"I'll drive everybody in the whole wide world mad. And then they'll make me king." ― John Dee[src]
John Dee, also known as Doctor Destiny, is a supervillain from the DC Comics universe who appeared in the second volume of The Sandman. The biological son of Ethel Cripps, Dee came into possession of her Dreamstone which had been stolen from Dream of the Endless, and was a token of immense power.
History[]
Early life[]
John Dee was born as a result of Ethel Cripps and Roderick Burgess' affair. At some point during his childhood, his mother went from calling him her "dream boy" to wishing out loud that she had strangled him at birth. It was she who made him take a pseudonym when he became a criminal, stating "you are not going to bring shame on the family name".
A photo of young John Dee
As the super villain dubbed "Doctor Destiny," he used his genius to commit crimes. He would experiment on the Dreamstone, forcing flaws and adding circuitry, until it was attuned to him and not Dream. John re-christened the Dreamstone as the Materioptikon and started using it to power machines that could create reality from the fabric of dreams. While his body and sanity eroded from the overuse of the gemstone, his powers grew, but eventually he was captured by the Justice League and incarcerated in Arkham Asylum.[1]
At some point, he fathered a son, Heather After's father.
Escape from Arkham Asylum[]
Dee was deemed so dangerous to others and himself, that he was kept in a maximum security cell in the basement of Arkham, completely naked. By that point, he was also unable to sleep, which contributed to his madness. In 1989, Ethel located John and briefly visited him in his cell.[2] A week after his mother's visit, he was informed of her passing, and that she bequeathed to him her family heirloom.[3]Probably believing the amulet gave him the protection he desired[4][5], he decided to escape the asylum to retrieve the Dreamstone.
Around April 1st, 1989, he killed the guard outside his cell and hitched a ride with a passing driver, Rosemary, holding her at gunpoint. By the end of the ride, he apologized, and had a conversation with her. Rosemary gave him her husband's coat, offered him a sandwich, and asked about his ordeals. Dee told her about his upbringing and the power of the ruby. When they arrived at a warehouse in Mayhew, Dee thanked Rosemary for the ride, and then shot her in cold blood. He retrieved the ruby and walked into a nearby diner, having decided to enact his plan to drive the whole world mad from there.[1]
Mayhew Mayhem[]
During the following 24 hours, Dee used the ruby to trap the patrons of the diner inside. Under his psychic influence, he took sadistic pleasure in making his victims engage in increasingly depraved activities - from singing and confessing their darkest secrets to each other, to worshiping Dee as a god, engaging in an orgy, acting like wild animals, and mutilating and killing each other and finally themselves. When Dee temporarily returned sanity to his victims to revel in their suffering, one of them asked, "Why are you doing this stuff to us?" to which Dee replied, "Because I can."
In between observing his "flies", as he called them, Dee would also watch the news, as reports of similar bursts of madness, as well as nightmares, sleep disorders, and suicides, flooded in from all over the world. At one point during his rampage, he even summoned The Three and demanded they tell him his future. At first they replied that he had no future save for the Arkham Asylum, but then added "You will crush out the Dream Lord's life in your hands," which pleased Dee.[6]
Dream of the Endless then arrived at the diner, seeking the ruby to repair the damage Destiny had created by tampering with it. Dee started a fight with the Dream Lord and tried to tear apart The Dreaming itself. The fight only ended when Dee himself destroyed the ruby, in the hopes that Dream would die with the destruction of the talisman in which he had invested much of his essence. Instead, the destruction released all the power Dream had poured into it, revitalizing Morpheus, and enabling Dream to defeat Destiny. He then restored Dee's ability to sleep and sent him back to Arkham Asylum.[7]
Physical Appearance[]
He exibits the signs of long incarceration, sleep deprivation, and exposure to the Dreamstone, with a wizened and scrawny appearance, and greyish skin. He has lost most of his hair ,and his teeth are in poor condition. His eyes are those of a madman.
Relationships[]
Ethel Cripps[]
He had a conflicted relationship with his mother; his upbringing led to him developing both the feeling of rejection and an Oedipus complex. After her death, he felt both abandoned and relieved; finally free of her judgement, which manifested in him reclaiming his original name.
Jonathan Crane[]
He seems to get along with his fellow inmate Jonathan Crane, sharing his morbid sense of humor.
Personality[]
Dee deems himself "an hermetic philosopher and a scientist." A criminal genius and inventor, John was obsessed with world domination, using his knowledge to create dangerous machines to threaten the world into submission. Like most super villains, he is a megalomaniac. Despite demonstrating highly unstable behavior, in conversations he's usually polite and even shy, even with people he intends to kill.
He is also a demonstrated sadist and psychopath, at one point casually shooting an innocent woman who had actually aided him, and by using his power over the ruby to brainwash several people into committing violent acts for his amusement. This part of his nature ended up overruling the megalomania: by his own admission, when Dee began bringing up the worst in people all over the world, at first he was doing this just to hold the world hostage, but discovered that he enjoyed the suffering itself too much and abandoned his plan.
he is shown as a severely damaged person: he consistently demonstrates childish grudges, fear of rejection, and a desire to shield himself from the unjust and uncaring world. Almost the entirety of his personality can be traced back to childhood trauma amplified by the mental influence of the Dreamstone.
Powers and Abilities[]
With the Dreamstone ruby, Dee could manipulate the dreams of mortals, both sleeping and awake, and control their minds without any demonstrated limitations.
Continuity Notes[]
- Dr. Destiny was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. He first appeared in Justice League of America #5 dated June 1961.
Trivia[]
- His name is a reference to the real-life John Dee.
- While his paternal origins were never specified in the comics, the audio drama of the series' seventh chapter quotes that Roderick Burgess is his father, making him and Alex Burgess half-brothers.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes #5, "Passengers".
- ↑ The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes #2, "Imperfect Hosts".
- ↑ The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes #4, "A Hope in Hell".
- ↑ Neil Gaiman on Tumblr
- ↑ The Sandman Companion, p. 29
- ↑ The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes #6, "24 Hours".
- ↑ The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes #7, "Sound and Fury".