep the boy safe. He had emotional problems in school, as well as trouble controlling his powers. When he was kicked out of classes for triggering a suicidal student by mistake with his powers, it became clear he needed help.

One day when he was sixteen, his father revealed to him that he was planning to send him off to a new-age camp known as The Thought Collective, for metaphysically gifted kids to learn how to use their powers for the betterment of others. Terry knew he was being sent away, and demanded to know the real reason. As he asked, a knife materialized in his chest. It was the one his father was holding to cook. It became clear that his stepfather was afraid he would have to kill him. Horrified by the prospect, and hurt that it had gotten this bad, Terry agreed to go to the camp.

The camp turned out to be a front for a government shadow project, studying and training metahumans with psychic ability or service to the interests of national defense. For Terry, this meant years of study and meticulous mental training to control his abilities. Eventually, he was able to suppress the shifting that came from sensing others fears, something which he does unconsciously. Eventually, however, upon turning 18, Terry escaped the camp and lived in hiding.

The Dreaming Wish

During his travels, Terry began to learn of the metaphysical world outside of the constraints of the Thought Collective's information. He ran into various people and entities in his cross-country journey to escape to California. One of these people was an aged woman named Zed, who taught him about the balance of energies and the details of Dreamwalking. Though he tried, even with her help, he still found himself in an empty void.

When he learned of the world of the Dreaming, he realized it was the world everyone else seemed to go to when they slept, but not him. A deep desire grew within him to be part of that world, or to at least see it instead of an empty void every night. He wished so deeply to dream.

One night, his wish was answered by a being known only as ‘Desire’. They spoke so softly to him, their voice like cold velvet against his skin. They offered him a choice, to burst the bubble he’d been trapped in. When he asked for an explanation, a whole new revelation was given to him.  Not only was he a child of Nightmare, but by proxy, he was a child of a being known as Morpheus, or rather, Dream.

Dream had created Nightmare as an outlet for the most disgusting and petrifying horrors dreams could bring, and as a reflection of the parts of himself he hated most. Desire had then allowed this reflection to escape into another world, where Terry would then be conceived. Dream, realizing this new creation of unique life, sealed Terry into a bubble of darkness, severing him from the Dreaming so that he could not be used by Nightmare so readily.

Desire told him that now that Morpheus was dead he was ready to explore the world without constant threat. What they didn’t tell Terry was that Nightmare was waiting for him to dream for the first time, in order to take the body he had while trapping him in a realm of nightmares. Terry agreed, and Desire sent him to sleep, then bursting the bubble he had been contained within.

Immediately, Nightmare seized his body, and Terry was locked within Nightmare’s realm of Terror. It was left to Daniel(Morpheus’ successor), and Dr. Fate to help capture Nightmare before his reality warping destroyed the world. Daniel, once the task was done, released Terry from the realm of Terror, bringing him to Castle Dream and placing him within one of the towers. Nightmare was again cast into the Dreaming, trapped away from the Waking world.

In the Waking, Terry had been found by the Thought Collective, who captured him in Arizona. He was taken back to their headquarters in Gotham, and was put back into training. However, the mood of the organization had shifted. They were now far more focused of Terry's shifting powers, and his consumption of fearstuff. They began to bring him subject, drugging him into losing control and feeding off of them within a technological henge.

In the Dreaming, Terry sought help from a dreamer by he name of John Constantine, who he had heard stories of from Daniel and the other Endless. He reached out to him through his nightmares, pleading for rescue from his captivity, and to prevent the summoning of Nightmare to the Waking world.

[pablohunie1993]

whenever constantine and zatanna reunite for a job or mission or whatever and john does that thing where he's like gobsmacked and slightly flustered by her existence is actually the singular good idea dc ever had

[weclassybouquetfun]

I see dead people and they are in the form of teenagers Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland killed in 1916 and 1989, respectively.

Yes, all eight episodes (too few episodes, I say. A good 13 eps would have been fitting) of DEAD BOY DETECTIVES is available on Netflix.

Series stars George Rexstrew (Edwin), Kassius Nelson (Crystal Palace), Yuyu Kitamura (Niko Sasaki) and Jayden Revri (Charles Rowland)

A bit about the series:

NO SPOILERS

Born out of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint and created by Neil Gaiman with its characters being spun out of the Sandman universe, how divergent is the series from the comics?Not very. They have retained the trio's backstories, but there were story arcs they could not delve into because Netflix's SANDMAN needs to get there first. Other than that, things are twists on canon or new creations.

Of the characters themselves, Neil Gaiman has said Charles was "more or less him" as a boy and in crafting the series characters, the costumes lent a hand. With his buttoned-up attitude, the bespoked suits for Edwin Paine belies his closed off demeanor. Jayden Revri's Charles Rowland had a ska/rude boy looked that was of fashion when he was alive. This was a nod that Revri appreciated as he has explained in the past he's, "half Indian, a quarter Jamaican and a quarter English." Charles also always has red on him as a nod to comics!Charles' red sweater.

While the characters were first introduced in HBO Max's DOOM PATROL, once the plans for a series was announced, it was quickly let known that this incarnation is not in the same universe as DOOM PATROL's characters, despite DOOM PATROL's Ruth Connell reprising her role as Night Nurse in the Netflix series. This series is firmly in the Sandman universe with Kirby (formerly Kirby Howell-Baptiste, briefly reprising her role as Death in the first episode.

Should DEAD BOY DETECTIVES get a second series, Rexstrew and Lukas Gage (who plays Cat King)

have already spoken of their love of Mason Alexander Park's character Desire from the series, with Rexstrew saying he would love to see Edwin's reaction to Desire.

There's no malewife like him.

Other cast members include Briana Cucuo, sister of BIG BANG THEORY's Kaley Cucuo. Briana voices Barbara Gordon and a sundry of other characters on Max's HARLEY QUINN.

Much too hot to be doing voice-work.

Jenn Lyon (Claws), Joshua Colley (Love, Victor) and Max Jenkins and Caitlin Reilly cutting it up in a (literal) small role.

