Doctor Destiny first appeared in Justice League of America volume 1 number 5, which was published in June of 1961, and is one of those DC villains who went from a humorous villain to a worldwide menace. Doctor Destiny is a DC supervillain created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky who has the ability to influence anyone’s dreams. His cruelty and craziness are unmatched, making him the creepiest monster in comics.
He was voiced by William Atherton. – “I am thinking of dismembering the world and then dancing in the ruins.” He has a skeletal visage and a body that resembles ‘Skeletor’ from “He-Man” after withering away as a result of his misuse of the Dream stone.
The Sandman comic book series, created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg, aimed to turn the Silver Age villain into a world-threatening and nightmare-inducing monster, heightening the character’s dread. So, without further ado, let us have a look at the origins and evolution of “Doctor Destiny.”
WHO IS DOCTOR DESTINY?
Doctor Destiny is a DC Comics supervillain who is a renegade foe of the Justice League.. Other personalities with the same name have existed, but John Dee is the most well-known. Doctor Destiny is a genius scientist who created items like an anti-gravity apparatus. He eventually achieved dream manipulation through the Dreamstone and the Materioptikon, allowing him to bring his dreams to reality. When hypnosis took away his capacity to dream, he began to use other people’s dreams.
Doctor Destiny made his debut in Justice League of America Vol. 1. He was formerly a criminal scientist named John Dee who broke into the Justice League’s headquarters using an antigravity device and a Green Lantern costume. He then used a “will deadening beam” to decimate their free will and planned to destroy them by sending their headquarters into space, but the real Green Lantern showed up and conquered him.
His mother, Ethel Dee, ended up giving him Morpheus’ Dreamstone. He attached this mystical relic to a machine called the “Materioptikon”, which gave him the ability of dream alteration, allowing him to make his fantasies come true. The Materioptikon, also known as the Dreamstone, is a powerful object that allows the user to perceive dreams and bring them to life, as well as reshape reality itself. If the stone is broken and utilized in an imperfect state.
The catastrophe would cause the fabric of space-time to split, resulting in the annihilation of all existence. They were a part of Dream and Doctor Destiny’s legacy. He renamed himself Doctor Destiny and geared up against the Justice League and was ready to face them once more.
His power was so tremendous that he had to be hypnotized to cease his capacity to dream, which led him to go insane and was put in Arkham Asylum. Doctor Destiny had entirely withered away at the conclusion of his prison sentence. He’d lost his hair, his complexion had become white, and his physique had shrunk to the point that he resembled a walking skeleton rather than a human.
He was left with insanity and a single driving desire to kill the Justice League. He managed to break free and used the Sandman to manipulate other people’s dreams against the Justice League, but he has beaten once again, and Sandman was set free. When his mother passed away, he fled Arkham once again, regained the Dreamstone, and went berserk.
PHANTOM OF WASHINGTON THIS IS WHERE IT ALL STARTED
Achille Destinee, a French soldier, was the man who has become known as the Phantom of Washington. He served as a military engineer and general for Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars in the 18th century. When Napoleon invaded Egypt, Destinee investigated the subterranean tombs and uncovered an antique weapon of unfathomable power.
He moved from France to the United States after the war, where he worked as an intern under patriotic leader Benjamin Franklin. Destinee addressed President James Madison in 1814 and offered his assistance in repelling the British intrusion. He showed him his weapon and vowed to preserve the capital. Madison turned down his offer, considering Destinee to be nothing more than a lunatic. Destinee resolved to take up the matter and galloped off towards the Capitol Building, intending to eliminate the British soldiers.
However, one soldier got the better of him and fatally wounded him with his bayonet. Destinee concealed his relic within the dome of the Capitol Building before dying, swearing that he would emerge from the grave to harass those who were too resentful to accept his assistance. The Phantom of Washington initially appeared before President Abraham Lincoln in 1861, at the start of the American Civil War.
During the early days of World War I, he reappeared to President Woodrow Wilson. He was seen again in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential limousine on the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in December 1941. Very little is known about the ghost’s activity after WWII, save that he generally came before the start of a conflict, always delivering the same counsel he had given President Madison.
The Phantom, infuriated that no one would ever embrace his assistance, resolved to vent his hatred on the whole city. He utilized his spectral powers to wreak havoc on iconic structures such as the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol Building. The hero Metamorpho, Rex Mason, was present in the city throughout this spate of attacks and utilized his elemental talents to confront the Phantom.
During the skirmish, greedy inventor Simon Stagg seized the item and transported it to Fort Knox, hoping to steal the gold reserve. The Phantom and Metamorpho pursued Stagg’s trial, and the Phantom ventured into a sea of molten gold in an attempt to recover his relic. Metamorpho triggered a chemical reaction in the liquid gold, apparently forever dispelling the Phantom’s spirit. The Phantom’s Egyptian relic, presumably, was also destroyed.
DESTINY WAS A CRIMINAL SCIENTIST
Destiny was a criminal scientist again after the Crisis, but he was a failure until his mother handed him the Dreamstone of Dream of the Endless, a symbol of enormous power, so he could flee Arkham Asylum. Tragically for Destiny, excessive use of the gemstone’s powers deteriorated his body and mind while providing him with remarkable abilities.
His powers expanded -as his body and sanity deteriorated. He was a harsh and crazy psychic force locked in a feeble, broken body unable to dream towards the end. His sadism and insanity drove him to consider utilizing the Dreamstone to actually scour the darkness of all human souls, allowing him to rule over everyone via their dreams.
