While the 1st season adaptation of the live-action Netflix series Sandman focus on Preludes and nocturnesearly trailers already revealed Boyd Holbrook like a Corinthian. Made Neil Gaiman per Dollhouse Storyline, The Corinthian is a living nightmare that roams the world and kills people for fun. If that’s not terrifying enough, the villain also has mouths with sharp teeth instead of eyes, which he uses to chew on his victims’ eyeballs. The Corinthian is without a doubt one of the most iconic villains Gaiman has ever created, and with the release of The Sandman on Friday, August 5, it’s time to explain just how powerful this nightmare really is.
Before speaking of the Corinthian, we must first turn our attention to the Dream. Also known as Morpheus, Dream is one of the Endless, a family of super-powerful beings who are the living embodiment of the many concepts that govern the universe. In Dream’s case, he is responsible for maintaining the Dream World, the realm where each person spends a third of their life. A dream not only keeps people busy while they sleep, but it also represents hope, wonder, and imagination without which life would not be worth living.
The Dreamlands are also home to nightmares created by The Dream to force humanity to confront their fears and the worst parts of their soul. Dream himself sculpts each Nightmare, giving it individuality. For a moment, the Corinthian was Dream’s masterpiece, the perfect embodiment of everything that’s wrong with humans. The Corinthian is vicious and bloodthirsty, narcissistic, who wants to swallow the whole world with his eyes. The villain also took such joy in killing other creatures that he began to rebel against Dream’s rule.
To keep the universe in place, there must be clear boundaries between the Dream World and the Phenomenon World. As an Endless, Dream cannot kill people, and the same rule applies to his servants. However, the Corinthian wanted more than to scare people while they were sleeping and began to explore new ways to visit Earth and claim his victims. Once Dream learns that the Corinthian killed the man, he decides to cancel the Nightmare. Unfortunately, Dream is imprisoned before he can act, allowing the Corinthian to escape Dreamland and merge with humanity.
In the many decades that Dream remained trapped inside the glass dome, the Corinthian earned himself a reputation as the most successful serial killer in America. Using a pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes and mouths, the Corinthian remained completely invisible for nearly a century. Nightmare can also possess other people’s bodies, which helps him evade authorities. The only side effect of the possession is an immediate transformation of the victim’s body as their eyes are replaced with tiny mouths and their hair turns white.
During his reign of terror, the Corinthian left the tortured and eyeless bodies of his victims behind, inspired many other people with dark instincts to follow the same path and become collectors, despicable creatures who take pleasure in the suffering of other people. So, in a perverse way, the Corinthian continued to do what he was created to do: to show mankind a dark and distorted reflection of himself.
However, although Dream conceived the Corinthian as a warning, as soon as he was released to Earth, he became an example for broken people all over the world. After all, if a serial killer can evade the police for so long and keep fueling his urges, why can’t other people do the same? As long as the Dream remains powerful enough to destroy its own creation, the Endless will forever know that his Nightmare caused so much pain. And that’s what makes The Corinthian a fan favorite villain.
Sandman will be available for viewing on August 5th.
Source: Collider