Jayden says he can't wait for fan fiction and edits of Charles and Edwin and says their ship name will likely be Chedwin. Mans don't know what he's asking for!

[darksideofthemamon]

God in Hellblazer vs Lucifer comics

I have a lot of thoughts on the angel characters from Hellblazer/Sandman/Lucifer (basically the DC/Vertigo comics era). I've had them for a long time but I guess I'm only getting to writing about it now. I have a whole essay to write about Remiel from Sandman, but for now, this should do as a warm up.

Though Hellblazer and Sandman are supposed to be in the same universe, it gets really messy with different writers and storylines going in different directions, more so when you include Sandman's spin-offs, like the Lucifer comics and its sequels.

I think one of the most glaring differences is their portrayal of God. God seems... so much nicer in the Lucifer comics (both the Mike Carey (2000) and Holly Black (2016) runs).

And I think a lot of this is caused by the themes of each story.

Hellblazer has some really strong political themes going on, so much that I can't possibly analyze them all. What I do know is that gods/angels/etc in the story tend to represent people in power and privilege. So for example, look at what John says to the archangel Gabriel in the bottom right panel: "You're the ones that make the frigging rules for us, and you don't even understand us!"

In effect, God, as well as the heavenly hosts, tend to be portrayed as jerks.

The Lucifer comics take a different approach. The story's themes tend to gear more towards family, identity, and free will. The protagonist is a really headstrong guy who wants to be free of his omniscient, omnipotent, dad. In his words (upper right panel): "This face is mine. This scar-- is mine. You may not have them. Not without my permission."

Because of the "messed up family" angle, God tends to come off as more well-meaning, but flawed.

Reading the comics together and considering them in the same universe can get jarring when God is so patient with Lucifer, but so damn harsh towards The First of the Fallen and Gabriel.

(and yes I know the Lucifer spin-offs aren't or are dubiously canon, but for this analysis, just consider them canon)

When Lucifer rebels and causes a whole war, God gives him a domain to rule over in order to give His son what he wants: to be away from Him. (top panels)

But when First of the Fallen and Gabriel even step a toe out of line? They get cast out of Heaven in painful, soul-crushing ways. (bottom panels)

And I guess it just ends up coming off as if God has some pretty massive favoritism towards Lucifer?? XD Like wow the Morningstar gets so much leeway, but FOTF and Gabriel get tossed out so fast??

In the end though, it doesn't bother me. I think the dynamic can even enhance the story in fascinating ways.

The story where these 2 portrayals get reconciled is through Gabriel's character in the Lucifer (2016) run by Holly Black.

Gabriel in this run shares a backstory with his Hellblazer self, and though the specific events leading to his Fall were only briefly touched upon, his treatment and relationship with his Father retains those themes of free will and identity, while also portraying God as harsh and tyrannical.

When a God that turned evil tries to take away his free will, Gabriel cries "Get out of my head! I was beyond your mercy before. Now I am beyond your reach."

God tossed him out so mercilessly the first time, so why does He get to control him now?

Gabriel in Hellblazer is a proud snob who views things through a very self-righteous black-and-white lens. It's revealed however, that his Father's strict rules and harsh punishments have left him anxious, guilty, and afraid (especially following an eye-opening interaction with John Constantine).

When he opens up about his problems to Julie (actually a succubus named Ellie) in Hellblazer, she says: "Look at you. What did he do to make you feel so scared and guilty?"

When it's revealed in Lucifer (2016) that Gabriel killed God, Lucifer says: "Our Father turned His back on you. And you were so angry. You've been angry for so long."

The Lucifer (2016) comic manages to show God through the lighter lens while also acknowledging his harsh treatment of Gabriel.

And we see this in Gabriel's character. In Hellblazer he's nervously looking over his own shoulder, in Lucifer (2016) he's proudly passion's fool.

And while we're talking about Gabriel, his self-actualization arc is one of the main reasons I love Holly Black's run despite its flaws!

I love how they continued his story from Hellblazer. There's a story about a guy living under his strict father's thumb who fell from grace when he was cast out, then got back up with the help of family and friends who support him. It says something that by the end of the story, he no longer works for Heaven but instead for Hell, serving under Mazikeen who acknowledged him at his lowest. He also gains his wings and heart back-- the former from Lucifer and the latter from Raphael, his brothers.

That's all I have to say XD. This was just supposed to be an observation but I ended up talking about Gabriel lol

[jesncin]

apologies if it’s been asked before, but what number earth would your jl remix be (like earth-1 and earth-2 etc)? and if you already have thought of one, what does the number mean :0?

No worries! JL remix is probably a mix of a couple of earths because while I follow some well known comic events and character casts, sometimes I'll grab Alan Scott out of nowhere for no serious lore reason (I just like him). I also like Vertigo!Constantine more than his DC iteration, so my version of Johnstantine follows Vertigo's general story with changes here and there (the racial narratives did not age well cough).

Bigger re-imaginings like Martian Manhunter's entire backstory and Superboy Conner having his own origin outside of the Reign of Supermen/Death of Superman event makes it so my re-imagining is pretty out there too. I stick to "Justice League remix" to keep it simple since that's really what I'm doing at the end of the day. Remixing stuff for fun!

[mobiusrp]

About:

I go by M!

29

he/they pronouns (nonbinary guy)

bi

main tumblr -> greywerewolf

Roleplay Info:

I will only rp with adults (21+)

multiparagraph

alright with heavy topics And fluff

limits: non-con (given some of the characters I play this may be mentioned with backstory but not described in detail or roleplayed out), incest, others we can discuss based on what we're writing

I can/will write other characters incidentally if they come up in the story. We can either share side characters and both write them or we can divvy them up and each have some that we write exclusively. That's something we can discuss.

I will rp opposite OCs, but I prefer canon characters. (I like playing nonfandom OCxOC too!)

I enjoy plotting and prefer plot-centric rps. (NSFW is 100% fine, but it needs to be built up to unless it happens quickly for Plot Reasons [looking at Astarion].)

