Nightmare

Dastardly and scheming, **Nightmare** is a Fear Lord who rules over the Nightmare World, his own realm within the Dream Dimension, a manifestation of the collective psyche of human, where people's dreams manifest a life of their own. He feeds off the dreams of living beings as they sleep, drawing power from them. Nightmare also sometimes tries to trap specific individuals in his realm. Though never with much success, he has even tried to free himself from his realm or merge the world with it.

His greatest human adversary has been the Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth, Doctor Strange. He has also faced off against many other superheroes, such as Doctor Voodoo, Moon Knight, Black Panther, Venom, and Spider-Man. In his quest for power, Nightmare has allied himself with villains such as Shuma-Gorath, the Juggernaut, and Baron Mordo.

## Nightmare

### Aliases

Casper, Hamir (impersonation), Edvard Haberdash, Lord of Darkness, Lord of Dreams, Master of the Subconscious, Midnight Leviathan, and countless others

### Relatives

Dreamqueen (daughter), Daydream (daughter), Terrance Ward (son)

### Affiliation

Fear Lords, Lords of the Splinter Realms, Belasco, leader of his legions, including Doggerel, Succubus, the Hanon Tramps, the Silurian Guard; served by cults of human worshipers, including Karl; formerly Pluto; former ally of Shuma-Gorath; briefly employed Bamfs

### Occupation

Ruler of the Nightmare World, nightclub owner (formerly), deity

## Biographical information

### Place of death

Killed by Hulk after claiming that Daydream was conceived by forcibly entering the mind of the Hulk's late wife, Betty; was somehow reborn in the same issue.

## Physical description

### Species

Extradimensional Demonic entity; Conceptual entity; Deity

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Perhaps by other extra-dimensional entities

## History

### Origin and Early Years

Like each of the Fear Lords, Nightmare was a mystery, and very few knew of his origin (or even his very existence). He was a conceptual entity, part of all existence like Eternity, and a deity.

Nightmare was born in the Everinnye dimension, just like the Dweller-in-Darkness. He was a creation of the human need to dream. It is unknown whether Nightmare was born the way humans are or was conceived of in some other manner. The Dweller turned his back on his fellow residents by following the Way of the Shamblu, disembodying his head and existing in physical form. He considered Nightmare his cousin. Nightmare rejected that designation, aware of the Dweller's full origins, stating that he had no cousin, especially not the Dweller, for he had chosen the way of the Shamblu. According to the Dweller, Nightmare degraded himself by adopting his shape and living in exile among the Lower Universes.

Nightmare came to control one of the Splinter Realms, known as the Nightmare Realm, within the Dream Dimension. Nightmare had only one natural enemy in all the dimensions: his mortal enemy Gulgol, the only foe Nightmare could not defeat due to him not needing to sleep and therefore being not affected by Nightmare's powers. The Gulgol was a monster who dwelled in his own alien mystic realm known as the Netherworld of Gulgol and may have been a conceptual being who embodied man's instinct for savagery and self-preservation. Since the beginning of time, Nightmare feared his end at the Gulgol. For ages, Nightmare guarded his realm against the heartless creature.

The Lords of the Splinter Realms gathered only twice in the 47,000 years before the modern age..Thousands of years ago, Nightmare agreed to Zeus's request to guard The Night That May Yet Be in the Nightmare Realm. Zeus wanted the shard hidden where no one would ever look, behind the "light of dreams." In exchange, the Olympians would stay out of Nightmare's realm. Approximately 800 years ago, Nightmare raped the demoness Zilla Char, producing a daughter: Dreamqueen.

Later, 350 years ago, Nightmare meddled with Dreamqueen's schemes involving Native Americans. Throughout the subsequent centuries, Nightmare would continue to taunt his daughter repeatedly. On June 18, 1792, at the Conciergerie, Nightmare gave Marie Antoinette a nightmare while imprisoned awaiting trial. She relieved the siege on Versaille over and over. Nightmare would regularly visit the nightmare for entertainment. In the 19th century, he gave President Abraham Lincoln nightmares for seven months, taking him to the graves of the men he sent to their death during the American Civil War.

