DEATH

Real Name: Death

Class: Endless

Occupation: Personification of death

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Delirium (sister), Desire (brother/sister), Despair I (sister, deceased), Despair II (sister), Destiny (brother), Destruction (brother), Dream I (brother), Dream II (brother), Orpheus (nephew, deceased), Miranda Walker (niece), Rose Walker (grandniece)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Death's realm

First Appearance: Sandman II #8 (August, 1989)

Powers: Death was ageless and virtually immortal. She had god-like powers and it was her duty to take mortals from life and into the afterlife. 

History: (Sandman II #20 (fb, BTS) - Death of the Endless came into existence shortly after the first lifeforms appeared in the universe. She would function as the embodiment of death until the very last living thing died. After that she was destined to put the universe to rest.

(Sandman II #55) - <80,000 years ago> After Despair was murdered Death and the Endless went to the necropolis to put her body to rest. The necropolitans had long lost their passion for their job, and didn’t know about the necropolis’ arrangement with the Endless, so they laughed at them when they asked for Despair’s cerements and the book of rituals. The Endless revoked the necropolis’ charter, causing it to be destroyed. The village of Litharge was granted a charter by the Endless and became the new necropolis.

(Sandman II #47 (fb)) - <1695> Destruction called a family meeting of the Endless, and announced to Death and the rest of his family that he was abandoning his duties as one of the Endless and taking his leave of them for good.

(Sandman II #31) - <September, 1859> Dream made a bet with Despair that the power of dreams could save Joshua Norton from despair. He gave Joshua the dream of becoming Norton I, emperor of the United States. Death met with Dream and told him she had her doubts about what he was doing, especially since the elder members of the Endless usually avoided the games Despair, Desire and Delirium engaged in.

(Sandman II #31) - <January, 1880> Emperoro Norton I died, and Death took him. She told him that she had taken every king, emperor and ruler in history into the afterlife, and of all those she’d met Norton was by far her favorite.

(Sandman II #47 (fb)) - Death spent one day of the century as a mortal, as was her custom. She took the form of a peasant girl and spent the day by the Yangtze River with a young ox driver who told her his grand schemes and plans.

(Sandman II #8) - Death met up with her brother Dream and yelled at him for not getting a hold of her earlier after he’d been released from decades of imprisonment. She told him to stop moping just because he felt purposeless after finishing a quest to retrieve his helm, pouch and dreamstone. Death had him accompany her while she went about her work and cheered him up a good deal.

(Sandman II #20) – Death heard Element Girl crying and walked into her apartment to talk to her. Element Girl hated her life as a metamorph, and asked Death to take her. Death told her she couldn’t but since Ra made the metamorphs she advised Element Girl to speak to him, to speak to the sun, and kindly ask him for an end. Element Girl took Death’s advice, and Ra took her life. Death wished Element Girl better luck in her next life.

(Sandman II #21) - Destiny called a gathering of the Endless, telling them a meeting with the Fates made him aware that he had to call the family gathering to set in motion a chain of events that would cause change and upheaval. During the course of conversation Desire got under Dream’s skin by reminding him of Nada. Dream was indignant, but Death said she agreed with Desire, sending his lover to Hell for spurning him was an awful thing to do. Dream vowed to make amends by journeying to Hell and saving Nada’s soul.

(Sandman II #24) - Dream asked for Death’s advice on what he should do with Hell. She was confident he’d figure things out, and couldn’t stay to chat because she was very busy containing all the souls Lucifer freed from Hell when he abdicated his realm.

(Sandman II #25) - Death came to take Charles Rowland into the afterlife, but his spirit wouldn’t abandon his friend Edwin Paine. Death explained that Paine was already a ghost, one of the souls released from Hell when Lucifer retired. Rowland refused to leave his friend, so Death, who was already completely overworked, allowed Rowland to remain on Earth as a ghost.

(Sandman II #37) - Death took Wanda, who was killed when the witch woman Thessaly brought the moon down to the Earth. Before they left for the afterlife she let Wanda wave goodbye to her good friend Barbie.

(Lobo’s Back #3) - Lobo was killed by Loo, and he tried to get frisky with Death as she sent his soul on the way to the afterlife, but she was having none of it.

(Sandman II #43) - Death took Bernie Capax, one of Destruction’s old friends. When Destruction left the Endless he set up a safeguard that would make it difficult for his family to track him down, and it caused the deaths of several of his friends when Dream and Delirium sought him out.

(Sandman II #46) - Dream called Death to the Dreaming for advice after he ended his search for Destruction. Death was angry with him because when Dream refused to continue seeking Destruction he was harsh with Delirium, and as a result she closed off her realm. Death told him she was worried Delirium might leave the Endless like Destruction did, and she advised he apologize to her for being so rude.

(Sandman II #54) - On a parallel Earth Death took Prez into the afterlife. Death didn’t like the fact that in that world’s afterlife Prez would be in the hands of Boss Smiley, so she told Dream of her interest in Prez and asked him to save Prez from Smiley.

(Sandman II #68, 69) - Death met Dream and correctly guessed that he’d let things go so far in his battle agains the Kindly Ones because he wanted to leave his role as Dream of the Endless, but couldn’t abandon his post like Destruction did. The Kindly Ones arrived and Dream allowed them to destroy him in order to save the Dreaming, and Death took Dream.

Comments: Created by Neil Gaiman, Mike Drigenberg & Malcolm Jones III

Death received a profile in Who’s Who in the DC Universe #8.

There were pin-ups of Death in Sandman II #50, The Endless Gallery #1, Sandman: A Gallery of Dreams #1 and Vertigo Gallery: Dreams and Nightmares #1.

Sandman II #63 showed a statue of Death in Destiny’s garden.

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