I won't reply every day usually. I have a job, and sometimes I get home and just crash. We're adults, I don't expect replies to always be fast.

AUs and canon-based rps are both fun! I am... always weak to vampire AUs. I also enjoy messing around with romance novel cliches like arranged marriage, etc.

Who I Write:

DC:

Bruce Wayne

Jason Todd

John Constantine (Vertigo-based)

I've also written Selina Kyle and Harvey Dent. (Plus, The Batman Who Laughs, and various other people.)

Ships: batjokes, bruceharvey, batcat, superbat, jayrose, jayroy, jaykyle (+ others if you win me over on them)

Baldur's Gate 3:

Astarion

Gortash

I think Durge would be fun to write too, but I haven't written them yet.

Ships: wyllstarion, bloodweave, durgestarion, durgetash

I will not write halstarion. Do not try to write halstarion with me. Thank you.

Fire Emblem:

Grima/M!Robin

Niles

Kaze

Ships: chrobin, grima/chrom, grima/henry, niles/silas, niles/subaki, kaze/xander (+ others)

Vampire Chronicles:

Lestat de Lioncourt

Louis de Pointe du Lac

Ships: loustat, loumand, louis/daniel/armand, nickistat (+ combinations of those)

Note: I am only interested in writing book Lestat. If you want to discuss mixing and matching book and show canon or writing AUs, that's an option, but I don't want to write anything that's solely based on the show.

I like other things too, so this list may expand if I want to try my hand at other fandoms, but feel free to dm me if any of this sounds up your alley!

[thedevilyouknovv]

☾ main ☾ bio ☾ face ☾ muse ☾ starters ☾ wishlist ☾

about:

This is a sideblog, and I follow back from my main @grimmusings. Please direct IMs there, since it's easier for me to keep all my messages on one blog. It's also easier to start interactions with me there, where I regularly post open starters and meme prompts. For a full list of rules, see my main. Honesty hour questions will largely be answered IC and treated as anonymous unless signed by a muse.

All details vary based on verse, but in general I pull Constantine from DC/Vertigo comics, with a bit of Arrowverse thrown in if those connections are needed. I'm not that familiar with Legends of Tomorrow, but I'm happy to read up on it if you want to include events from there. If you prefer one of his faceclaims over the others, feel free to request!

Please note that he's not my easiest muse. I enjoy writing him, but true to character, he only talks when he wants to, and it may take me a bit longer to get back to his replies than it does for my other muses.

wanted connections:

This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I can roll with most muses as far as basic interactions. I’m happy to ship Constantine with other DC/Marvel comics characters and OCs/fandom crossovers based on chemistry, but unless they’re on my OTP list, they need plotting and interaction first. There is never any pressure to ship with me, even if they’re on my list.

OTPs: Zatanna Zatara, Oliver, Desmond, comics/Arrowverse Chas Possible Ships: Nick Necro, Lucifer Morningstar, Harley Quinn, Dean Winchester NOTPs: film Chas (too much of an age gap), Rachel Roth (same + daughter vibes), most muses with a significant age gap (he may be an asshole, but he's not a fucking asshole) Other: Any DC/Marvel comics muses. Any muses or crossovers from other horror/paranormal fandoms (e.g., Supernatural, Stranger Things, Welcome to Night Vale, Good Omens).

default verses:

canon (+/-): Any verses that take place more or less in the DC/Vertigo comics timelines.

arrowverse: A mix of comics lore and headcanons that more closely follows an Arrowverse timeline, where John helps retrieve Oliver's soul.

multiverse!madness: Various comics universes collide, whether Marvel/DC/etc. have always existed on the same Earth, or other-dimension shenanigans are at work. Duplicate friendly!

horror!verse: Any crossovers with horror fandoms like Supernatural, typically where John is working paranormal investigations or scams.

verses by request only:

I'm happy to write these, but since they're more specific AUs, I don't default on them for asks/memes. Please feel free to request them.

college!verse: A college backstory verse where John attends university to study magic, play in his band (Mucous Membrane), and generally fuck around. (fc: Alexander Calvert)

dad!verse: Any AU where John is being an absolute disaster of a parent. May also apply to canon muses like Rachel Roth or Lucy Quinzel.

[thedurvin]

See the problem there is that among my obsessions are nerd shit, mythology, and conspiracy theories, and it was quietly setting me off how much shit he kept getting wrong. I didn’t want the conversation to go on even longer but it so could have. He forgot the name of the Gem of Cyttorak, didnt know the original backstory of Mr Sinister, forgot Gabby in a list of Wolverine’s offspring and called Daken “Draken”, didn’t know the difference between DC and Vertigo, thought the Fall of Satan and the story of Lilith were in the Bible, kept calling Lilith “Lillian”, thought the establishment of Christian Biblical canon was a recent development instead of starting barely 400 years into Christianity and didn’t know different branches of the Abrahamic faiths have different canons, wholly bought the totally untrue “we only use 10% of our brains” (the correct version is more like we only use 10% at a time), and to cap it all off when he got to the conspiracy theories they were just so dull. We broke off before he could start getting into race theory so maybe there was going to be something fun there but sir I have read a lot of conspiracy theories and “the secret world government is hiding life-extending scripture” is like. Entry level. The conspiracy theory equivalent of four chord rock on a 4/4 beat. You’re clearly somewhat familiar with various sci fi and fantasy properties and yet your conspiracy theories are so banal. Come back when you get creative with it; go read some Francis E Dec, some Shaver Mystery. The Mad Deadly Frankenstein Computer God would weep acid tears to hear humanity oppressed by such pizzazzless narratives.

I don’t tend to engage in IRL fandom and/or nerd spaces like cons and game shops because apparently I have (A) an incredibly talk-to-able vibe, and (B) NO IDEA how to get out of conversations.