### Pre-Modern Era

More than two decades ago, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Karl, a faithful worshiper of Nightmare and member of a cult, slept with Naomi, an unbelieving member of the cult. Because of the stars' alignment, the dimensional barriers weakened and Carl served as a vessel for Nightmare, enabling Nightmare to impregnate Naomi. Two weeks later, Naomi fled the cult with Jerry Ward. Karl and Nightmare witnessed the scene, but despite Karl's proposal to stop them, Nightmare left them be, as his son being raised among ordinary people would serve his purposes and interests. He hoped to eventually take the body of his son to be able to manifest on Earth and alter physical reality. Naomi gave birth to Terrance Ward, who would grow up with the ability to shapeshift into a person's worst fear.

### Encounters with Doctor Strange

One of Nightmare's long-standing rivals in the modern age was Doctor Strange. During one of their battles, Nightmare haunted the dreams of a corrupt businessman. When Doctor Strange entered his dreams, Nightmare attempted to trap him there, leaving his physical body undefended while the man, afraid that Strange had found out the secret of his crimes, would try to kill Strange. Strange managed to escape Nightmare's dimension with the help of the Ancient One.

Seeking to conquer our dimension, Nightmare put a mystic potion inside an occult device to trap people in his dimension while they were sleeping in the hopes of gaining information on how to defeat Doctor Strange and his master, the Ancient One. Strange successfully freed the captives but had to battle Nightmare in the Dream Dimension. Nightmare summoned the Spinybeast using his mystic prod. Strange commanded his amulet to gleam, temporarily blinding Nightmare and causing him to lower his prod-wand, killing his spinybeast instantly.

When Doctor Strange forgot to recite a spell before sleeping, Nightmare entered his dreams and fought Strange. Strange was imprisoned in a nightmare where he was depowered and started being tormented by Nightmare. However, the Gulgol arrived, and Nightmare was powerless to stop the Gulgol due to using all his energy against Strange. Without any other alternatives, Nightmare agreed to Strange's proposal of giving Strange back his powers. Strange then made the Gulgol disappear because the Gulgol was only an illusion cast by Doctor Strange to make Nightmare believe that the Gulgol had arrived. After using his magical powers to fend off Nightmare, Doctor Strange woke up from Nightmare's dimension.

### Further Schemes

Nightmare posed as Hamir to attempt to destroy the Ancient One, but Doctor Strange was able to stop Nightmare with the Cloak of Levitation and send him back to his realm. The Ancient One later woke up and admitted that he intentionally set himself as a trap for Nightmare so that Doctor Strange could defeat Nightmare and gain more confidence.

Attempting to bring the waking world into his domain, Nightmare captured the entity Eternity. Doctor Strange woke up from a nightmare that had Nightmare impersonating Eternity and tormenting Strange with the deity. When Clea and Doctor Strange later went on a date in the middle of Times Square, he was ambushed by Nightmare, who happened to have Eternity imprisoned with cosmic forces and spawned animals and human beings from different time periods into the current time of Earth. Nightmare offered to challenge Strange in the Dream Dimension, which he accepted. Doc defeated his minions, trying to use the Eye of Agamotto on Nightmare, but that backfired because Nightmare learned a counterspell that ricocheted it back towards Strange and knocked him unconscious. Nightmare then boasted about the pending dissolution of the barrier between their respective realms.

Still trapped in the Eye of Agamotto, Doctor Strange bore witness as Nightmare was about to combine Earth with its past and future; however, he was interrupted by the arrival of the Juggernaut, who had come seeking a way back to Earth. Convinced that Doctor Strange was the one who could take Juggernaut back, Juggernaut fought Nightmare in hopes of stealing his captive. Doctor Strange used this distraction to wriggle himself free of his captivity and summoned an illusory image of himself. When Nightmare and Juggernaut noticed the freed sorcerer, they worked together to subdue him again but sent their mystic bolts at the illusion, passing through and releasing Eternity. The two villains continued their alliance, this time trying to overpower Eternity. Eternity banished Nightmare and Juggernaut to another realm and restored the natural order before returning Doctor Strange to Earth.

