Moon Knight’s worst fight came from Marvel’s own version of The Sandman’s Dream, a man who called Morpheus with the power to manipulate nightmares.
Despite being popularized by DC Comics’ The Sandman, the world of dreams has been wide open for the Marvel Universe since it first introduced the Moon Knight villain Morpheus. Although he shares the same name as the Dream most know from The Sandman, Marvel’s version is the complete opposite. The Morpheus from Marvel Comics is a villain with a complex background, but he didn’t always have powers and only took the name Morpheus when he gained them.
Marvel Comics took a more sinister route with its depiction and created Morpheus to be one of Moon Knight’s worst enemies. As a vigilante involved in mysticism and the night, Moon Knight is the perfect pipeline to introduce the manifestation of dreams through. While his powers were a lot more limited than DC’s Sandman, Morpheus was still able to create and control nightmares in his victims’ minds.
First created in 1981’s Moon Knight #12 by Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz, Christie Scheele, and Joe Rosen, Morpheus was originally a normal man named Robert Markham. He becomes the entity Morpheus as a result of using untested medicines to combat a virus he has been diagnosed with. The medication mixes with his DNA and alters his appearance while also granting him the ability to create psychic projections and manifest dreams. Morpheus also doesn’t need to sleep anymore as a result, and it slowly drives Robert mad. When he first finds out about his powers and what the medication has done to him, he seeks revenge on the scientist who prescribed them to him. Thus begins his path down to villainy and his long-standing battle with Moon Knight.
Moon Knight’s Hardest Battle at the Hands of Morpheus
Moon Knight’s first battle with Morpheus in Moon Knight #12 leaves the hero drained and defeated. He is humiliated at Morpheus’ hands and nearly hangs up his cowl, but Moon Knight isn’t so quick to just give up. However, he doesn’t quite know the extent of Morpheus’s power, which he has complete control over. Unlike Dream of the Endless, who has nearly full access to dreams, Morpheus’ powers come from his lack of sleep. Without the psychic need for sleep, the energies that build up from not being used while he sleeps pour into a power that Morpheus calls the “ebon sleep energy.” When he taps into that energy he can create psionic blasts, energy beams and structures, and can tap into the surrounding minds. Morpheus is still powerful enough to conjure nightmares in his victims while they sleep, and warps into a being that the Sandman would consider, literally, a Nightmare.
Morpheus acts closer to one of the Sandman’s Nightmares than he does to the entity of Dream himself. He is similar to the Corinthian when he strikes out on his own, wanting to wreak havoc and make his name known as a source of fear. He hunts down his victim even when he’s locked up and takes joy in spreading fear by creating intense night terrors that make his victims vulnerable. It’s especially apparent in Moon Knight #22 that he chooses to continue down this path rather than manipulating dreams for the good. Morpheus has fun creating nightmares and is even dubbed another nickname, “The Dream Demon.” He hounds after Moon Knight to get revenge for the defeats he suffers at Marc’s hands and is relentless in his pursuit, making him one of Moon Knight worst foes.
Although Morpheus shares a name with Dream of the Endless, his mannerisms and his goals are the exact opposite of the omniscient deity that resides over his domain with a fair hand. He is a nightmare with the potential to be one of the strongest villains in Marvel history should he be given the chance. Marvel’s version of Sandman being a villain who fights Moon Knight is the perfect way to contrast DC’s Dream with a new and exciting twist on its representation of the Greek God of Sleep.
