10 Great Comics You Didn't Understand The First Time
3. Sandman
It's almost unfair to include Neil Gaiman's lauded Sandman series on this list because someone could read through it a dozen times and still not understand half of it. The surreal tale of Dream of the Endless (who is not the embodiment of dreams or the god of dreams but is literally the corporeal form of the concept of dreams) who, coming out of a seventy-year imprisonment, must reform his kingdom after it fell apart in his absence.
The epic narrative featured a blend of mythological and literary figures, wildly creative characters and art, and even sporadic appearances from DC comics characters. But the central story focusing on Dream and his interactions with the waking realm is more about Dream learning to accept change as opposed to rigidly conforming to his previous machinations. Most readers will pick up on this eventually, but what really takes some close reading is that he is specifically preparing himself and the readers to accept one change in particular: the change from life to death.
Death is not only a regular character in Sandman, but is Dream's older sister. And her presence in the series as a friendly, familiar face, along with Dream revisiting his frequent encounters with her as he loses his friends and family to her inevitability, is a gentle but constant reminder to Dream that the biggest change will happen whether he's ready for it or not.