Nightmare escaped the realm. He allied with Shuma-Gorath to further his own ends. He agreed to destroy Doctor Strange so that Shuma-Gorath could take over the Earth. When Strange was hit by a truck, Nightmare trapped Strange in the Nightmare realm. There, Strange was tormented by false illusions before realizing he was dreaming. Nightmare and Strange fought until Strange defeated him, waking up in the hospital. Nightmare ended his partnership at some point.

After a defeat to Doctor Strange, Cyrus Black lit some Jamaican incense and went to sleep. In his dream, his rat grew to giant size and attacked him. When he woke up, he realized the incense had given him the power to dream things into reality. Nightmare later revealed that he had given the power to Black as a test to see his desire for revenge.

When a man was haunted by the death of his wife, he went to Doctor Strange to remove the memories. Strange probed his dreams, finding the man being preyed on by minions and distant relatives of Nightmare. Doctor Strange was able to remove the demons before letting the man go.

When Baron Mordo was living in the Sanctum Sanctorum, Nightmare terrorized Mordo's dreams. Screaming, Mordo awakened Doctor Strange and his visitors. Probing Karl's dreams, Doctor Strange found Nightmare. However, before Strange could do anything. Mordo went unconscious, severing the link to Nightmare's realm.

Nightmare was one of the many rulers of the dead that joined Pluto's alliance to strongarm Zeus Panhellenios into allowing the arranged marriages for Hercules and Venus to maintain peace for their realms, or else they would invade Olympus. This plan was later foiled when the Champions convinced Zeus that Pluto's alliance was contingent on the promise of Zeus's death.

Attempting again to merge his realm with reality, Nightmare was able to capture Eternity again. Doctor Strange was the sole survivor of the destruction of the Earth. Seeking to try and appeal to Eternity to undo the planet's destruction, he traveled into the Eye of Agamotto to the realm of Eternity. However, Strange found himself in the Dimension of Dreams instead. There he battled Nightmare and found that Eternity had been held captive again and subjected to Nightmare's insanity. Nevertheless, Doctor Strange managed to free Eternity, resulting in Eternity remaking the Earth and rapidly speeding up its evolution to the modern era before returning Doctor Strange to his home.

Nightmare brought Cyrus Black to his realm, who he had empowered years ago, and taught him more magic. While training Cyrus, Nightmare refused to help the Dweller-in-Darkness in fighting Doctor Strange, resulting in the Dweller creating Dream Weaver. Strange confronted Nightmare, but Nightmare denied this and gave a clue to the true culprit.

After reading *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, Doctor Strange fell asleep, failing to notice a rat that entered his bedroom, bringing him to Nightmare's realm. Suddenly, Cyrus Black appeared. Nightmare intended for Cyrus to kill Doctor Strange. As Doctor Strange gained the upper hand, Nightmare attacked Doctor Strange, commanding Black to cast a fatal spell on their foe. Strange used the Eye of Agamotto to reveal the sham of Cyrus's life. Realizing the truth, Cyrus Black killed himself. Disappointed, Nightmare released Strange, seeking new victims but not before warning Strange that Nightmare will return for his dreams.

Following the joint funeral of Biotron, Queen Esmera, and Prince Shaitan, Doctor Leonard Samson found a mind shock in the brain of Arcturus Rann, causing his brain to shut down on the right side. Doc theorized that some evil entity had managed to enter. His solution was to shrink down the Microns and send them into Rann's brain. After being attacked by their nightmares, the micronauts found Nightmare attempting to discover the secret of the Enigma Force. Nightmare sent more nightmares to fight the group. However, the micronauts conquered their fears and caused the illusions to disappear. Defeated, Nightmare disappeared but not before contacting the brain of the sleeping Rann to send antibodies that would attempt to destroy the foreign micronauts inside his brain.

Doctor Doom kidnapped Dazzler and sent her on a mission to recover one of the Merlin stones. It was in the dream realm where she encountered Nightmare. He refused to hand over the Merlin stone, and Dazzler was again pressed into action. When Nightmare couldn't bear her light attacks anymore, he suddenly decided that the Merlin stone was a gaudy bauble and not worth all this effort to keep in his possession.

While searching the many mystical realms, Strange entered Nightmare's realm. After a brief fight, Strange was able to blind Nightmare with the Eye of Agamotto and escape.

