How Doomsday Clock, Dark Nights: Metal Affect DC's Sandman Universe

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for The Sandman Universe #1 by Neil Gaiman, Simon Spurrier, Kat Howard, Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Watters, Bilquis Evely, Tom Fowler, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Max Fiumara, Sebastian Fiumara, Mat Lopes and Simon Bowland, on sale now.

Something is very wrong in The Dreaming, and Dream himself is missing. As teased at the end of Dark Nights: Metal, Dream has vanished from his home domain and his absence is causing ripples and ruptures far beyond his kingdom of dreams. The Sandman Universe #1 sets up four new titles spinning out of these events — The Dreaming, House of Whispers, Lucifer and Books of Magic — but leaves us on a tantalizing cliffhanger regarding Dream himself.

Why is the king of dreams missing, and what does his role in Dark Nights: Metal have to do with it, and how does Doomsday Clock affect Dream's place in the DC Universe? Considering The Sandman and affiliated titles have always existed at the peripheries of mainline continuity, the answer might just lie at the heart of the DC Universe.

Dream Weaver

The Sandman Universe #1 starts with a scene we’ve witnessed previously, in the epilogue to Dark Nights: Metal #6 as Lucien, the faithful librarian notices that a book is missing from his meticulously catalogued library. What’s worse, is that Lucien can’t even remember which book goes in that empty spot, which should alarm anyone familiar with The Sandman and its supporting characters, because Lucien knows everything about that library backwards and forwards. Summoned by Merv Pumpkinhead, Lucien witnesses the tear across The Dreaming which is causing the kingdom of dreams to slowly unravel and the brothers Cain and Abel — mostly Cain — insist that Lucien summon their king, Dream.

Lucien uses Dream’s helm in a bid to summon his lord; fans of Sandman will recognize the mounted helmet as one of the most powerful items which belonged to the previous incarnation of Dream, Morpheus. The helm was one of three items stolen from Morpheus when he was captured Roderick Burgess and eventually wound up in the possession of a demon within Lucifer’s Hell, causing Dream to challenge the demon for his own helmet and making an enemy of Lucifer in the process of winning it back.

When his lord doesn’t answer the call through the helm, Lucien summons Matthew The Raven and instructs him to search everywhere for Dream; a journey which takes Matthew through the lives and dreams of Dora, Timothy Hunter, Erzulie and Lucifer himself, the four protagonists of the upcoming Sandman Universe titles. Ultimately, Matthew tracks Dream down to Manhattan where he finds him wearing something approaching regular human clothes, among the hustle and bustle of the mortals of this world but Dream sends Matthew away, wiping his memory of ever finding his king. Returning to The Dreaming, Matthew reports back to Lucien who confides in the raven that the helm has fallen from the wall on which it was mounted, a sign that Dream has quit.

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A Dream Of Flying

An important thing to remember when talking about Dream in The Sandman Universe is that he is not Morpheus; Morpheus is a previous incarnation of Dream who died towards the end of The Sandman and was replaced by Daniel, whom he had prepared to one day take over the role.

Unlike his predecessor, Daniel has direct links to the DC Universe due to his parents and grandparents, who are superheroes in their own regard and Daniel’s absence may have something to do with wanting to reconnect with that family. Daniel’s parents were Hector and Lyta Hall aka the Silver Scarab and Fury of Infinity Inc, the superhero team comprised mostly of the children of the Justice Society of America. Hector Hall was the son of Carter and Shiera Hall aka Hawkman and Hawkgirl, while Lyta Hall was the daughter the Golden Age Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.

While searching for his stolen artifacts, Dream came to learn that two beings of his kingdom had escaped and had been messing with The Dreaming in their own ways. Brute and Glob recruited a dying Hector Hall to be the successor to Garrett Sanford and serve as the superhero also named The Sandman, but Morpheus’ return led to the death of Hector who had been living on borrowed time. Morpheus informed Lyta that her exposure to The Dreaming had affected her pregnancy and he claimed her unborn son as his heir, against her wishes.

After the death of Morpheus, Daniel ascended to become the new Dream and made sparse appearances in the larger DC Universe. He made a two-issue cameo in Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s JLA in which he helped the Justice League of America enter The Dreaming to combat Starro The Conqueror and he made a silhouetted appearance in Keith Champagne and Don Kramer’s JSA #80, in which he answered he welcome his mother and father into The Dreaming where they would be safe from the impending Crisis.

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Empty Dreams

The last time we saw Daniel properly, prior to The Sandman Universe #1, was in the pages of Dark Nights: Metal in which he helped Batman uncover the lost journal of his grandfather, infiltrate the Dark Dimension and then rescued the Caped Crusader from the corrupted Hawkman at the heart of the World Forge. It’s possible that these run-ins with his family have inspired some sort of need to connect with humanity within Daniel, causing him to abandon his post as the lord of dreams and seek out meaning in the mortal world.

He wouldn’t be the first member of The Endless to do so either; Morpheus’ brother Destruction abandoned his responsibilities at the dawn of the seventeenth century, because he knew humanity was on the path towards creating the atomic bomb only a few centuries down the line, and he didn’t want to be responsible or associated with horror on such a scale. It didn’t stop humanity from building the atomic bomb, but they did so without his guidance and anything humans did to each other was without his intervention. Destruction even went as far as to try to subvert his own being by embracing creation in any form he could; he would paint, sculpt, write and cook but every time the results would come out as mediocre at best, proving that The Endless can control everything except their own nature.

It’s also worth noting that that Dream’s parents Hector and Lyta don’t currently exist in the DC Universe in which Daniel has retreated to. While the cause of the mystery is yet to be revealed, the JSA were removed from history and memory at some point in the current reality’s past, an occurrence which is currently being explored in Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Watchmen follow-up, Doomsday Clock.

It’s possible that these changes in continuity could have affected Hector and Lyta within The Dreaming, causing Daniel’s parents to disappear Back To The Future-style, and he’s come to Earth to search for answers. Whatever it is that has led to Dream abandoning his post, it’s likely to have a major effect on not just the Sandman Universe line of titles, but on DC’s entire line of superhero comics too and is one of the biggest shake-ups to the DC Universe this year.