Death (DC Comics)

Death is a fictional character from the DC comic book series, The Sandman (1988 - 1996). She was created by Sandman writer Neil Gaiman and given visual life by illustrators Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III. Like most anthropomorphic personifications of death, Death meets with the recently deceased and guides them into their new existence. Unlike most personifications of death, she also visits people as they are born, according to Destruction in the "Sandman Special". Evidently, only she seems to remember these encounters. In the special issue, it is also revealed that Death was known in ancient Greece as Teleute. Also, Death is a complete opposite of the traditional English culture personification of death (see Grim Reaper). In The Sandman, Death instead appears as an attractive, pale young woman dressed in casual clothes - often a black top and jeans. She also wears a silver ankh on a chain around her neck, and has a marking similar to the eye of Horus around her right eye. She is pleasant, down-to-earth, and perky, and has been a nurturing figure for both incarnations of Dream. This strange paradox has helped make Death one of the most popular characters from Sandman. Death is the second eldest of the Endless, a family of anthropomorphic beings. Death is possibly the most powerful of the Endless having been shown (in a flashback in Brief Lives) to be virtually omniscient and being able to intimidate the Furies, who show no fear of the other Endless, simply by raising her voice (in the Kindly Ones) The witch Thessaly mentions that Death is the only one of the Endless who is bound by no rules.(in the Kindly Ones) Death's realm is not portrayed in detail in the series, except for a brief scene in her 'house' in the Sandman Special, Song of Orpheus, and later in The Books of Magic series. This is where she keeps her floppy hat collection, her goldfish Slim and Wandsworth and possibly her gallery. A brief glimpse of her realm can also be seen in the first issue of The Wake, where a messenger visits her as she walks in open grasslands. One day every century, Death lives (and dies) as a mortal, in order to understand the value of the life she takes.

Appearances

Death first appeared in the final chapter of Sandman’s first story arc Preludes and Nocturnes, "The Sound of Her Wings", (issue #8) where she gave Dream direction and a degree of understanding. Death instantly became very popular to readers and she appears at least briefly in each of the nine subsequent story arcs. However, Gaiman attempted to entice and tease readers by rationing-out the number of appearances from Dream’s family so Death did not appear as frequently as one might expect for such a popular character. At the end of the ninth Sandman story arc The Kindly Ones, there is a lengthy and noteworthy appearance from Death, in which she finally brings her brother peace. Death has also been featured in two limited series, Death: The High Cost of Living (1993), and Death: The Time of Your Life (1996). Both were written by Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Bachalo and dealt with Death’s encounters with various mortals. The 2003 manga-style graphic novel Death At Death's Door portrayed Death’s activities during the fourth Sandman story arc Season of Mists. It was written and illustrated by Jill Thompson and may be part of a series. Death has also made occasional appearances in other DC comic books. Keith Giffen used the character in several mainline DC stories, including Ambush Bug Nothing Special #1, a brief cameo in Lobo's Back #3, in which she slaps Lobo for getting fresh with her, and she comes to take Superboy in the retconned-out Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 4, #38. A one shot titled A Death Gallery features representations of Death by more than thirty comics artists, including a rough sketch by Gaiman himself. In Endless Nights (2003) Gaiman shows Death several billion years ago, with a markedly different personality — forbidding and joyless. She also appears in The Books of Magic (first volume, 1991, also written by Gaiman) at the very end of time, where her function is to set things in order and close the universe up. John Ney Rieber included her in The Books of Magic (vol. 2 #3-4), in which she lets Timothy Hunter hang out at her house and hold her teddy bear, Cavendish, while he is recovering from the venom of the Manticore. Hunter later encounters Death walking in the rain and squishing barefoot in mud in The Books of Magic #25. In Hellblazer #120, Death appears briefly in a pub filled with ghosts. Death also appears in a poster in Sam Keith's The Maxx comic and MTV adaptation. Keith, the first artist for the series, admitted that he felt as if he didn't fit in with the work and may possibly have left with some resentment, as in the The Maxx comic, a character states that "death is hard, and cold. Not some cute chick." In the giveaway Death Talks About Life by Gaiman and McKean, Death places a condom on a banana held by John Constantine. When she is through with the demonstration, she eats the banana. This was distributed in high school health classes and is reprinted in the back pages of The High Cost of Living trade paperback. Death made an appearance in the Marvel Universe, at the wedding of Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler in an issue of The Incredible Hulk (handing Rick a hair brush, the joke being Rick's constant 'brushes with death'). However, this was probably only the Death of the Marvel Universe assuming a form more appropriate for the occasion, rather than an actual appearance by the DC version. Likewise, she and Dream appeared in a recent issue of New Avengers, lamenting the sell of Doctor Strange's home.

