It's both odd and poetic to realize the town nicknamed the Dream Factory almost became the place that buried The Dreaming. But this is an aspect of the lore attached to "The Sandman," Neil Gaiman's lyrical masterpiece: it spent years trapped in the agonizing plane know as Development Hell.
If you know the story, it's easy to see why that's happened. "The Sandman" lacks a supervillain to rally the audience against, a necessary component in every superhero that's been cranked out since Christopher Reeves played Superman. If that 1978 movie established what theatrical adaptations of comic books are supposed to look and feel like, Gaiman's Master of Dreams never stood a chance.
