Brief Lives begins to explain what happened to Dream’s brother Destruction, and why his absence has had such impact on the Endless. Previous volumes have demonstrated the highly dysfunctional family dynamic between the Endless, and in Brief Lives Delirium asserts that it all went wrong when Destruction left and she wants to find him again to set things right. She petitions all of her brothers and sisters to aid her in her quest, but they all turn her down except Dream, who agrees to go with her because he is nursing a broken heart (which translate to an endless climate of rain in the Dream realm, to the irritation of the Dream realm’s inhabitants). At first Dream goes with Delirium with no intention of really finding Destruction, but events conspire (or are helped along with a healthy conspiracy) to make it imperative to actually find Destruction. Talking about what happens at the end would spoil it, so all I’ll say is that they have reverberating consequences for Dream, and Delirium gets to kick a little ass to the surprise of her siblings.
Sandman, vol. 7: Brief Lives
ISBN: 9781563891380
By Neil Gaiman
Art by Jill Thompson, Vince Locke
DC Comics/Vertigo 1995
