If you’re a fan of comic-books, and comic-book films, you’re probably no stranger to power-scaling when it comes to comparing your favourite heroes and villains. The words strongest and most powerful have been thrown around so much, it’s become a cliche at this point. With the introduction of mighty Kryptonians, people who can reverse time and literal gods there’s no shortage of titanic displays of power in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).
That being said, the DCEU is about to see a being of such unimaginable scales of power enter into the cinematic universe. A creature as old as the multiverse itself and one that transcends the limits of time and space. To call him a god would be a disservice. No, he is so much more than that. He is Dream of the Endless. He has many other names including Morpheus and the Prince of Stories, but he’s commonly known as the Sandman.
The Story of Dream
The character of Dream was created by the brilliantly mad writer, Neil Gaiman. Therefore, his character’s exact origins can be difficult to pin-point. Honestly, Gaiman is probably the only one who truly understands the character. Based on Gaiman’s comic-book series “The Sandman”, we know that he is one of the Endless. The Endless are the very living embodiments of natural forces, beings who have existed since the beginning of sentient life. When the first microbe died, the being Death was brought into existence. When the very first forms of life began dreaming, Dream was brought into existence.
He’s also known as the Prince of Stories, seeing that he keeps, creates and alters the stories of every character in DC’s multiverse. That’s right, the multiverse. In Scott Snyder’s “Dark Nights: Metal” comics, he regales Batman and Superman with a story of how the multiverse came into existence. The first humans who imagined and dream brought the gods into existence within a realm known as the Sphere of the Gods. Which means that the many, many deities of the multiverse were created in his realm before taking their physical form. This includes the Greek Gods seen in “Wonder Woman”. He is older than the concept of gods itself!
What makes Dream such a fascinating character is that for all of his wisdom and power, he’s still incredibly human. He gets bored, he falls in love and sometimes he feels blue. Dream’s adventures often sees him intefering in the affairs of superheroes, aliens, gods and…cats. He’s in charge of keeping the balance and watching over every story in existence. Who knows, maybe he’s watching over ours right now, even as you’re reading this.
Powers and Abilities
To measure Dream’s power on the scale of charcters like Superman or Wonder Woman is utterly laughable. As the Lord of Dreams, he is able to invade the minds of others, cursing them to be awake endlessly or trapping them in an everlasting nightmare. As a fundamental force in the universe, he is more powerful than magical heroes like Doctor Fate and John Constantine. He even once faced off against Lucifer Morningstar and won. Note, Lucifer Morningstar is the son of the Presence, who is the creator of the entire DC multiverse. So demons like Trigon are nothing to the likes of him. No matter who you are, or how powerful you get, everyone has a dream and a story. Even Darkseid. This is where the Sandman’s power comes from, dreams and stories.
As of now, there hasn’t been a character in the DCEU that can match Dream’s power and capabilities. Perhaps a Darkseid in possession of the full Anti-Life Equation could put up a worthy fight against the Lord of Dreams. It could honestly go either way. He’s also capable of projecting his consciousness across the multiverse, shaping himself in any form that best suits the culture. Now some of you are probably wondering: Is he invulnerable. Well, let me ask you a question: Can you kill dreams? Even if you managed to kill Dream, he’ll just reincarnate in another form. So unless the Presence makes an appearance in the DCEU or Darkseid becomes a multiversal threat, Dream is the most powerful being in the multiverse!
Dream is Coming to Netflix
The Sandman will be getting his very own series on Netflix streaming services sometime this year, that much has been confirmed. The series will consists of 11 episodes based on the early volumes of Gaiman’s magnificent “Sandman” run. The first episode sees Dream right where Gaiman’s first issue starts, with him being imprisoned by a bunch of occultists. From there, he begins his century-long game of slowly unraveling their minds. Based on the cast list, we know that he won’t spend too long as their prisoner, seeing that we have a whole slew of characters to meet throughout the season.
The role of the titular Sandman is played by Tom Sturridge. He hasn’t appeared in many mainstream films and TV series so with “The Sandman”, we look forward to seeing his unique depiction of the character. The cast also includes Charles Dance, who played Tywin Lannister in HBO’s “Game of Thrones”, as Roderick Burgess who leads the occultists in capturing Dream. Joining the cast is yet another former cast member of the HBO fantasy series, Gwendoline Christie, who played Brienne of Tarth. She’ll be playing the role of Lucifer in the series. It looks like we’ll be seeing a showdown between the Devil and the Sandman in our first season.
Another villain set to appear in the series is the creepy Doctor Destiny, played David Thewlis. He also played Ares in 2017’s “Wonder Woman”. Kirby Howell-Baptiste is starring in the series as Dream’s older sister, Death. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing Death and Dream’s sibling relationship depicted on screen. There are ton of other exciting characters that will be introduced in the series itself.
Adapting Gaiman’s “The Sandman” can be a difficult task because the character doesn’t quite fit the mould of the hero, villain or even anti-hero label. In the wrong hands, a lot of it could terribly go wrong. That being said, Neil Gaiman himself is producing and developing the series alongside David S. Goyer, the man who wrote Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy and comic book writer Allan Heinberg. So rest easy Sandman-purists, the series is in very good hands.
Be sure to check out the latest teaser trailer for “The Sandman” coming to Netflix in 2022!
