Honestly, I was pretty confused on seeing Sandman comics in the Week 13 recommendations besides Watchmen and Ark Asylum. I had only heard about the Sandman comics and had a vague idea of its concepts, so I wasn't sure how it could fit into the superhero genre. Still, it was published by DC Comics and I'd been recommended it a few time so I gave it a shot.
Specifically, I read Vol. 5 "A Game of You" which was, at first, pretty confusing still. I got warmed up to it though as the story progressed, and was surprised that the story featured lesbians and a transgender character right off the bat in the 1980's New York. The main protagonist, Barbie, was also fairly unusual to be the main character as she was a divorced woman with (as far as I interpreted) no supernatural abilities other than her connection to a specific dream world that begins to bleed into reality. Overall, I found the format and characters to be very intriguing even though it was hard to discern contextual history about Sandman (Morpheus, the Dream King, all that jazz) and I was really only able to follow this specific story arc. What I also found intriguing was that there was no true heroic victory in the end. Instead of the usually bang of a superhero comic ending, it was more of a whimper that mourned the death of Wanda (the only transgender character who I thought had no reason to be killed off in the first place) and left the main character in a situation that was not optimistic or proud. I could definitely see how darker fantasy storylines could begin to shape how stories are told, and instead of always allowing the "hero" of the tale to have their victories, it felt more realistic to the world to showcase what can be the consequences of supernatural or fantastical events.
As for Black Panther, I was also very surprised by the current story (as of 2016) and hadn't had much exposure to the story outside of the film and very brief comic readings. It also shares similarities to how Sandman seems to portray a hero who is not victorious or always within the right. Instead, it portrays a king, T'Challa, who struggles to reclaim his identity as a hero and provide for a country that feels betrayed by him. He is full of guilt, remorse, and is also very lost in his sense of heroism, and while he goes through the motions in trying to do what he believes is right, he is confronted by his own people who are full of conflict but are trying to manage their lives without entirely relying on him to solve their problems. As much as I enjoy the Black Panther film and how the story was handled, I definitely appreciate the more somber gravity that helps the comic orbit around the universe of Marvel.
These comics, with all their differences, showcase the evolution of a hero that can't always win and overcome so easily, and that the world is no longer black in white in morality. Heroes are not always heroic, and villains can have good intentions. The lines blurring between good and evil adds so much more realism for readers because our lives don't always have a clear victory or happy ending. We can't always resolve all the problems of our lives, but the heroism is redefined in both seeing characters try to resolve them, and us continuing to live our lives as best we can just as heroes keep fighting to do what they believe in. After all, that's really all we can do.
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