Daniel Hall (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 Sandman series, Daniel is the son of Hippolyta 'Lyta' Hall and Hector Hall, borne for two years 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 was a perennial DC character, son of Carter Hall (the Golden Age Hawkman), and has assumed many guises during his stay in the DC Universe, and was at one point the Sandman, hence his inclusion.
Hector himself was already dead, and 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 an excruciating fate. Once this happened the ghost of Hector faded away, probably into Death's realm, as he should have done when he first died. Dream proceeded to reveal that someday he would return to take Daniel, rightfully his because Daniel had spent the majority of his gestation in the Dreaming, and that there was nothing Lyta could do to prevent it.
Lyta and her child were returned to the waking world, and Lyta tries to pick up the pieces in her life. Before Dream goes off to face Lucifer, he pays another visit to the two, and he names the child Daniel, a name to which Lyta takes a liking.
As Daniel grows, he starts to enter 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 has been 'abducted' by Dream of the Endless (which would later prove to be untrue), which connects to his words that he would one day return for the boy. This doesn't sit well with Lyta, who feels that Dream has not only robbed her of her husband but now also her son. Her grief and torment are undefinable as she slips into insanity.
Lyta, therefore, plays a crucial part by taking her grievances to the Furies, ultimately bringing about Dream's downfall, while sealing her son's place in the Dreaming for all eternity as he assumes the role of Dream. (Appropriately, Lyta was once a superheroine called the Fury.)
Daniel is different and yet similar to his predecessor. While he still speaks in the same way,(even though his speech bubble is white with black wordings while morpheus had a speech bubble made of black with white wordings) and is still 'Dream of the Endless'. In a substory in "the wake" he explains that he is another version of himself but in another timeline to master Li who lost his way in the desert of dreaming; he is inexperienced in certain matters and relies on Matthew the raven for advice. This not only creates a triad of biblical references- 'Daniel' relying on 'Matthew', the Raven of 'Eve'—but also brings in the irony that Matthew is now teaching Dream instead of vice-versa.
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 Morpheus had his power vested in a ruby worn at his neck, Daniel has an emerald called the Eagle Stone. He has foreseen that he will someday be forced to break the emerald in the same way that Morpheus broke his ruby (see Preludes and Nocturnes).
[edit] Appearances outside of The Sandman
Daniel has made guest appearances in two issues of the JLA (#22 & #23), in which he helped prevent the Earth from being taken over by a giant starfish, and in which he repaid the 'debt' his predecessor had owed the Justice League for help in finding his ruby. He has also appeared in a handful of issues of JSA, in which he, among other things, transferred the prophetic dreams from Wesley Dodds to Sanderson Hawkins. In another appearance, he prevents the time-traveling villain Degaton from tormenting his parents. Still later in the series, Daniel, in the form of a magic mirror, tells Hector Hall (reincarnated as Dr. Fate) and Lyta about Sand, who is trapped in a dream world created, again, by Brute and Glob. In a 2006 issue of JSA (#80), Daniel brought the spirits of his mortal parents to live in the Dreaming after their deaths.