I stopped by a nearby used books and geek merch shop because I had some time between errands and when I touched a Ninja Turtles thing a guy came up and started talking about his collection. At first I figured hey sure I got nothing more important going on and this guy could clearly use someone to be on the receiving end of an infodump, us neurodivergents gotta help each other out, so with zero feedback from me it progressed from Ninja Turtles to recounting all of both seasons of the X-Men cartoon (including doing all the sound effects and re-enacting various reaction gifs) to contrasting the comics, movies, cartoons, and various alternate timelines therein. Explaining details there with citations to the Marvel Universe Handbook lead to theorizing that the Marvel Lucifer and the DC Lucifer were the same character, and that’s when things started getting religious and he went into how Lucifer couldn’t possibly want to have sex because he’s made entirely of Pride so demons must be the offspring of Adam and Lilith and how there’s secret books of the Bible that the government doesn’t want us to know about because it would let us activate the secret unused parts of our brains to figure out how to overthrow them and then how to breathe in space and colonize the Galaxy. Throughout this I could say nothing more than “uh huh” and “hmm” and around that time a staff member actually came over and interrupted us to rescue me so I could excuse myself

[themusicplayedherlife]

Okay, but a Jake Jensen and ex-Batgirl!Reader where there’s obvious attraction and all, all is good and flirty but then a Gotham politician (who was shady as hell) or whatever turns up dead in his DC home and Batman calls Reader to help investigate. And somehow it all leads to Jake and his ragtag group (who Reader didn’t even know was special forces?!) Whatever will Reader do?

[skydether-preacher-constantine]

Preacher S04E03 Clip | "He's just being inspirational" | Cassidy & Billy...

He’s so brave and historical. 

[mask131]

A guide for reading The Sandman: Part 2

So... You have read the full Sandman series. You went from issue 1 to issue 75. From beginning to end. You had all the ten volumes. Congrats!

But I am sorry to tell you, you don’t actually have the full Sandman story. You see, Neil Gaiman wrote and created much more than just the numbered issues. He created a lot of side-stories, side volumes and “specials” whose presence are either exciting and thrilling additions to the Sandman mythos, or key elements needed to understand the plots and happenings of the main story. Don’t get me wrong, if you just read the numbered issues you’ll get the full story without problem. But you’ll still be missing the second part of the complete Sandman world. The “specials”. In French we have a clever word for that: the “hors-séries” (literally means “outside of the series”, it is still part of the world but not inside the numbered series).

Given there is a lot of those specials, I’ll classify them by “publishing order”. You’ll get what I mean. 

    I) The Sandman library

After being released as a series of numbered issues, The Sandman was collected in the ten volumes I described previously. Out of these volumes, one included actually more than just the numbered issues: volume 6, “Fables and Reflections”, added two Sandman specials.

# “Fear of Falling” was originally a story published as its own for a one-shot issue called “Vertigo Preview” whose function, as the name indicates, was to serve as a big preview for most of the Vertigo titles. As a result, the issue contains previews and half-stories for most of the Vertigo titles: Hellblazer, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man... It also includes previews for two specials I will talk about later, Death: The High Cost of Living, and Sandman Mystery Theater. But these are all just previews. There is only one full, complete story, which is precisely “Fear of Falling”, conceived originally as a way to give a taste of Sandman to newcomers.

# The Song of Orpheus. Originally it was published as its own as “The Sandman Special”, but it was included into this first collection of Sandman issues due to how important the story is : for you see, it gives the complete backstory of Orpheus, who is an important character in The Sandman. And while just a retelling of the myth, it is still very precious to understand the full impact of the character. 

   II) The 30th anniversary edition

After publishing those ten volumes, DC celebrated the 30th birthday of The Sandman by reprinting them... WITH FOUR BONUS VOLUMES!!!

# The first added Volume, Volume 11, is called “Endless Nights”. This specific volume was originally published as its own under the name “The Sandman: Endless Nights”. Published in 2003, so long after the end of The Sandman, it is a set of seven stories, each centered around a different Endless sibling, and their whole purpose is just to further expand the world of The Sandman, and flesh out more the other Endlesses by showing stories from THEIR perspectives. It is technically an “anthology volume / expansion volume” that is not needed to understand the full story, but makes a nice addition to better understand the scope of the world and the working of the Endless. It does however contains spoilers for “Brief Lives” and further, so... it is at its right place as “Volume 11″. 

# The second added Volume is NOT called Volume 12 as you would expect. It is rather called... Volume ∞. Of its full name: The Sandman: Overture. This volume was originally a six-part limited series created by Neil Gaiman in 2013 (so LONG after the end of The Sandman, and well after Endless Nights). This is the latest and final work by Neil Gaiman in The Sandman world so far, and it was designed as a sort of “grand finale”. Some people will tell you “It is the first work in chronological order so you should begin here”. DO NOT DARE! THESE PEOPLE ARE LYING TO YOU! Beginning here is the WORST idea you can have. If you want to begin The Sandman, you begin at issue 1, like Neil Gaiman himself. 

For you see, “Overture” is a dual story, two series of events tied together that happen, one after the end of The Sandman (so after issue 75) and the other before the beginning of the Sandman (so before issue 1). Overture is both the prologue to The Sandman AND its epilogue. Beginning and end, alpha and omega... Hence the  ∞ symbol. It is without a doubt the best way to end the series.

# The two other volumes are both unumbered and called “The Sandman: The Dream Hunters”. And they both tell the same story. So why are there two volumes? Because one is an illustrated novel, and the other is a full comic book issue.

Originally, Neil Gaiman published “The Dream Hunters” as a novel/novella in 1999 (so three years after the end of The Sandman, but before the publication of Endless Nights). It was a fictional story he invented, based upon and inspired by Japanese folklore and Japanese fairytales. Illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, it takes place in The Sandman world, though it is not part of the main plot and you can actually read the story with no prior knowledge of The Sandman. It became so popular that for the 20th anniversary of The Sandman, in 2008-2009, the novel was adapted into a comic book, a four part mini-series that became its own Sandman volume. 

