Corinthian (comics)
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The Corinthian | |
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The Sandman vol. 2 #10 (October 1989) | |
Created by | Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg |
In-story information | |
Abilities | Limited clairvoyance, supernatural vision ("sees" despite lack of eyes), skilled combatant |
The Corinthian is a fictional character in
Boyd Holbrook portrayed the Corinthian in the first season of the Netflix television series The Sandman.
Abilities
The first Corinthian claims excellent eyesight, and is shown driving a car even while wearing sunglasses at night; but in the same volume, is shown consuming the eyes of humans through his own socket/mouths, which allows him to view their memories and even see the future. The Corinthian is also able to embody himself in human beings, whereof the eyes are consumed and replaced by teeth and the hair of the victim turns white. During the process, the eye sockets bleed profusely; but afterward, he resembles his victim in most features and can therefore impersonate it.
The second Corinthian resembles the first, but is very skilled at hand-to-hand combat and seems fearless. He possess the ability to detect shapeshifters; deducing Loki's disguise quickly thanks to the memories of his predecessor of living among shifters within the dreaming. During his search for Daniel Hall, the Corinthian, with little effort, kills a supernatural wolf with his bare hands, and later defeats Loki in single combat. He is also a skilled tracker; able locate targets across cities and realms with relative ease.
In 1999, Neil Gaiman stated that the Corinthian is homosexual in The Sandman Companion, wherein the first Corinthian consumed eyes only of boys. In 2022, he identified the Corinthian as pansexual in the Netflix TV series. [1] The second Corinthian is featured with a boyfriend as written by Caitlin R. Kiernan in the Dreaming.[2]
In The Sandman television series, the audience does not witness many of the Corinthian's abilities. The Corinthian does consume eyes onscreen and receives a glimpse of the victim's memories, but that is the extent of the abilities displayed in the series.
Occurrences
The Sandman
The Corinthian is
The Sandman Presents: The Corinthian
A three-issue miniseries called The Corinthian: Death In Venice tells how the first Corinthian entered the waking world and learned to murder human beings. In the series, the Corinthian displays his talent for possessing the bodies of the living, a process which causes the possessed body's hair to turn white and the eye sockets to bleed as the eyes are replaced (possibly eaten) by the Corinthian's teeth. The story takes place in Venice, in the year 1920, and includes such tangential plot elements as police corruption and anti-
The Corinthian wants someone to teach him "how to kill" and finds himself frustrated with Charles's inability to do violence even in self-defense. He eventually develops a rapport with Charles's traveling companion, a wealthy, traveling heiress who is degenerate and possibly insane. The woman claims that she cannot die, that she is the living incarnation of Pestilence, and refers to herself (and asks others to refer to her) by a new name each day, changing identities as she travels about. After she fatally shoots the Corinthian, and he survives by possessing the body of her young Italian lover, Amedeo, the woman recognizes the Corinthian as something other than human who can "become someone else." The two form a pact in which the woman agrees to teach the Corinthian how to murder, and the Corinthian agrees to teach her how to "stop being you."
The pivotal moment in the story comes while the characters are all attending the
The Dreaming
The new Corinthian is back again in
Nightmare Country
The second Corinthian continues his duties as humanity's black mirror and has developed several methods to keep his more volatile impulses in check including keeping a record of the memories of his predecessor. During one of his haunts in a dream he encounters and is drawn into the mystery of the "Smiling Man" a rogue dream like entity outside of Dream's control, who has a connection to several unexplained deaths. Discovering how widespread the Smiling Man has become he petitions Dream to allow him to re-enter the waking world and track the entity down with the aid of Maddison Flynn; a young woman who has had her connection to the Dreaming tampered with by unseen forces but has the power to see the Smiling Man in the waking world.
The pair follow a lead to a demonic night club where Azazel is working to harvest souls of unwary mortals in return for granting their hearts desires. One such victim being a young man named Max who is also seeing the Smiling Man. Azazel tempts the Corinthian to abandon Maddison by offering him a fragment of the original Corinthian that the demon had stolen from the Dreaming during his imprisonment after the events of Season of Mists. The demon claiming the fragment could break the restriction to kill that Morpheus had placed on him. While the Corinthian does go with the demon he seemingly remains concerned about Maddison's well being.
