The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1

Two men walk through a vast desert. As a coming-of-age rite for the younger, the elder tells the young man to search for something—he’ll know what it is when he finds it—and when the young man finds it and brings it back the elder will tell him a story about a city that once stood there. The young man finds a large heart-shaped crystal buried in the sand and brings it back to hear the story. The city’s queen, Nada, fell in love with Dream, not realizing who he was. Once she was able to find him, she learned the truth and fled in terror. Dream went after her and proclaimed his love for her in return; he asked her to rule the dream world by his side. However, Nada told him his kind and mortals are not meant to be together. Dream continued to pursue her, and they spent the night together. By morning, her city had been destroyed as punishment for upsetting the natural order. Nada killed herself to protect the world from more harm. The two men finish the story and leave the desert.

Desire and Despair discuss a new dream vortex in the form of a woman. Elsewhere, Rose Walker and her mother Miranda Walker fly to England. They meet a solicitor who brings them to the home of Unity Kincaid—a woman who was caught in eternal slumber while Dream was imprisoned and first revealed in Issue #1. Rose falls asleep. In the dreamworld, Dream learns that several dream entities have gone missing: Brute and Glob, Fiddler’s Green, and a nightmare known as the Corinthian. Dream and his librarian Lucien discuss the dream vortex and examine Rose through her dream.

Unity reveals that Miranda is the daughter she had while still suffering from the dream sickness and who was put up for adoption. Rose in her granddaughter. Rose steps out and meets the three fates. They warn her against dreams and the Corinthian. As the situation is revealed to Rose, Dream is listening.

Rose moves into a new house share run by a crossdressing landlord, Hal. Rose tells Hal she’s tracking down her lost brother Jed. She writes a letter to her mother. Elsewhere, Jed is imprisoned in a basement and is escaping into his dreams. Dream keeps an eye on Rose through his raven Matthew, believing the lost dream entities will cross paths with her.

Rose meets her upstairs housemate, Gilbert, after he rescues her from a gang of street thugs. After Rose receives a call about her brother’s whereabouts, Gilbert accompanies her to find him. Dream has also found Rose’s brother and discovers two of the lost entities Brute and Glob living in Jed’s mind. Meanwhile, the Corinthian tortures and murders two boys in a hotel room, taking their eyes and eating them, as is his “signature,” and arranges to go to a special event.

Jed is let out of the basement briefly, and it is revealed that his foster parents receive money every month to care for him. A few years prior, Jed ran away, and he’s been locked in the basement ever since. In Jed’s dream world Brute and Glob, along with a hero named Hector Hall and his pregnant wife Lyta, are living a peaceful, hidden existence. Brute and Glob have manipulated Hector to believe he is the Sandman and plan to use him to create their own Dreaming. Hector sees Dream as he is on his way to the pocket universe in Jed’s mind and thinks it’s a nightmare that must be defeated. Hector goes to fight Dream, leaving Lyta behind. Dream finds his way into Jed’s mind while Brute and Glob consider their next move.

In the waking world, Jed is frightened because something is happening in his head, but he is not sure what it is. He begs to be let out of his confinement in the basement. Elsewhere, Rose and Gilbert check into a motel in their search for Jed. The motel is hosting a “cereal convention,” but the check-in register has nothing but strange names, such as “The Candyman” and “The California Widow.” The Corinthian is also on the hotel’s register. Nearby, the Corinthian gets into a fight with two thugs.

Dream confronts Hector and learns that Brute and Glob convinced him he was the Sandman. Dream breaks apart the dream and confronts Brute and Glob in Jed’s basement They tell him they took a dead hero and made him into the Sandman to protect their own dream kingdom while Dream was imprisoned. Dream sends them away and sends Hector back to the land of the dead, leaving Lyta alone. Lyta is angry and confused and tries to attack Dream with her superpowers (Lyta is short for Hippolyta, and in deep DC Comics lore she is the daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor and has powers similar to Wonder Woman. In Sandman, she sees herself briefly in the mirror as her alter-ego The Fury, revealing the source of the powers she attempts to use against Dream.) Instead, Dream resists her, and she tells Dream that he has ruined her life by killing her husband and destroying her home. He tells her that her unborn child belongs to him, and he will return for it one day, though Lyta is still angry and insists that she will not let him take her child. Jed escapes his confinement through the destruction Lyta caused with her attack on Dream and hitches a ride with the Corinthian.

Sometime in the 14th century, Dream and Death walk into a tavern and listen to men argue. One man announces that he plans never to die. Unknown to him, Death agrees to his wish, and Dream tells the man, Hob Gadling, he will meet him in that very spot in 100 years’ time. Dream and Hob continue to meet every century in the same place, watching history take shape around them. Hob often asks who or what Dream is, but he is only ever told that Dream is interested in hearing about Hob’s experiences and whether he still wishes to live. Despite one century of terrible luck in the 1600s, Hob continues to want to live. Over the centuries, Dream meets William Shakespeare and John Constantine’s ancestor Johanna in the tavern. In the 1800s, Hob suggests that Dream meets with him because he’s lonely and wants a friend. Dream takes offense and storms off; however, they meet again in 1989, and Dream admits to being friends.

The “cereal convention” assembles, which is really an expo for serial killers. The organizer, Nimrod, learns that Rose and Gilbert are still staying at the hotel. The Corinthian arrives and becomes the guest of honor. Gilbert recognizes the Corinthian and gives Rose Dream’s true name, Morpheus, to call in case of emergency. At the convention, one of the attendees is revealed to be an imposter and is killed by the Corinthian while others attend discussion panels. One of the serial killers breaks into Rose’s room, and she calls on Dream, who arrives and puts the man to sleep. Rose leaves, and Dream confronts the Corinthian, unmaking him and cursing the other killers. Gilbert finds Jed unconscious in the trunk of the Corinthian’s car.