Fun fact: when Neil Gaiman published the story, he wrote in it a fake “origin” claiming he was just adaptating a part of Ozaki’s famous “Old Japanese Fairy Tales”. It was a lie, as Neil Gaiman had entirely invented the story, but it fooled a lot of people who sincerely believed it was some sort of secret or missing story from Ozaki’s book. (He notably had to clear up the matter in “Endless Nights”). 

    III) The Absolute Sandman

Now you probably think: wow... this is a lot. But I got everything, right? NO YOU FOOL! DC, seeing the enormous success of The Sandman, decided to reprint a new edition of the compilation: The Absolute Sandman, even bigger than the 30th Anniversary edition. Not ten or twelve volumes, but rather six (five numbered volumes plus Overture), containing everything I talked about above (The Sandman Special, Endless Nights, Overture, The Dream Hunters...). Plus more specials not yet included in compilations! Resulting in five volumes + The Absolute Sandman: Overture + one special volume called “The Absolute Death”. 

# The Vertigo: Winter’s Edge comics. Vertigo’s Winter Edge was a limited series published from 1998 to 2000 celebrating, every winter, the different lines and series of the Vertigo imprint with special stories. It ran for three issues, and each of them has one story created by Neil Gaiman tied with or part of The Sandman universe. One will maybe ring familiar to the viewers of the show: “A Winter’s Tale”, published in the second issue (1999). This story is actually a description of Death’s backstory, answering many questions about her “life” before the events of The Sandman (and also revealing answers to some questions raised in “Endless Nights”, even though it was published AFTER this story). Parts of it were adapted in the first season of The Sandman tv show. 

The other two stories of Winter’s Edge are “The Flowers of Romance”, from Winter Edge 1998 and “How They Met Themselves” from Winter Edge 2000. These stories are fascinating because they actually depict Desire as the protagonist and “hero”. You see, as Gaiman points out, Desire plays an antagonistic role in The Sandman merely because Dream is the protagonist. But here he decided, why not show the reverse, the world where Desire is the protagonist, the “nice” side of Desire: the result are those two stories. 

[ The Vertigo: Winter’s Edge issues also contain stories belonging to “The Dreaming”, a spin-off of The Sandman, but given Neil Gaiman was not involved in those I’ll keep it for a later post]

# “The Castle”. This story was originally published in “Vertigo Jam”, which is basically quite similar to “Vertigo Preview” and “Vertigo: Winter Edge”, just a one-shot issue that was an anthology of various stories, each taking place in a different series of the Vertigo imprint. 

# The Death mini-series. In 1993, the same year as The Dream Hunters, Neil Gaiman wrote a mini-series with Death as the main protagonist. It was called “Death: The High Cost of Living”. This Death-centered story had three years later a “twin mini-series”: “Death: The Time of Your Life” in 1996 (coupled with the return of Hazel and Foxglove from “A Game of You”). These two were then gathered here as a duo in a special volume of The Absolute Sandman called “The Absolute Death” and centered around, you guessed it, lot of Death material. 

# The “educational” Sandman. This “Absolute Death” volume also contains two “PSA material” or “Very Special Episode” issues. One is a story centered around Destruction and called “The Wheel”, which was originally part of a very special DC volume: 9-11: The world’s finest comic book writers and artists tell stories to remember. You can safely guess what the story is about. The second story is not actually a story, but a Death-centered AIDs pamphlet called “Death Talks About Life”. It had been originally coupled with several other issues of DC comics: it was found in the issue 32 of “Shade the Changing Man” (the 1990 series) ; it was also found in the 62nd issue of Hellblazer, and finally in the 46th issue of The Sandman. But it also existed as its own, unique pamphlet distributed in schools to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. 

# Sandman Midnight Theater. The last of the specials created by Neil Gaiman, and one of the last pieces to The Sandman puzzle. Long story short... There were several “Sandman” super-heroes in the DC Universe. In fact, Neil Gaiman began “The Sandman” as his own personal take on the several Sandmen super-heroes of the DC world. The very first of those Sandmen was Wesley Dodds, a Batman-like vigilante of the 30s that was part of the Golden Age of comics. In fact, Wesley Dodds himself appears in the first issue of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and is part of The Sandman universe. After the end of Neil Gaiman’s series, the popularity of Wesley Dodds increased again and so in 1993 was launched a “reboot” of the original adventures of the Sandman, a new series around Dodds called “Sandman Mystery Theater”. 

Sandman Midnight Theater is precisely a crossover issue between Sandman Mystery Theater and Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. 

# “The Last Sandman Story”. This is actually not a comic book story. It was a prose story, semi-autobiographical, written by Neil Gaiman for “Dustcovers: The Collected Sandman Covers”, which as the name says compiled all of the covers of Dave McKean (plus I think he also illustrated this specific story?). It a sort of confession story, a text by Neil Gaiman about real-life and his relationship with The Sandman series and the character of Dream. And, as the name says, it was written to be released at the conclusion of the main series, post-issue 75. 

  There you go! These are all the specials created by Neil Gaiman and that are part of the canon and official Sandman series. Of course there is more bonus to talk about: Neil Gaiman gave a lot of interviews about The Sandman in which he reveals all sorts of details and secrets, and they can be found across various books - the Sandman Companion, the Absolute Sandman editions, the Omnibus Sandman editions, there’s plenty of places to look at. 

So... is it done? Is it over?

Yes and no. With this, you have covered everything in The Sandman world made by Neil Gaiman. So this is basically all the “canon”. 

But The Sandman created a lot of spin-offs and side-stories that were not created or that are not linked to Neil Gaiman... as with many comic book worlds, it expanded beyond its original creator. So maybe I will cover all the non-Neil Gaiman Sandman stories in a third part. Maybe. If I have time.

[pablohunie1993]

i haven't made a johnzee edit since someone commented "my favorite goth girl/emo boy relationship" WHAT? EMO?

[milfzatannaz]

What’s up! I’m tumblr user milfzatannaz, and John Constantine and Zatanna Zatara are my life’s passion, lol. I’ve compiled this comprehensive list as a good resource to recommend to any new reader, with some provided commentary on their history!

