What Should Comic Fans Expect From Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives?

The Sandman universe is about to get bigger. Season 2 of the dreamy Netflix fantasy series based on Neil Gaiman’s beloved comic book series is still in the works, but in the meantime, two side characters from the comic’s original run are set to take center stage in the streamer’s upcoming show Dead Boy Detectives. Ghost teens Edwin Paine (played by George Rexstrew in the new series) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) have been haunting the pages of comic books since 1991, when they were introduced during The Sandman’s Season of the Mists storyline. 

Back then, Edwin and Charles were introduced as two boys who were bullied to death at their British boarding school 76 years apart. Gaiman and Matt Wagner’s introduction is a bleak origin story of sorts, taking place in 1990 when Charles was still alive at St. Hilarion’s school, but was being relentlessly pursued by the ghosts of classmates – and teachers – past. Charles and Edwin meet in death, and decide to start a new life together as amateur, undead private eyes. In the decades since their literary introduction, the two partners and best pals have been reinvented by authors including Ed Brubaker, Jill Thompson, Toby Litt, and Pornsak Pichetshote, but a few details of their story remain the same across pretty much every version.

Early looks at Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives make it clear that the series (which is executive produced by Gaiman, with Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz co-showrunning) will continue taking Edwin and Charles’ story in offbeat new directions – all while paying homage to the comics that started their story. If you’re a fan of the Dead Boy Detectives already, don’t fret: the upcoming series seems poised to include plenty of familiar faces along with new adventures.

A Sandman Character Will Make An Appearance

In an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, Gaiman confirmed that the TV version of Dead Boy Detectives will feature at least one character fans of The Sandman already know well. “They will encounter a member of the Endless. But which one? Ah...you’ll need to watch it to find out,” Gaiman teased. The energetic first full-length trailer for the series offers an obvious answer to his question: Death. The character embodied so beautifully by Kirby Howell-Baptiste in The Sandman appears briefly in one shot of the preview, smiling at Charles and Edwin inside what seems to be their detective agency.

Death’s appearance here is no surprise, as the Dead Boy Detective comics often feature references to the boys’ attempts to elude her. When Charles died, Edwin’s unburied bones allowed him to appear, summoned back from 75 years spent wandering hell. Death came for Charles, then, but he refused to go with her since Edwin – who had already been sent to the afterlife once – wasn’t allowed to come with. Death was too busy to argue the point, and said she’d be back for them when things calmed down. Since then, she’s appeared briefly, including in Thompson’s manga adaptation of the series, but hasn’t caught the boys yet.

While Death is the most obvious connection point between Dead Boy Detectives and the Sandman universe, fan favorite character Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley in the live-action Sandman) also played a prominent role in the boys’ first major case. In a 2001 comic book miniseries by Ed Brubaker and Brian Talbot, the boys attempt to solve a string of runaway teens’ murders, only to end up in the middle of a showdown between Hob and an immortal serial killer. If Hob or any other Sandman universe characters make an appearance in the upcoming TV series, though, their cameos are well-hidden; Death is the only one at their doorstep in the first trailer.

The Dead Boy Detective Agency Has A New Mission Statement

Since the Dead Boy Detectives have been reimagined so many times over the past three decades, only a few elements of their story seem to be constant. They nearly always operate out of a treehouse, and learned most of their sleuthing skills from detective stories and old neo-noir movies. The pair typically tend to help living humans – often girls who Charles develops a crush on – solve mysteries, and they’re not always successful in their cases. In Thompson’s manga, the boys attempt to find a student’s missing roommate at a girls’ school in Chicago, while Litt’s version of the story sees the boys try to protect teen celebrity Crystal Palace from the ghouls of St. Hilarion’s.

In general, most Dead Boy Detective stories feature Edwin and Charles coming to the aid of the living, but the new series has a different mission statement. “We help ghosts resolve their mysteries. Ghosts who cannot let go,” one boy explains in voiceover in the trailer, while the other reiterates that they “help ghosts whose cases would go unsolved.” This is a pretty major departure from most of the comics, though it is in line with the most recent version, Pichetshote’s 2023 run. That story moves the action to LA, where traditional spirits from Thailand are appearing for mysterious reasons, but even then, the boys only end up there when following human Crystal.

