The Sandman, Vol. 1 discussion

I've spoken about this on my rankings thread, but I wanted to address it in a different thread: it's my opinion that Preludes & Nocturnes is the worst volume of The Sandman. In fact I consider it to be quite a bit lower than any other volume. Most volumes I'd give either a 9 or a 10/10, but P&N is probably something like a 7/10 for me. However, "The Sound Of Her Wings" contributes to this ranking, and in my opinion it's the exact issue where the series hits its stride. Dream is shown thus far to be a cold and all-powerful God, but when put next to Death he's just a moping little brother, which adds another layer of humanity to him that he really needed. "24 Hours" is great as a horror comic, but it really feels out of place when compared to any other issue in the series. Take "Collectors" for contrast. Both focus on something terrifying and horrible. But "Collectors" focuses on a very Sandman-ish aspect of this horror, which is the intention and eerie humanity of the petty serial killers at the Cereal Convention. Each one is given detail and an almost casual self-prescribed definition. In "24 Hours", the characters exist mostly as either caricatures or horrendous and essentially unrelatable monsters: necrophiliacs, misogynists and wifebeaters, vicious homophobes. While I understand the appeal of this issue, it's still essentially a very well-told instance of an ex-JLA villain murdering a diner full of people. There's a fair amount of Early-Installment-Weirdness about the first 8 issues as well: Dream is less fleshed out than he is in any later issue, Lucifer seems to be less powerful than he is later, and worst of all the random and intruding appearances of DC characters which block out the unique voice of the series. The storyline in Hell is arguably the best part of the "Dream gets his stuff back" arc, since it doesn't include any intruding DC veterans. But Constantine, Martian Manhunter and Doctor Destiny all show up to throw Gaiman off his game, and it took the Doll's House arc for him to develop what eventually became the characteristic style of the series.