When Morgana was sent back into the past, Strange anchored his soul to seek her out. However, he was quickly stopped by Nightmare in the Dream Dimension. It was revealed that Morgana's trip into the past caused this chain of events and that if her soul regressed to her earliest incarnation, it would destroy all of humanity and -- as a result, Nightmare himself. Not wishing to meet his end so that he may continue to rule the Nightmare Realm, Nightmare begrudgingly offered his aid to Doctor Strange, helping him pinpoint the exact eras that Morgana had traveled into. After a discussion between Nightmare and Gnit, Doctor Strange, with the assistance of Nightmare, was sent to Ancient Egypt. Gnit was soon created after Nightmare began to fear his end. Nightmare and Gnit watched Strange in the past, to the annoyance of Nightmare having to put up with Gnit. Once Doctor Strange successfully saved humanity, Nightmare was able to destroy Gnit because Nightmare's nightmare was over.

Nightmare left Doctor Strange alone for a while to focus on other unstable super-beings. He teamed up with the Hell Lords to torment Ghost Rider. Nightmare helped Zarathos gain full control over Johnny Blaze to create fear and gain power, but Johnny escaped Nightmare and regained control.

### Overture

At some point in time, Nightmare attempted to look into the dreams of others. Doctor Strange tricked Nightmare into believing that Nightmare's dreams had come true. In his dream, he had successfully tricked Strange into making the entire world fall asleep due to Strange's connection to all living things as the sorcerer supreme. Nightmare had successfully trapped Doctor Strange's astral form in the Dream Dimension, forcing him to watch as Nightmare looked into the dreams of others while destroying many of the cosmic entities, including Surtur, Arishem the Judge, Lord Chaos, Eternity, and even the Living Tribunal. Nightmare was about to destroy the Earth when Doctor Strange revealed that it was all a trick and none of the events had ever happened, escaping the dream.

### Tormenting the Hulk

In an attempt to kill Doctor Strange, Nightmare struck out at the sorcerer's allies. He attempted this plan on the Defenders, but the breakup of the group temporarily setback his plans. He later found another target in the Hulk. Nightmare tormented him with dark dreams in hopes of reverting him to his more savage and uncontrollable form.

Nightmare's actions on the Hulk created a psychological rift in the Hulk's subconscious; whereas once the mind of Bruce Banner maintained control over the Hulk, now the monster had reverted to a state of nearly total savagery. The Hulk cut a swath of destruction through New York as Nightmare prodded him to do his bidding. Once he reached Strange's mansion, the sorcerer probed the Hulk with the Eye of Agamotto, revealing Nightmare's involvement. Strange facilitated Bruce's alter access to the Nightmare Realm to confront his tormentor. Thinking that the only way to free himself of the Hulk and Nightmare was to cease to be, Banner's alter allowed himself to be subsumed within the Hulk's alter. This act left his body in complete control of the Hulk with no mind or memory, and a manifestation of the Hulk invaded Nightmare's dimension brought about by Banner's sacrifice.

After Baron Mordo used the *Word of God* to rewrite reality, Nightmare was visited by the heroes Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, searching for the book. Nightmare willingly showed them the book, fearful of more powerful beings coming to invade his realm. However, the book turned out to be a fake, with Mordo destroyed the real book, destroying the world. Using his imagination and memory of the book in the Dream Dimension, Spider-Man began the process of resting the book and consequently the world. Noting the potential of the web slinger, Nightmare proposed the symbiote use the *Word of God* to become a god and pay him back by trapping the collective consciousness of humanity in an eternal nightmare. In the end, Nightmare told Spider-Man to use the power of dreams to free himself and Strange from the Nightmare World and show Mordo and the Hobgoblin what the symbiotes truly are. Once Doctor Strange was unable to use the book again to undo the reality Mordo constructed, Nightmare presumably forgot about the experience.