Overview

John and Zatanna were first introduced as former lovers in Swamp Thing #49, written by Alan Moore. John was a relatively new character, so having romantic history with a well-established DC heroine can easily be seen as a way to connect him to the wider DC universe. It was in issue #50, where John escorted Zatanna and her father to the very seance that led to Zatara’s death, that would tie their histories together for decades to come.

John and Zatanna, while having a whole slew of appearances together, have never actually been in an established romantic relationship in the mainstream universe. It’s published in multiple supplemental materials that they met in the mid 70s in San Fransisco. Nonetheless, they share a rich canon together, whether they are platonic exes or otherwise.

They can easily be broken up into Post-Crisis, New 52, Rebirth, and multiple alternate universes outside the main timeline.

Post Crisis

Swamp Thing #49-50 (1986)

Secret Origins #27 (1988)

Books of Magic #2 (1990)

Zatanna: Come Together #1-2* (1993)

Hellblazer #63 (1993)

Totems (2000)

Zatanna: Every Day Magic (2003)

*Come Together #1 only has a small cameo by John, but I included it anyway.

In their original post-crisis history, Zatanna and John were friendly exes who operated in the same community. Books of Magic established that despite what went down during the seance, they could be affectionate, and even shared a kiss or two throughout the years. (Gaiman has since gone on the record to say that despite what happened with her father, Zee still felt something for John) Zee was always up to have a good time when John threw parties, seen in Hellblazer and Totems.

New 52 Era

The Search for Swamp Thing (2011)

Justice League Dark Volume 1 (various issues) (2011)

Constantine #4 (2013)

Forever Evil: Blight* (2014)

Constantine: The Hellblazer #12-13 (2015)

The Hellblazer #15 (2017)

*Forever Evil: Blight is a company wide event that spanned multiple books. I put only the event instead of each single issue (which is collected into a TPB) for simplicity.

The New-52 wiped and reset the entire universe, including John and Zee’s backstory. There was also a notable logistical shift- John Constantine crossed over from Vertigo into main DC, and after Hellblazer was cancelled, had multiple solo books with DC. This difference is extremely important, because the version of John used in Justice League Dark is not the one seen in Hellblazer or Books of Magic. It’s easy too categorize them as separate individuals entirely.

As for John and Zatanna’s romantic history, instead of meeting sometime before the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, they met in their early 20s in New York while Zee was dating Nick Necro, who would become a major antagonist for JLD. It’s also semi implied they were in a polyamorous relationship. John and Zatanna are younger and more antagonistic.

(I don’t really enjoy any of this era, but it IS a part of their history. I found this massive departure to be insulting to a lot of iconic books and paint John in a bad light overall)

Rebirth Era

Justice League Dark vol. 2 (various issues) (2018)

Wonder Woman/The Witching Hour (2018)

Justice League #59-73 (2018)

Batman: Urban Legends #13 (2022)

With the Rebirth Reboot, John and Zee found their backstory more or less restored. The seance is once again a pivotal moment. While not quite as friendly as they were in Vertigo’s heyday, their relationship has been developing throughout JLD and the backup in Justice League. Some standout issues include JLD #13 and#27-29. It is strongly implied they’re heading for something more overtly romantic, but who knows where they’ll be after Dark Crisis. Batman: Urban Legends at the time of writing is their latest appearance.

Alternate Universes:

Books of Magic: Life During Wartime (2004)

Smallville: Harbringer (2014)

Bombshells (various issues) (2015)

Johnny Constantine: Heckblazer (2019)

DCeased: Dead Planet #1-6 (2020)

DC vs Vampires #4 (2022)

Just a heads up, Life During Wartime isn’t all that enjoyable, but it belongs on the list. I don’t necessarily recommend outside of being a completionist. I have a complete list of each Bombshells issue if anyone would like that. You can shoot me an ask!

That’s all! I didn’t add animated appearances because this is a reading list, but @magicblazersource has a more comprehensive multi-media guide.

I hope everyone finds this useful, and enjoys John and Zatanna as much as I do. If I’m missing anything let me know!

[queermediastudies]

Gillian’s Queer Media Example: Comic Books

Comic books have often been dismissed or overlooked when it comes to queerness. But the comic from its very beginning has “been linked to queerness or broader questions of sexuality and gender identity in US society” (Scott and Fawaz, 2018). The American comics industry as they are known today was created by Jewish Americans who were originally denied jobs at regular publishing industries, so they started their industry. Some of these creators were Stan Lee (Writer and co-creator of Spider-Man, The Avenger, The X-Men, and The Fantastic Four), Jack Kirby (Artist, writer, and co-creator of Captain America, The Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man), Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman), And Bob Kane (co-creator of Batman). Therefore, both Superman and Captain America were heavily inspired by Jewish mythology with Superman being inspired by the story of Moses and Captain America being inspired by the story of the Golem. This influence is also why most superheroes' backstories are formed from family loss and death because it was the trauma a lot of these men were most familiar with.

So, it's no surprise that comic books would continue to tell the stories of marginalized people. “This has made the medium especially effective as a space for the depiction of an array of fantastical characters, worlds, and social interactions (among humans, mutants, aliens, cyborgs, and other “inhuman” figurations). The fantasy aspects of the medium have historically lent themselves to the depiction of a vast array of nonnormative expressions of gender and sexuality—from the most metaphoric (in hyperbolic camp visuality or the metamorphosing of human bodies into forms that call into question traditional gender norms, etc.) to the most literal (the actual depiction of queer bodies and erotic attachments)” (Scott and Fawaz, 2018). Marvel had the first openly gay superhero, NorthStar (Jean-Paul Beaubier) of Alpha Flight and the X-Men. And in 2011 when New York passed the Marriage Equality Act of 2011, Marvel celebrated this with NorthStar marrying his partner, Kyle.

The first transgender superhero was in DC’s Doom Patrol with Coagula.