At the nightclub the demon continues to tempt the Corinthian to kill and embrace his original self but, the nightmare refuses. When Azazel has to take care of some business he slips away and comes across the reanimated form of Maddison's friend who is condemned to work at the club; tortured and mutilated at the hands of the depraved guests. He helps her treat some of her more severe injuries and the pair attempt an escape only to be caught by Max's boss Mr Teaugue and his Angel companion. A creature the Corinthian quickly recognises as something other than an angel.
Their battle is interrupted by Dream who intercedes and removes the source of the nightclub's power; a fragment of the original Dream that Azazael bit off in the events of Season of Mists. After taking back the power the group returns to the Dreaming where Dream ends Maddison and Corinthian's investigation. Having concluded on his own that the Smiling Man is some ploy of Desire and Despair's he removes the Corinthian's memories of the ordeal and returns him to the Shores of Night to continues his duties. Unfortunately this leaves Maddison without protection and she is abducted by the Smiling Man who has somehow managed to enter the Dreaming.
Other occurrences
- An exact double of the Corinthian's skull can be seen in the treasure chest of Daniel Hall during his brief Justice League of America occurrence. Dream placed the original Corinthian's skull in his personal chest, then crafted a new skull before infusing it into the new Corinthian, and this is likely the source.
- The Corinthian makes a few brief but critical occurrences in Sandman Mystery Theater, where he is implied to be responsible for the mental derangement of some of the killers Wesley fights.
In other media
Audio drama
On July 15, 2020,
Television
In June 2019, Netflix signed a deal with Warner Bros. to produce the series and gave it an order of eleven episodes. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. pitched the series to multiple networks—including HBO, which declined to move ahead with it due to its massive budget. Netflix "snapped it up" as part of its attempts to obtain big intellectual properties and attract subscribers.[5] The series was developed by Allan Heinberg, who will executive produce alongside Gaiman and Goyer.[6][7] Gaiman said he would be more involved than he was with the television adaptation of his American Gods (2001), but less than he was with the adaptation of Good Omens (1990).[citation needed]
In January 2021, Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry and Sanjeev Bhaskar were announced to be starring in the series with Holbrook portraying the character the Corinthian.[8]
Name
The origin of the Corinthian's name is unclear. In a later story arc of Sandman,
- "The letters" is a reference to the First (and second) dark mirror," as used by Dream to describe him.
- "The pillars" is a reference to Corinthian columns.
- "The leather" is referring to Corinthian leather.
- "The place" refers to Corinth, Greece.
- "The mode of behavior" (Corinthian behavior) is indulging in luxury and licentiousness.
In the Death In Venice miniseries, a beggar (who is not entirely reliable) claims that he exchanged one of his eyes for one offered to him by the Corinthian, and that he called him by the first thing he saw when he opened his new eye–a Corinthian pillar. Later in Death in Venice, the Corinthian refers to himself as "the dream rot."
According to an interview with Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, the Corinthian takes his name from the mode of behavior; specifically, "a Corinthian" was another term for a rake: a devil-may-care, ne'er-do-well.
In the television series, the Corinthian is asked if the name refers to the Biblical Corinthians, the Greek Corinth, or the leather, to which he replies, "Y'know, all of the above."
References
- ^ Gaiman, Neil (2022), Tumblr
- OCLC 213309015
- ^ Audible Originals | Audible.com – via www.audible.com.
- ^ ""The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman to Become an Audible Original".
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (June 30, 2019). "'Sandman' TV Series From Neil Gaiman, David Goyer — With Huge Price Tag — a Go at Netflix". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
- ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (July 1, 2019). "Netflix Orders 'The Sandman' Series Based On Neil Gaiman's DC Comic – Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
- ^ Cavanaugh, Patrick (July 1, 2019). "Netflix Officially Orders The Sandman Series From Neil Gaiman and David S. Goyer". Comicbook.com. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
- ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (January 28, 2021). "Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman' Casts Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry And Sanjeev Bhaskar". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 28, 2021.