Sandman Mystery Theater: The Face & the Brute (Book 2)

Rating:
Summary: SMT - It's about time it reached your bookshelf
Review: "And none can escape my dark dreams"

Matt Wagner's SMT, long overdue to receive a treatment in trade paper backs, finally gets its second volume out hopefully signaling that the rest of the series is on its way. Wesley Dodds is the Sandman, a masked crime-fighter in 1930's New York who lives up to his name by using a gas gun to terrorize criminals. Sandman's world is dark and gritty, and the one thing that always amazes me most about Wagner's work is the way he can convey truly horrifying acts; not by monsters or super-villains, but by everyday people. The last panel of issue 11 displays that more perfectly than I could ever describe. But don't be confused, as this book isn't about `deconstruction of the hero' as many books of the time were. It shows the world as a vile place, but its hero is the perfect counter to that. Wesley Dodds is soft-spoken and intelligent, and throughout the book there are reinforcements as to how he feels that despite it all, someone needs to go against the current. An example of this would be by the joining of the united Way by Dodds love interest, Dian Belmont. Dian is one of the strongest female characters I comics. She's caring and independent, and manages to avoid all the `helpless victim' stereotypes that wrap themselves around woman characters.

This collection features two tales, the Face and the Brute. In the first, a series of deaths set Chinatown down a path that may lead to a gang war, with Jimmy Shan, a former lover of Dian's, caught in the middle. The latter is the tale of a boxer and his daughter, on the run after turning over on a fixer who was running illegal fights. These books are brought to life by artists John Watkis and R.G. Taylor. Watkis is solid enough, but I prefer Taylor's look, which does a better job of capturing the gritty feel original series artist Guy Davis had.

Should you buy this book? Absolutely. Wesley Dodds is the type of character that you're not used to reading about, and the noir elements of this book are a welcome change in the superhero mythos. Sandman Mystery Theatre boasts a more dark, realistic viewpoint of the world, and its something we would be better off not ignoring.