Doom Patrol also has the characters of Negative Man (Larry Trainor) and Danny the Street. Negative Man is a gay superhero in Doom Patrol. Danny the Street is an Allie of the Doom Patrol a sentient living teleporting genderqueer street who uses they/them pronouns. Danny provides a sanctuary for anyone that society ostracized and seeks to hurt.

One of the most revolutionary comic book series was DC and Vertigo comics The Sandman written by Neil Gaiman (who would go on to write American Gods, Coraline, and co-write Good Omens). Since its debut in 1989, The Sandman resonated with the LGBTQ+ community and has become a cult classic. It was one of the only comics at the time with reparation in a mainstream medium when prejudice against the community was at an all-time high. When asked about this Gaiman stated, “I had gay friends and I had trans friends. I wanted to see them represented in the comics that I was writing, and it felt to me like if I wrote comics and left them out, then I wouldn’t be representing my world or the world that I was in, or the world I was perceiving accurately, bravely, or truly. And that’s the point of art. So, for me, it was just a given.” The Sandman’s main character Dream of the Endless and his sibling's Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium are notable in this context of queerness because while they all have preferred forms, they can present themselves however they choose and people they meet often preserve them in many different forms that vary in gender and race. Desire is most notable amongst the seven siblings in that they are genderqueer. They can present as either masculine, feminine, or something more in between. There is also the character of Wanda. Wanda is a transgender woman who is friends with Barbie. Wanda tragically died in a natural disaster and Barbie has a dream about Wanda looking perfect and beautiful. Wanda notices Barbie and waves goodbye to her as she leaves with Death. Later Barbie visits Wanda’s grave and sees that Wanda’s family put her dead name on the grave. Barbie rectifies this by crossing out the deadname and writing Wanda’s real name with her favorite shade of lipstick because it is the least, she can do as a friend.

Sandman later faced controversy when it released ‘Death Talks About Life’ in 1994. This was a PSA story to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and teach safe sex practices the PSA was released in Hellblazer #62, The Sandman #46, and Shade the Changing Man #32, and later as free pamphlets. This PSA almost got a few comic shops shut down and was banned in a few other shops. The story was of Death of the Endless as she advises on how to live longer, what are STDs, what are HIV/AIDs, how to use a condom with help from John Constantine, as well as dispelling myths about AIDS.

Sandman was not the only comic book to tackle the subject of HIV/AIDS. X-Men handled it in the form of the Legacy Virus. The Legacy Virus was created to target, infect, and kill mutants. But it did not just kill mutants since it targeted the x-gene which can be in non-mutants it started killing non-mutants as well. The X-Men in general has served as a long-time allegory for queerness for many years. They are a group of humans who present extraordinary abilities around puberty but can be present since birth (like gender and sexuality) and are often outcast by society that sees them as inhuman, something to exterminate, or something to cure. Mutants find safe havens at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters where they can be themselves. The X-Men were also known for their diverse characters such as “Storm, a Kenyan-born immigrant to the United States, the first black woman superhero in a mainstream comic book, and the X-Men’s team leader by the 1990s” (Scott and Fawaz, 2018). It’s also noteworthy that a lot of early queer representation came from mutant characters. As mentioned before NorthStar the first openly gay superhero is a mutant. Mystique (Raven Darkholme) and Destiny (Iren Adler) have been long partners and they even raised one of the most famous X-Men together, Rogue.

Iceman (Bobby Drake) was also revealed as gay and was likely overcompensating because of his bigoted parents. Wanda Maximoff’s (Scarlet Witch) twin boys, Bobby (Wiccan) and Tommy are both queer. Tommy is bi with a boyfriend and Bobby is gay and got married to Teddy (Hulkling)

Also, the infamous love triangle of Cyclops (Scout Summer), Jean Grey, and Wolverine (Logan) have become a much healthier polyamorous relationship.

I could go on about many more queer characters and stories in comic books, but it is probably best if I stop it here. There are so many more characters and stories that I could talk about so just remember comic books are queerer than you think.

[augustheart]

the state of trans characters within dc is...like...truly disheartening. 

like i know we’re all excited about jess (and rightly so, genderbend earth and all) and i know there are trans characters that dc has, believe me, i know that, i really do know that, i am a walking fucking encyclopedia for lgbt dc characters, i know the trans ones. okay? i know. but if you just open dc wiki or comic vine or whatever the hell and you look at dc’s trans characters, you will notice patterns in the negative spaces, and they’re upsetting! they really are!

i know about trans characters you probably don’t--i know about mel from american virgin, one of the surprising handful of trans characters from the vertigo imprint. (he dies.) i know about starbright, one of the surprising handful of trans characters from the vertigo imprint. (she appears in a singular issue.) i know about hilde, one of the surprising handful of trans characters from the vertigo imprint. (she is a transmisogynistic caricature.) i know, of course, about kate godwin (dead), lee serrano (written off; a Special Issue), alysia yeoh (written off), victoria october (background), porcelain (written off), ystin (written off; and with transness a recent retcon), wanda mann (dead). i know. and i know if you look at them written out like this, it might seem like a lot. you may even notice some i’ve missed. (to name a few more: ones like dr. thaumaturge. the aerie. echo. suzie su.) (a reforming vigilante, and a far background one at that. a sympathetic protagonist, i will give tom taylor that much. a literal nightmare. a transmisogynistic caricature.)

it’s not a lot. it’s not. marvel is no better, of course marvel is no better, but i’m not talking about marvel. i’m talking about dc. do you see a pattern? do you see it, if you tilt your head and squint? maybe it’s apparent. maybe you see the lack of living trans men, the lack of well-written, mainline trans women (their mere existence in dc’s comics is not some kind of privilege they hold over trans men. do you see the notations--dead, a caricature, written off. a dc tv show holding valuable representation and some characters who have fallen through intolerance’s cracks--only to be torn away later, of course--do not a presence make), the morally grey background nonbinary characters with scant appearances even when they are written well.