The Justice League narrowly managed to derail his scheme for world dominance and seize the ruby, but the harm had already been done. Dream of the Endless desired the ruby to remedy the situation Destiny had caused by interfering with it, but the good Doctor conversely started a fight that only ended when he clobbered the ruby himself in the hope that Dream would perish with the obliteration of the emblem containing the majority of his essence.
Instead, the collapse of the Materioptikon unleashed all of the internal power Dream had put into it, allowing Dream to overcome Destiny and reclaim his capacity to dream, returning him to Arkham Asylum.
DOCTOR DESTINY OTHER VERSIONS
Dr. Destiny makes a brief cameo in Grant Morrison’s 1989 Batman comic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Morrison reveals in the annotated screenplay for Arkham Asylum that he was not a fan of the common picture of the Doctor as a big, heavily muscled man with a skull for ahead. Rather, he felt Destiny’s body would have “withered horrifically” if he had lost his ability to dream.
Thus, the artist, Dave McKean, depicts him as atrophied and frail, confined to a wheelchair, but nevertheless holding a subterranean amount of power that could not be overlooked. He is quickly destroyed by Batman, who knocks the villain’s wheelchair down a flight of stairs before he can use his powers, however, it is unclear if his latent talents created a temporal time loop, causing the events of the story to unfold.
Doctor Destiny also made an appearance in Johnny DC’s Justice League Unlimited spin-off comic book. He debuts alongside Dr. Fate and Blue Devil in issue when he faces the Justice League. Doctor Destiny is seen to appear in the TV show-based All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Klarion the Witch Boy summons the Doctor, Blockbuster, the vampire Dala Vadium, Hugo Strange’s Monster Men, Man-Bat, Professor Milo’s werewolves, and Solomon Grundy to aid in the struggle against Batman and Zatanna.
CREATIVE AND TERRIFYING VERSIONS OF DOCTOR DESTINY IN VARIOUS FORMS OF MEDIA – EXPLORED
Doctor Destiny is a character in the DC Animated Universe that is voiced by William Atherton. He was briefly considered for a part in The New Batman Adventures with Atherton. Destiny makes an appearance in the Justice League episode “Only a Dream.” This version portrayed John Dee, a low-level LexCorp employee and small-time crook imprisoned in Stryker’s Prison for protecting a number of smuggled weapons.
He agrees to be a test subject for a doctor’s research on the Materioptikon, a machine that grants humans ESP powers. In between sessions, he fantasizes about beating the Justice League on his own and joining the Injustice Gang. Dee exploits the Materioptikon during a prison riot, getting telepathy and fleeing to harm people in their dreams when his parole request is denied and his wife Penny leaves him for another man.
Dee murders Penny before putting the majority of the Justice League in their darkest nightmares, using his talents to modify his appearance and assuming the name “Doctor Destiny.” While a sleep-deprived Batman ultimately hunts down and confronts Destiny, Martian Manhunter saves his fellow Leaguers. Destiny mistakenly injects himself with a strong sedative during the subsequent struggle and is later amended at Stryker’s whilst in a catatonic state.
Destiny makes many non-speaking cameos in Justice League Unlimited, indicating that he has presumably healed and is now able to adopt his nightmare form in reality. He has joined Gorilla Grodd’s Secret Society as of the episode “I Am Legion.” Lex Luthor seizes leadership of the Society prior to and during the episode “Alive!”
Grodd leads a revolt. Destiny joins the subsequent free-for-all, side with the members of the Luthor-aligned Society until Darkseid destroys the group’s headquarters. Doctor Destiny’s alter ego, John Deegan, serves as the major adversary in the 2018 live-action Arrowverse crossover “Elseworlds,” predominantly portrayed by Jeremy Davies. This version, an Arkham Asylum doctor, believes in enhancing people to help them reach their full potential, even if his colleagues think he’s insane and his techniques are excessive.
The multiverse-traveling Monitor visits Deegan, congratulates him on his “vision,” and hands him the Book of Destiny, allowing him to rewrite reality as he sees appropriate. Deegan aspires to become a superhero, but unwittingly changes the lives of Barry Allen and Oliver Queen instead. After convincing their various teams of the changes and learning about Deegan, the heroes fly to Arkham to confront him.
Deegan manages to flee while they seize the Book of Destiny. The Monitor then delivers the book to Deegan, who successfully modifies reality and transforms himself into a black-suited Superman. Despite being reduced to helpless criminals, Allen and Queen enlist Earth-38 allies to assist them in stopping Deegan. Queen, with the Monitor’s assistance, is successful in detaching Deegan from the Book of Destiny and reversing his modifications, culminating in Deegan’s disfigurement. Later, he is imprisoned in Arkham. In the forthcoming TV series The Sandman, David Thewlis will play John Dee.
Alfred Molina voices a version of the New 52 Doctor Destiny, simply referred to as “Destiny,” in the animated film Justice League Dark. This incarnation, described as a black magic practitioner active centuries ago, was first destroyed by Merlin and Etrigan the Demon, with his spirit trapped in the “Dreamstone,” an ancient magical item housed in the House of Mystery and guarded by John Constantine. Ritchie Simpson is duped into assembling the Dreamstone in order to save his own life, which brings Destiny back to life in Simpson’s body. Destiny is vanquished by Constantine, Deadman, and Jason Blood when they detach him from the Dreamstone, despite his great strength. Doctor Destiny is portrayed by Zach MacKendrick in the live-action fan film Sandman: 24 Hour Diner.