Daniel (DC Comics)
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Daniel is a fictional character in the Sandman comic book series by Neil Gaiman.
An infant for the majority of the series, Daniel is the son of Hippolyta 'Lyta' and Hector Hall, conceived and born in the dreaming, where the Halls were being held prisoner by Brute and Glob, two nightmares who had escaped during Dream's earthly exile (see Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House). Hector Hall is a perennial DC character, and has assumed many guises during his stay in the DC Universe, and was at one point the Sandman, hence his inclusion.
Daniel enters the Dreaming while asleep, and is regaled with stories by Cain, Abel and Eve, while Matthew watches (see Fables and Reflections), and returns to Earth clutching one of Matthew's feathers. Later Lyta believes Daniel is 'abducted' by Dream of the Endless, When Lyta first met Dream he explained to her that Daniel belonged to him and to the Dreaming since that is where Daniel spent the majority of his gestation. This explanation doesn't sit well with Lyta Hall, who feels that Dream has not only robbed her of her husband (Hector was already dead, but Lyta and Hector's Ghost lived together in the dreams of a child; this was until Dream went looking for Brute and Glob, where he destroyed the barrier they created around the child's mind cutting him off from the real dreaming, and banishing them both to quite an excrutiating fate). Once this happened the ghost of Hector fades away, probably into death's realm, as he should have done when he first died. Then Dream reveals that someday he will return to take Daniel, which is rightfully his, and that there is nothing Lyta can do to prevent it. Her grief and torment are undefinable. Lyta, therefore, plays a crucial part by taking her grievances to the Eumenides/Fates/Kindly Ones, and ultimately brings about Dream's downfall, sealing her son's place in the Dreaming for all eternity. (Ironically, Lyta was once a superheroine called the Fury.)
Daniel was named in accordance with Neil Gaiman's decision to give the Endless names or titles beginning with the letter 'D', and after the Biblical prophet who interpreted Dreams. Whereas Dream almost always wears black, Daniel is robed in white once incarnated into the "office." Where Dream had his power vested in a ruby worn at his neck, Daniel has an emerald.
Daniel has made guest appearances in at least one issue of the JLA and a handful of issues of JSA.