this isn’t to say all of these characters are bad. i like (love) many of them. i love coagula, i love porcelain, i love starbright. many of them are written well. but they are never a permanent fixture. “make your own characters instead of imagining existing ones as trans” look what happened to kate godwin. “beg for scraps of representation or you will starve” i will not let cis people pat themselves on the back for characters who die, who are Very Special Issues, who are caricatures. “they already exist, just look for them!” i know, i know, i know, i cannot stress how much i have looked, how little i have found, the way what i have found has turned out! 

i will not pretend i haven’t told others to look and they will find for the characters who i think genuinely are good--the coagulas, the aeries, the victoria octobers, the alysias, the starbrights. i love them so, so dearly. i hold them close to me because they are the best we have gotten. this isn’t to disparage the good characters. the ones written with as much compassion as possible, though sometimes a bit clumsily--i will take a hundred lee serranos over one suzie su. a hundred background victoria octobers over one hilde. even if the execution is sometimes off, the genuine desire to help make change is a sentiment to be encouraged.

but look. look at them. look how when they make us heroes, they trip and stumble over themselves--transness comes from an alternate universe, it is a slate wiped clean and shuttered away as soon as the run ends, it is something that...well...are you sure you said heroes, would you mind being a villain? (i love the morally gray characters, i do! look at my fucking url! but where the hell are all these trans heroes coming from, that people feel comfortable making so many of us villains--sympathetic and protagonistic or not?) look at how many, as i said, simply vanish from pages, whether into the aether or into a coffin. 

there has been some change. i cannot stress enough how much i love some of these characters. how well-written i think some of them are, at least in their motivations and backstory and interactions with others if nothing else. there has been change. but it’s not enough. i don’t know if it will take a major retcon for a popular character to finally give us a trans person who won’t vanish after the writer who put their all into making a new character the fans will love with their transness and not despite it. i hope it doesn’t take that. i still wait with bated breath for every new trans character, i hold and polish them like quartz crystals and i love damn near each and every one. 

but i’m so tired of it. i’m so, so tired.

the state of trans characters within dc is...truly disheartening.

[ede917]

I thought I would post all my lantern self inserts together and give a little backstory for each. They were inspired heavily by 'With This Ring' from sufficient velocity, meaning each of the si's are the same person split up and sent to different dc continuities.

First off is the Red Lantern. He shows up in Young Justice without a ring (the only one where this is the case) and is captured by Cadmus and used as a test subject for Blockbuster. He joins the young justice team but after the split by Klarion and the snowstorm caused by Vertigo ends up with a lot of kids dying, he finally loses it and is recruited by Dex-starr. He then goes on a rampage as his friends and former teammates try to stop him.

He was actually supposed to be a blue lantern when I first started this, losing hope and replacing it with a red ring, but when I started coming up with more lanterns I wanted each corps to be in it's own continuity. So blue lantern gets replaced with blockbuster.

Second is Orange Lantern. He ends up in the Justice League: Gods and Monsters movie and joins that version of the justice league. When the events of the movie occur he's the first to learn about the villains plan and decides to mind control him and high Jack it, using the world wide telepathic link to install himself as the God Emperor of Humanity. Eventually he would go on to conquer the Earths of other parallel universes which brings him into conflict with the other lantern si's.

This was originally supposed to be Yellow Lantern's continuity but I realized this movie had the best opportunity for Orange to actually win so they were switched.

(Original sketch was bothering me, I like this one more.)

Third is Yellow Lantern. He ends up in the Justice League Animated universe; unfortunately for him though, he appears on Apokolips. Darkseid enslaves him and forces him to be Kalibak's keeper for the evulz. The tattoo on his forehead burns him when he disobeys (or when they feel like it) and he gets his ass beat by new gods and superheroes alike. He's finally freed when Orange Lantern conquers his universe and makes Yellow his lieutenant.

As I said before, this was originally going to be Orange lantern's continuity. Yellow was going to be in Gods and Monsters; his status as a league member inspiring fear and his own fear of his teammates empowering his ring but I couldn't think where else to go with that. His fear of Darkseid on the other hand would work just as well with empowering him so I switched him with Orange.

In the middle we have Green Lantern in the Legion of Superheroes cartoon. I'll admit, his story isn't as flushed out as the others; so far all I have is that he was the only hero to survive the Great Crisis (since I don't read comics I'm just going to assume it was Darkseid's war on the universe) by hiding the Green Central Power Battery and going into stasis with it. He wakes up in the future and as the oldest and most experienced hero, he becomes the Grandmaster of the Legion of Superheroes.

Next we have Blue Lantern. Like Green, his story isn't very flushed out either. He is in the Justice Lesgue War movies universe. He teams up with John Constantine fighting demons, learning thaumatergy to make up for his Blue ring's lack of offensive options. That's what leads him to becoming an angel. I don't know how exactly yet. Like I said it hasn't been flushed out. As I write this though I'm thinking maybe he takes Gabriel's place after his fall.

After him we have Indigo Lantern. Wasn't happy with my first drawing of him so I did it again. He actually ends up in both the Injustice League video game and the Mortal Kombat game. He appears after the events of the first game and joins Batman's team of rookies with Blue Beetle and Firestorm. After beating Brainiac, he ends up in the Mortal Kombat universe just after the 9th game. He does humanitarian work on Outworld before being recruited by Khotal Khan to overthrow Mileena, at which point he's adopted by the Osh Tekk and becomes one of Khotal's trusted advisors.

(Finally got a sketch for this I half way like)

Finally we have Violet Lantern. Like I said in his first post, when I made the character I was under the false impression that only women could use Violet rings. So I made it that he was turned physically into a woman through mysterious circumstances. By the time I learned otherwise, I was too invested in the story to change it. He appears in the Teen Titans cartoon and as the token adult of the group assumes the role of team mom (I prefer the team mom trope over the team dad, regardless of gender). He gives advice and support when he needs to and his love for 'his kids' empowers his ring. When defending Raven from Slade and his army, he was very badly burned on his right side and thus required cybernetic replacements.

And that's all of them! I really had fun drawing these and I hope I will get around to writing their stories but I seriously doubt it.