Character design

According to Gaiman, the initial visual design of Death was based on a friend of Dringenberg's named Cinnamon [1]. From The Sandman Companion:

Gaiman: "Death is the only major character whose visuals didn't spring from me; that credit goes to Mike Dringenberg. In my original Sandman outline, I suggested Death look like rock star Nico in 1968, with the perfect cheekbones and perfect face she has on the cover of her Chelsea Girl album.

"But Mike Dringenberg had his own ideas, so he sent me a drawing based on a woman he knew named Cinnamon — the drawing that was later printed in Sandman 11 — and I looked at it and had the immediate reaction of, "Wow. That's really cool." Later that day, Dave McKean and I went to dinner in Chelsea at the My Old Dutch Pancake House and the waitress who served us was a kind of vision. She was American, had long black hair, was dressed entirely in black — black jeans, T-shirt, etc. — and wore a big silver ankh on a silver necklace. And she looked exactly like Mike Dringenberg's drawing of Death."

McKean also used a series of professional English models for representations of Death on covers of Sandman. [2][3] Despite some rumors, Death is not based on Gaiman's friend Tori Amos. Rather, Delirium is. ^[1]

Earlier representations of Death in the DC Universe

Other personifications of Death have appeared in the DC Universe. These altering physical appearances may be rationalized as being completely different characters with an unknown relation (or lack thereof) to the overall Death shown in the Sandman series, or may be explained by a sequence at the beginning of the Sandman series. In the sequence where Morpheus is searching for his objects of power, he appears at Martian Manhunter's door, and for a frame we see him as Martian Manhunter sees him: it's nothing like humans see him. This could indicate that the physical appearance of the Endless (the appearance of Dream, at the very least) is subject to the mind of the person doing the observing. Many references are made throughout Death and the Sandman series which indicate that perception of the form of the Endless is subjective, not objective. In Captain Atom #42 (also by Giffen) Death appears alongside Black Racer of the New Gods and Nekron (a "god of death" from Green Lantern). The story stated that all three were equal, representing different aspects of death. Gaiman has refuted this, however, and his stories make it clear that Death of the Endless is the ultimate personification of Death. It might be assumed, however, Nekron, the Racer, and the Black Flash are connected to her in some way. A more traditional version of Death, a skeleton in a bluish or purplish cloak, appeared as host in such DC titles such as Weird Mystery Tales, House of Secrets, Ghosts, Weird War Tales (including being in the story in issue #94), DC Comics Presents #29, Justice League of America Annual #1, etc. How this pre-Crisis Death relates to Gaiman's Death, if at all, is unclear, although her older brother Destiny appeared with the character, and both Deaths have appeared with incarnations of Superman. Superman referred to the earlier Death with the term "Grim Reaper", so perhaps that could be regarded as a distinct character.^[2] In Swamp Thing vol. 2, #6, The Phantom Stranger met Death in the form of a middle-aged gentleman, possibly inspired by Death Takes a Holiday. In the story, a young woman, Margaret "Maggie" Brennan, had what should have been a minor head injury and at one glimpse of Death chose to become Death's bride. As someone newly-dead herself, she taught Death that he needs to show compassion for the newly-dead to allay their fears. He takes her advice and they both serve as aspects of Death. This version of Death was created by Mike W. Barr and Dan Spiegle. Maggie is blonde and bears only minor physical resemblance to Gaiman and Dringenberg's version, though her compassionate nature is a similarity.

References

• Bender, Hy (1999), The Sandman Companion, New York: Vertigo DC Comics, ISBN 1563896443

See also

• The Endless
• Characters of The Sandman
• Books of Magic