DC is no stranger to transforming some of its most despised characters into headliners. Superboy-Prime is the latest and greatest example of this. A decade ago, his appearances would be met with groans or the absolute joy of when he inevitably lost a fight, but nowadays, he’s beloved across the entire DC fandom. Damian Wayne was hated for being arrogant and uptight, but he’s grown into a much more mature character, and his ever-growing fanbase reflects that. Obviously, not every character is going to be a winner. Bad characters are an unavoidable part of how stories work. Especially shared universes like DC’s never-ending world. However, even the most hated characters can turn things around with the right story, and that’s exactly what’s going on right now.
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Nia Nal is Dreamer. She’s a half-alien superhero with prophetic dreams and the ability to walk through the dream realm. Notably, she’s a trans femme character and is one of DC’s more prominent trans characters. She originally premiered in the Supergirl TV show, but made her jump to comics in the DC Pride 2022 special and was popularized by becoming close friends with the second Superman, Jon Kent. Unfortunately, Dreamer has never been a fan favorite. Fans usually either hate her or couldn’t care less about her, which is about as bad as it could be. However, her character has been on a massive skyward rise recently, and I think it’s time we turn that lack of love around.
A Character Lost to the Ocean of Boredom
For the first half of her superhero career, Dreamer’s greatest crime was that she was boring. Frankly, that same criticism can be leveled at the entirety of the Superman: Son of Kal-El run that popularized her. The absolute worst thing a character can be is boring. Even hated characters are talked about, and they appear because they stick in people’s minds. Emotional attachment is what makes people remember characters, but Dreamer didn’t generate any of that. It’s not that her powers or her origin didn’t deserve a fanbase, but that she never capitalized on anything.
Dreamer felt more like she was tacked on to comics than being a real character. Her stories did nothing to set her apart from the scores of other heroes, and her unique traits almost always came off as forced rather than natural. It’s pretty hard to make precogs not insufferable to the modern audience, honestly. Then Absolute Power came, and Dreamer was blackmailed into working for Amanda Waller. This was her big step from a hero nobody cared about to an anti-hero that people either loved or hated. By that point, she had featured prominently in plenty of DC stories and events, so a lot of people were primed to dislike her cause they were just tired of someone they didn’t care about. Enter her new stories.
The Dream that Has Finally Woken Up
Dreamer’s real arc began in Secret Six (2025). She helped save the world during Absolute Power, saving Jon’s life, and died for her efforts. Now, after returning, she was still hated by the world for the actions Waller forced her to take. Dreamer was embittered and angry. She wanted revenge for being made into a puppet, and for the world to stop ripping away the things she cared about. She joined the Secret Six because she lost faith in heroes doing things the right way, and stayed even after Jon and Jay quit. She was a woman struggling to find herself and deciding to call a bunch of supervillains her home, teetering on the edge of becoming the villain the world called her.
Dreamer’s arc only ramped up in the Justice League Intergalactic Special, where she was forced to confront the reality of her position. Her friend, Galaxy, spends the whole issue trying to pull Dreamer from her self-pity-powered funk. Dreamer is jaded and uses every excuse to justify giving up and refusing to do anything but wallow in her own misery, but she still helps when the Justice League needs her. She refuses to be a hero, but is still so clearly a good person underneath all her angst. Right now, Dreamer is hateable in a very purposeful way, meant to make the audience want her to improve as a person and grow past her own shortsightedness.
Dreamer made me mad for just about the entire issue, but that’s the point. There are still so many signs that she wants to be a hero, from helping Galaxy to wearing her Superman pajama shirt, which in itself could be a sign of her character, as it was a Kingdom Come symbol, which represents the time Superman lost his faith. Dreamer is on the fast track to an absolutely incredible character arc, and it all starts by taking every negative aspect about her character and using them as fire to fuel her ascent. She has everything she needs to be great, and DC is finally exploring her potential in the best way.
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What do you hope they do with Dreamer’s character? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
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