Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

Nightmare is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The character is depicted most commonly as a major enemy of Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider. Nightmare is the ruler of a Dream Dimension and he is one of the Fear Lords. He is also part of the group called The Six Fingered Hand. He can drain the psychic energies from the subconscious minds of dreaming beings.

Publication history

Nightmare first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (the first appearance of his enemy, Dr. Strange) and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Fictional character biography

He is the evil ruler of a "Dream Dimension", where tormented humans are brought during their sleep. He roams this realm on his demonic black horned horse named Dreamstalker. He appears as a chalk-white man with wild green hair, a green suit, and a ragged cape. He was the first foe met by Doctor Strange when a man who was having troubling dreams went to Strange for help, though it is revealed this is due to him committing a murder. Nightmare later attacks Strange after he forgets to cast a spell that would have protected him. However, Strange escapes after tricking Nightmare by casting an illusion of one of his enemies.

Nightmare is a demon from the dimension Everinnye, like his "cousin", the Dweller-in-Darkness. Nightmare is dependent on humanity's need to dream. Without this ability, Nightmare would cease to exist, but humanity would go insane. At one point Strange and Nightmare had to join forces to prevent that from happening. Nightmare has encountered Spider-Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Dazzler, Wolverine, the Hulk, and Squirrel Girl on different occasions. Nightmare also served under Shuma-Gorath and warned Strange that the demon would be a force that even the Sorcerer Supreme would have trouble defeating, and he once joined the Fear Lords, a group of supernatural creatures who fed on fear, to attack Dr. Strange together. Their plans were undone when D'Spayre tricks him into competing with the Dweller-in-Darkness over who could frighten humanity more.

Nightmare is the father of the Dreamqueen, a similar being who rules her own "dream dimension". She was conceived when Nightmare impregnated a succubus named Zhilla Char.

Nightmare's realm is not part of the Mindscape, but the Sleepwalkers are aware of him and consider him an enemy. Because Sleepwalkers do not have to sleep, Nightmare has never been able to affect or dominate them. He sought to do this through the hero Sleepwalker, who had been connected into the brain of the human Rick Sheridan. Nightmare sent Sleepwalker back to his own realm, with a monitor to assure the hero Rick was not being tormented. Rick was being tormented, with the intent of driving Sleepwalker mad and thus giving Nightmare access to the minds of Sleepwalker's people. The hero was not fooled and sacrificed his return home to stop Nightmare.

Later, Nightmare was able to access human minds through the concept of the 'American dream'. Many people who were deeply patriotic or had achieved a degree of success through hard work were going on violent rampages. Nightmare was soon stopped by the combined forces of Captain America, Sharon Carter, and S.H.I.E.L.D.

In the ''Tempest Fugit'' storyline of '' The Incredible Hulk'', it is revealed that Nightmare has been plaguing the Hulk for years with hallucinations, misdirections, and manipulations of reality, by empowering himself.''The Incredible Hulk'' vol. 3 #81 His second, more benevolent, daughter Daydream is also introduced in this story arc. Nightmare here claimed that this daughter was conceived by forcibly entering the mind of the Hulk's late wife, Betty Ross, raping her in her sleep, and is temporarily killed by the Hulk in retaliation.

When Hercules and the God Squad needs to make their way to the Skrull gods' realm during the ''Secret Invasion'' storyline, they require a map of the Dreamtime, and barter with Nightmare for it. Nightmare agrees, in exchange for access to the fears of the five gods; however, he actually intends to use these divine fears to conquer the world. Hercules and the others escape his realm, having stolen the map via trickery as Mikaboshi had created a shadow duplicate of himself to fool Nightmare. Nightmare summons up an army of monsters to attack them, but they escape.

Nightmare later attempts to revenge himself on Hercules by manipulating the supervillain Arcade into trapping Hercules and Deadpool in a labyrinth they constructed. The ploy fails, and Nightmare withdraws.

He later plots to conquer the entirety of fiction, adding it to his realm of nightmares, but was defeated by the Fantastic Four.

In " Dark Reign", it was revealed that Trauma is Nightmare's son and inherited his powers. He later manifests on Earth and battles the Avengers Resistance and the Initiative.

During the '' Chaos War'' storyline, Amatsu-Mikaboshi (now adopting the title of Chaos King) has amassed an army of alien slave gods and is attempting to destroy absolutely everything and become the only being in the Universe once more. He travels to Nightmare's realm while they are trying to torment Hercules with visions of Amatusu-Mikaboshi and quickly defeats the demon. Nightmare attempts to join Amatsu-Mikaboshi's forces, but he is not tricked by his begging and kills him.

When the Asgardian Fear God was released from his prison and launched the Serpent War, Mephisto goes to The Infinite Embassy to learn what the other gods plan on doing about the Serpent, he visits several gods and locations, his last stop being Nightmare's chamber. Still unclear how Nightmare survived the Chaos King, Nightmare explains to Mephisto that the Serpent is starving him by taking all the fear. Nightmare wants to fight the Serpent, but Mephisto talks him out of it, citing that he will lose all respect from the other evil gods. Then, when Nightmare talks of joining the Serpent, Mephisto argues against it, claiming that the Serpent will keep starving him and he will die. Nightmare, unsure of what to do, listens to Mephisto when he advises for him to do what everyone else is doing: stay neutral, and wait for something else to happen.

Nightmare was later seen tormenting Loki as part of a plan to garner greater powers in ''The Terrorism Myth'' storyline. However he was unable to use Loki's own nightmares against him and Loki challenged him to a duel to the death, where the loser would give up their immortality, to which Nightmare accepted. Loki beat Nightmare and killed him.

Following the death of Doctor Strange, several mystical threats were able to freely move into position to try and doom the world of man, including Nightmare, who quickly finds himself in New York where he confronts Cyclops, Jean Grey and X-23 during their sleep. However, Jean managed to break free from the nightmares and confronting Nightmare on equal footing is able to call out Nightmare for his attempts to feed on the minds of others.

Powers and abilities

Nightmare is a virtually omnipotent entity who rules the Dream Dimension and can draw power from psychic energy in subconscious minds. As long as there are beings that dream, Nightmare will exist.

Other versions

An alternate universe variant of Nightmare from Earth-1610 appears in Ultimate Marvel.

In other media

Television

* Nightmare appears in ''The Super Hero Squad Show'' episode "Blind Rage Knows No Color!", voiced by Jim Parsons.
* Nightmare appears in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'', voiced by Mark Hamill.

Film

Nightmare appears in '' Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell'', voiced by Matthew Waterson.

Video games

* Nightmare appears in '' Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet'', voiced again by Jim Parsons.
* Nightmare appears in ''Lego Marvel Super Heroes'', voiced by Greg Cipes.
* Nightmare appears in '' Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2'' via the "Cloak and Dagger" DLC.

Miscellaneous

* Nightmare appears in the novel ''Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts: Nightmare'', by William Rotsler.
* Nightmare appears in the audio book ''The Ultimate Super Villains'', by Steve Rasnic Tem.
* Nightmare appears in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' #11.

References

External links

Nightmare
at Marvel.com

{{Steve Ditko

Comics characters introduced in 1963
Characters created by Steve Ditko
Characters created by Stan Lee
Fiction about nightmares
Fictional rapists
Marvel Comics demons
Marvel Comics male supervillains