The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1

One of Barbie’s neighbors, Hazel, comes to see her. Hazel needs advice because she thinks she’s pregnant, even though she’s in a lesbian relationship with another neighbor, Foxglove. She reveals she had sex with a waiter from work, and Barbie suggests getting a pregnancy test. After, Barbie falls asleep and begins to dream for the first time in years. In one of her dreams Nuala, the faerie who now lives in Dream’s castle, warns her that something very bad is going to happen. Later, she dreams about entering The Land again. Once everyone in the building is asleep, George cuts his chest open to reveal a rib cage full of birds. They fly to the dreamers. Wanda has a nightmare about forced surgery, Hazel dreams of dead and deformed babies, and Foxglove dreams of her abusive ex-girlfriend Judy, who died in the diner at the hand of John Dees and his use of Dream’s ruby in Issue 7. The only person in the building who doesn’t suffer from a nightmare is Thessaly, who wakes and kills the bird and sets it on fire in her hands before going to George’s apartment. Barbie meets with her old friends in the dreamworld, and they remind her of her destiny to save The Land. She tells them of Martin Tenbones’s death, and they are discouraged, but Princess Barbara is resigned to her destiny and tells them they should start their journey to defeat the Black Guard and The Cuckoo. 

Wanda, Hazel, and Foxglove awaken from their nightmares, and Thessaly comes to collect them. She tells them it’s Barbie she is mostly worried about, so they pound on Barbie’s door to no avail. Wanda has an extra key, so they let themselves in to find Barbie sleeping, unresponsive and clutching the Propentine. Thessaly warns them not to touch the Propentine because it may be the only thing keeping Barbie alive but to carry Barbie into George’s room and Thessaly will meet them all there as soon as she gathers some things from her room. She reveals that she’s killed George and no one else can leave. When they protest, Wando discovers that Thessaly has cast some sort of ward that physically prevents them from leaving. She removes George’s face, eyes, ears, and tongue to summon his spirit into. George tells them that The Cuckoo sent him and his birds to destroy the Propentine. He reveals that The Cuckoo is hiding in Barbie’s dream. Thessaly, Hazel, and Foxglove conduct a ritual to summon a three-faced moon goddess, and Thessaly orders the goddess to send her, Thessaly, and Fox into Barbie’s dream despite the goddess’s reluctance to interfere with Dream’s realm. Wanda is forced to stay behind because the path is only for women, and she’s transgender. She talks to Barbie in their absence even though Barbie is still sleeping, and then George’s spirit asks if they can talk.

Barbie and her friends Wilkinson, Prinado, and Luz make their way through a snowy landscape. They come across a dead messenger carrying an article about the cuckoo bird, explaining how it takes over nests of other birds. Then they take shelter under a ledge while The Cuckoo’s soldiers pass overhead. Elsewhere, Dream examines a map of Barbie’s dream world. In the dream land, Barbie and the others come to a forest as they share memories of their childhoods. Prinado goes missing. Barbie’s amulet leads them to a safe path and out of the woods. Once they reach the sea, Luz leaves them to go for reinforcements.

Back in the waking world, George explains to Wanda why she wasn’t taken into Barbie’s dream with the others and how calling down the moon the way Thessaly did is dangerous. He says that it wasn’t just a magical thing but also a physical one and that Wanda should watch the weather because of it.

Luz returns with The Cuckoo’s soldiers and reveals herself to have been a spy for The Cuckoo all along. The soldiers kill Wilkinson and take Barbie hostage. When they arrive at the Cuckoo’s citadel, Barbie realizes it’s her old house. 

Barbie wanders through her old family home and meets The Cuckoo, who appears as a younger version of herself. She explains how Barbie’s childhood was boring, so she made up an imaginary world and an imaginary self as a princess. Now that imaginary self is The Cuckoo, and she took over Barbie’s dreamworld. Now she wants to kill Barbie so she can exist in the waking world as well. In the waking world, Thessaly’s bringing down the moon has caused an enormous storm. Thessaly, Hazel, and Foxglove arrive in the dreamworld and come across Wilkinson’s body. Thessaly uses his blood to speak to his spirit and learn what happened to Barbie. Hazel and Foxglove discuss Hazel’s pregnancy.

The Cuckoo brings Barbie to the Hierogram, an old temple where the world can be destroyed. She reveals that she wants to explore other worlds. The women arrive and Thessaly kills Luz, thinking she’s The Cuckoo. The real Cuckoo forces Barbie to destroy her amulet and the Hierogram. Dream arrives and releases Barbie from The Cuckoo’s control. He states that he is there to honor an ancient compact, but this is not fully explained. He then absorbs the dream world and every creature in it until a woman he calls Alianora is the last being, and then he tells her it is over, and she disappears. Elsewhere, Wanda finds an elderly woman outside in the storm and brings her indoors. The storm builds until it brings their apartment crashing down.

Barbie looks back on her final moments in the dream world. Dream explains that he had a compact with Alianora, for whom he created the world. The first part of the pact has been fulfilled but because Alianora is long dead and now gone the other half of the pact now passes to Barbie. He tells Barbie she can ask him for one boon. She considers having the Cuckoo killed as well as having her dream world rebuilt. In the end she asks to have them all sent home safely. The Cuckoo flies away, and Dream admonishes Thessaly for her actions. Back in the waking world a little while later, Barbie prepares to attend Wanda’s funeral. She meets with Wanda’s aunt, who insists on calling Wanda by her deadname Alvin and referring to her as a man. Barbie tells her about waking up after the building collapse. After the ceremony, Barbie stays behind to talk to Wanda’s grave. She leaves a comic book of Wanda’s favorite hero behind and uses lipstick to write “Wanda” over her deadname on the gravestone. Then she rides to the bus stop with Wanda’s aunt and remembers seeing Wanda and Death in her dream.