Sleepless #7 Review

Writer: Sarah Vaughn / Artists: Leila Del Duca, Alissa Sallah/ Image Comics Sleepless returns to us with a time skip of a year or so since the events of Issue #6. Remember Cyrenic, the wondrous sleepless knight, has fallen into a slumber leaving Poppy unprotected. Worst timing is the worst, as the two were in the midst of trying to be one step ahead of who ever was plotting to take Poppy’s life. Both are desperate to survive the delicate and deadly dance of court life. Life goes on… This issue welcomes us with the familiar image of Poppy at her father’s tomb. There is a closeup of the eyes of his tomb marker and hers as well. It’s a hauntingly beautiful way to reintroduce us to the subtle storytelling the creative team employs to give us the deeper meanings present in this work. We first met our heroine with her knight, a member of an order who vow to not slumber. The Sleepless uphold oaths that prevent them from aging in return for service lasting decades. Yet the implicit meaning of this book is about anyone who strives to always be vigilant, perhaps on the edge of constant anxiety. That kind of hyper-vigilance can lead to weakness that spells your end. This is what our main characters our princess and the knight of hers, seem to be attempting, and failing at.

We catch up to what Poppy has been doing: she’s switched up her routine. She does not just visit her father’s tomb but now we see her visiting another body, another man dead to the world but not quite dead: CYRENIC…