The dream Hulk tore apart Nightmare's dimension as it chased after him. During this time, the civilian alter-ego of the superhero Spider-Man was sleeping. Sensing that he had fought the Hulk before, a weakened Nightmare used part of his last strength to summon him to his realm. After several encounters with the dream Hulk and Nightmare's explanation of the situation, the hero and the dark lord found themselves cornered at the edge of Nightmare's realm. Spider-Man reluctantly saved Nightmare by shoving the dream Hulk into the boundary of Nightmare's realm, causing it to vanish into the neighboring Realm of Madness. With his powers returned, Nightmare threatened to keep Spider-Man trapped forever in his realm, turning him into his disciple and defender. Because of this, when the dream Hulk reached out from outside and dragged Nightmare into the Realm of Madness, Spider-Man ignored Nightmare's pleas. Afterward, Spider-Man woke up from the dream, and as soon as he did, the memories of the adventure started to fade away. He managed to escape the hostile dimension.

Nightmare manipulated Cloak into summoning a demon onto an airplane. Dagger managed to drive the demon back; Nightmare wanted to use Cloak to bring Doctor Strange to him. Nightmare made Cloak ask Doctor Strange for help, posing as a prisoner of the Predator. Nightmare successfully managed to pull Cloak, Dagger, and members of the New Defenders into his realm. Nightmare was defeated when he could not bear more of Dagger's light attacks.

Nightmare visited his daughter Dreamqueen again when her Dream Totem was touched, freeing her from Liveworld. Before leaving, he warned her about the heroes of Earth. He later reappeared on Earth to warn her of her death.

Ghost Rider and Daniel Ketch were separated and taken to Nightmare's Realm; there, Nightmare tried to renew his partnership with Zarathos, but this Spirit of Vengeance was not Zarathos and did not want to ally with Nightmare. Zodiak tried to get to Ghost Rider the same way Ghost Rider got to him, through Stig. Ghost Rider and Dan merged ultimately and escaped Nightmare's Realm.

Betty, overwhelmed by the loss of Bruce, suffered a miscarriage. Unfortunately, D'Spayre and Nightmare tapped into Betty's nightmares, competing to win her soul. The Hulk was drawn into the battle over Betty's soul, and he battled through all they could muster to reach Betty and give her a renewed sense of hope. Betty and Hulk broke the spell, and the two of them woke up.

Nightmare haunted three humans, turning them into nuclear dust.

He soon came to run the Institute of Psychic Research in Britain. Nightmare abducted Power Pack's entire family to feed off their nightmares. Members of Excalibur attempted to infiltrate the hospital, but demons from Nightmare's realm unleashed sleeping gas and strapped the group into machines, where they were subjected to nightmares. Nightmare took control of Rachel Summers and Alex Power, but Franklin Richards was able to free all the heroes and defeat Nightmare.

After watching a horror movie, Doctor Strange had a dream where his loved ones were killed by the main villain from the film, with Nightmare posing as the main villain. However, Strange quickly realized that it was only a dream and the works of Nightmare, waking up.

Nightmare narrated a story about the origin of the Fangu.

Doom and his minion Doctor Tinner built a device that would protect Doom's dreams from Nightmare. Nightmare appeared in the dreams of Doom again. The device did not fully work but allowed Doom to escape the nightmare by waking up. Seeking to end his own nightmares, Doctor Doom visited Ghost Rider in a dream to help fight Nightmare. Nightmare appeared to the two. Initially hesitant, Danny eventually transformed and was able to drive off Nightmare. Doom and Ghost Rider then managed to recruit Wolverine. Nightmare fought the three and revealed that Doom had captured Wolverine and Ghost Rider in real life and hooked the two up to the technology that had allowed Doom to bring them into Nightmare's realm. He then revealed how Doom intended to destroy all nightmares but warned how it would lead to humanity becoming insane. Ghost Rider and Wolverine rebelled from Doom, destroying the project and waking all three of them up. Alone again, Nightmare warned that he would continue to haunt the dreams of Doom, this time with two new people to use.

Seeking revenge on the Ghost Rider, Nightmare took control of the cyborg Deathlok while trapping his mind inside the Nightmare Realm. Ghost Rider was pulled to Nightmare's realm, but the two heroes were able to escape.

### Alliance with Dracula

Vlad Dracula has proposed an alliance in which Nightmare would manipulate certain targets of the nosferatu along with several random people in dreams. Mainly ones built around films that the targets of the king of the undead watched.