Further adding to the new lore, the trailer features a line from Edwin explaining that their own deaths still remain unsolved. This is a minor detail in the comics, but seems to play a major part in the show, as the teens are apparently motivated to help other spirits find the closure they couldn’t as bullying victims who were (in some versions of the story) subjected to human sacrifice.

A Key Character Comes Straight From Doom Patrol

The new series may have some updates to the Dead Boy Detectives mythology, but it keeps an important piece of Edwin’s backstory the same. As Charles puts it in the trailer: “He spent a bunch of decades in hell.” Gaiman’s unsettling and unique vision of hell has endured through every version of the story to date, and features a blank, endless, twisting corridor that Edwin is forced to walk forever. There, the boy can feel a monstrous presence behind him, but knows that if he runs, it’ll catch him. Essentially, Edwin spent 75 years fast-walking around an empty office being chased by a menacing, unseen stranger.

While we don’t know what the adaptation’s hell will look like, we do know that the show includes a character who’s desperate to take Edwin back to it. Night Nurse (Ruth Connell) was initially introduced in the season 3 episode of Max’s Doom Patrol titled “Dead Patrol.” The episode featured Charles and Edwin (then played by Sebastian Croft and Ty Tennant), but it also created a villain comics readers hadn’t met before – Death’s assistant, Night Nurse. According to Tudum, Connell will make the leap from Max to Netflix (this show was initially meant to stream over there), reprising her role as the strict demon who works overtime to help Death send the dead and dying into the afterlife.

Even if you think you’ve read all the Dead Boy Detectives comics out there, it’s worth checking out the pair’s Doom Patrol detour, as the episode could contain hints to where the story may go next. Aside from introducing Night Nurse, the episode also makes it clear that Edwin – or at least that show’s version of him – has a crush on Charles. Pichetshote’s comic arc was the first to hint heavily that the 20th-century teen has feelings for his best friend, but it should come as no surprise to longtime readers, as Edwin has long-since been jealous of Charles’ own crushes.

A New Version of Crystal Palace Gets in on the Fun

Crystal Palace is one of the weirder characters in the Dead Boy Detectives back catalog, but also one of the best. In Litt’s 12-issue comic run from 2014, Crystal is the teen daughter of world-famous avant-garde artists who vacillate between neglecting her, doting upon her, and roping her into their latest controversial stunt. Crystal has a rich and bizarre backstory including a best friend who was killed on a roller coaster, a roommate who lives in a video game, and a love of cosplay. In later issues of Litt’s run, she ends up helping Edwin and Charles as an unofficial (and decidedly alive) third partner in their detective agency.

According to official character biographies, the live action series’ version of Crystal Palace (played by Kassius Nelson) sounds like she’s been revamped. This time around, Edwin and Charles save Crystal – a medium with memory problems – from possession, after which she joins them on their quest to help solve supernatural mysteries. She’s also got a demon ex-boyfriend (David Iacono) and a supernaturally attuned roommate (Yuyu Kitamura).

Plenty of Other Details Seem to be Pulled Straight from the Comics

Despite the already-apparent major changes from page to screen, Dead Boy Detectives is set to include several other references to the comic series that inspired it. Michael Beach will appear in the series as Tragic Mick, a magic shop owner who holds unique knowledge of the afterlife in Litt’s arc. Essentially a hybrid mix of man and walrus, Tragic Mick is a useful ally who’s not always hyped to help.

Other members of the ensemble described in Netflix press materials call to mind characters from the Dead Boy Detective comics too. Among them are Lukas Gage’s Cat King (Litt’s run features a philosopher who gets turned into two ghost cats) and the mysterious witch Esther (Jenna Lyons). Hopefully, the latter will be more like the good witch Mad Hettie (from Brubaker’s run) than the power-hungry villain Thessaly (a Sandman character who appears in Pichetshote’s arc). If she does turn out to be the show’s big bad, though, these dead boys with over a century’s worth of ghostly experience between them will no doubt be able to handle her.

New and old Sandman fans alike will meet the Dead Boy Detectives and their friends when the series premieres on Netflix on April 25.