In Vertigo’s The Sandman we were introduced to the concept of The Endless. Seven concepts and aspects of life all named with the letter D. Those seven being, Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium formerly known as Delight. These seven beings have their own distinct personalities closely based on what concept they are. Some of which are more expressive and emotive in the own regards. As well as all this power, they are eternal and can never be destroyed, the body may be gone but the aspect remains as a new person. With each of the beings distinct and entities and having complex interpersonal relationships, however, some of them are just better than others, character-wise.
The Endless are very complicated but are still some of the best characters in all of comics and what better way to review them, by ranking them. And just a note, while there are seven Endless, one character has two entities so we’re ranking them separately, upping the number to eight.
8) Despair
At the bottom of our ranking we have Despair. The twin sister of Desire, Despair lives in a realm just behind every mirror. She has been hinted to have been the second Despair but outside of that, this is the most we ever get to know of her. She’s usually just there in the background when the rest of the Endless are together just making everyone feel sorrowful around her.
While always portrayed as rather homely and gross, she’s easy to put in this spot. Being half the pair with Desire, Despair doesn’t have a lot of thoughts of her own and usually follows Desire around. Despair doesn’t add much to the overall story except for staying around in my nightmares.
7) Destiny
The eldest sibling of the Endless we have Destiny. He usually roams around his domain with his book chained to his body waiting for events to happen. He stays around his realm, rarely leaving due to tending to Destiny. He is described as the beginning and the end of the universe and will be the one to shut the book on the universe when it comes time.
In the overall narrative of the series, he doesn’t do too much outside of saying cryptic warnings and reminding that he cannot change anything he controls. What gives him the edge over Despair is he isn’t hard to look at but doesn’t mean he’s the most interesting either.
6) Dream (Daniel Hall)
Here we have the second person to take up the mantle of Dream, Daniel Hall. We meet Daniel early on in the the series and watch him become Dream in real time with the series. He becomes Dream towards the end of the series so that’s why he’s as low as he is here. We saw him for a total of six issues in the original book. That being said, the possibilities were there and he did seem different from the original Dream as well.
Several years later he would return in small crossovers with the mainline DC universe and lead solo continuations of The Sandman. Leading the series called The Dreaming, named for the realm he resides in, we see what’s become of him as he became Dream and how he feels about it. There is plenty to explore with him in the future.
5) Destruction
Destruction is the most different from him name out of the Endless. After centuries of Destruction being held responsible for, well, destruction, Destruction left his post to explore the other side of his role with creativity. Now known as the Prodigal he explores around the world seeing what it has to offer, almost as a way to absolve for everything he’s caused, trading that life for one of art and cooking.
For most of the series there was a massive question over what he would be like due to his name. What makes him so fascinating and so high on this list is that we find out he traded everything he was set up as for the opposite and it makes for one of the coolest aspects of the whole series.
4) Delirium
The loopiest and youngest member of the Endless is Delirium. She was formerly known as Delight and portrayed those feelings but something changed her to be Delirium. Showing her as not always being attentive and moving in many thoughts at once, she has the most personality of the bunch. Additionally, despite her “loopy” presentation, Delirium has shown in incredible moments that she can contain herself again and focus.
Delirium carries the most feelings out of the bunch and feels more human than the rest of the Endless. Wanting to see Destruction again, she calls upon Dream for his help. Those three have one of the most touching story arcs known as “Brief Lives.” She’s just such an interesting and moving character, making her one of the best.
3) Desire
Desire is the “evil one” of the Endless and they are the other twin with Despair. They’re based off the image of a Patrick Nagel painting and egg people on to follow what they want to do. Desire often pulls the strings of storylines throughout the series. Desire always puts themself as the biggest care they have and is always causing a stir for the rest of their siblings.
Despite being the most villainous of the bunch, Desire isn’t one-note. They do care for their siblings in some way or another. Always being a bit more mysterious than their siblings, Desire has a large presence throughout the series and still causes chaos in the spin offs to this day.
2) Dream (Morpheus)
In our second spot we have the original Dream. The main character of the series and our often-conflicted protagonist is the dream lord and controls people’s dreams. With his realm known as the Dreaming, he controls the land where people get their dreams from and the aspects that come with it. Having a vast library book of every book ever written and those never written, he leads the series greatly.
Alas, as crucial as he is to his own book, his attitude is his greatest downfall. In his younger days he was brash and inconsiderate of the rest of his family and led to many harsh decisions. Some of which cost him greatly, but it shows the signs of a conflicting character and when Daniel took over being Dream you could see he learned how to act as opposed to the original. However, while Dream is an amazing character, there’s one other who has him beat.
1) Death
The fan favorite of the series, Death is the best member of the Endless and it’s not even close. Being the fun older sister everyone has or wishes they had, Death is the most compassionate of the Endless. She claims people’s souls every day to move them to the next realm but doesn’t do it with a personal motive. She does it because it’s her job and to show people how impactful life can be and you get to do with it what you want.
Being one of the most positive depictions of the Grim Reaper in fiction, she soothes each person she claims the soul of and treats them all with the proper respect. She will even intervene if necessary to stop those wanting to end their lives before their time is up. She cares for everyone truly and contradicts what you’d imagine she would be like as a character. We didn’t see a ton of her but she always stood out and that’s what makes her special. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Which member of The Endless is your favorite? Let us know down in the comments.
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