Issue(s): Sleepwalker #12
Cover Date: May 92
Title: "Dark dreams and darker schemes"
Credits:
Bob Budiansky - Writer
Joe Quesada - Finishes
Michael Bair & Jimmy Palmiotti - Inker
Tim Tuohy - Assistant Editor
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
Future Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada is doing guest breakdowns here. He had previously done work for Valiant and DC, and had been doing some covers and other sundries for Marvel, but i believe this is his first interior work for them.

This issue has Sleepwalker meeting Nightmare, which is a logical thing to do. The issue begins with Sleepwalker seemingly reacting very badly to people displaying the usual fear and distrust brought on by his presence.

But of course it's just a nightmare that Rick is having.

Rick is supposed to be painting a ceiling for his landlord, but since he's not been getting much rest he starts daydreaming (about Moon Knight?!).

And later, another dream at the park. Poor Rambo!

Sleepwalker similarly mangles Rick's love interest, Alyssa.

But of course it's all nightmares, caused by Nightmare, and eventually there's an actual confrontation. Note that Sleepwalker and his people are aware of Nightmare, who rules a "portion" of the mental plane.

It turns out that Nightmare has been trying to get Sleepwalker's attention. Nightmare doesn't like the Sleepwalkers, because they never sleep. And he doesn't like that Sleepwalker lives in Rick's mind, because Sleepwalker can protect it from Nightmare's manipulations. So he offers to send Sleepwalker home. He even gives Sleepwalker a scanner so that Sleepwalker can check that Nightmare doesn't torment Rick unduly once Sleepwalker leaves.

Nightmare is lying, but Sleepwalker fully anticipated that and doesn't really leave, and re-appears when Nightmare admits to himself in a monologue that he was lying.

And that's basically it. Sleepwalker tosses Nightmare around a bit and leaves. If you were hoping for any deeper insights on the Sleepwalkers and their relationship to Nightmare's plane or anything like that, you're going to be disappointed. And there's also nothing long term going on in this book. The biggest subplot is that Rick's landlord is mad at him for not getting his chores done in a timely manner. I guess it's partially a question of expectations; since Nightmare was advertised on the cover, i went into this hoping for a battle between Nightmare and Sleepwalker and some deeper understanding of the place of the Sleepwalkers in Marvel's cosmology. If i wasn't aware from the start that Nightmare was in this issue, the nightmares that Rick was having in the beginning of this story would have been the selling point, instead of just the build up to a confrontation that is over quickly and without consequence. But even accepting that, this is just a very simple book that feels like it is meandering.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A