Destiny is not a matter of choice; but a matter of chance
The tale begins within a standard America diner. A collection of characters fill the restaurant including Bette (a waitress who writes stories about each of her customers), Marsh (a former milkman who was placed in jail for five years for stealing mail after his wife died) and Mark (a young man popping in for a quick coffee before an interview). What could go wrong, right? Well, a lot as the group find out. Doctor Destiny has the Dreamstone and plans on using it to torture everyone in the bar while it causes the rest of the world to go insane. Throughout a time span of 24 hours (it's in the title) Destiny amuses himself with a set of, how should I say, interesting activities. I wont list all of the events that although a few of them consist of making the diners worship him, "murder in the dark" and eating a fly. Finally, in the 24th hour, Morpheus arrives to take back what is rightfully his.
If there's one thing I can say about this it's that it's original. I've never read another comic like it; you don't often find a writer focusing on what the villains do when their nemeses aren't around. And, I have to say, the idea isn't bad. The issue adds depth to Doctor Destiny who used to just be a pretty standard villain and you can see how mad this bad guy truly is. I also enjoyed the writing style; in the past, Neil Gaiman has written some stories which are overly chaotic but there was just the right amount of craziness, not so much that you can't understand what is going on but not too little that it feels like a normal series. As for the art, I'm not a massive fan of the drawings but I can easily live with them.
Now for the bad points. Firstly, at times I found it difficult to remember each of the diners names. As the they haven't appeared in any previous comics, I found myself flicking back to earlier pages in order to find out who was called what. Prehaps each of the characters titles could be a bit more original so they're not forgotten. As well as this, I don't think a similar plot would be any good if it was done again. Gaiman only just managed to get away with this one and watching any more of these kinds of scenes would have been too much.
In conclusion, anyone who wants to read a rather dark and eccentric book should probably check this out. For some it may leave you with a bad taste but for others it may be great.