The characters of Nightmare Country have been manipulated by unseen forces, both throughout this series and the series preceding it. Not just the lowly mortals, tortured investment banker bro, Max, whose firm is run by what appears to be a corrupt, rogue angel, and Flynn, who has been turned into a cat by Dream; the supernatural power players Thessaly and the Corinthian have spent several issues (and one special) trying to peek behind the curtain of metaphysical manipulation.
In its fifth issue, it seems that even the manipulators themselves are being directed: Azazel and Meroni, demon and angel, have each been pulling strings in some unseen machination, seemingly loosed from Hell and Heaven to turn to pursue their own profit-lust, seem to have been played, themselves. What power could possibly pit such monolithic figures against one another?
Well, a member of the Endless, of course.
Finally revealed by a lowly spirit summoned by Thessaly, the larger threat of Desire becomes apparent. Desire, ever the contentious sibling, rues Dream’s arrogance. In a long monologue, They debate the very fabric of America.
Long known as the Land of Dreams, the United States has long been over-idealized, a nation born from a hokey (and damning) fallacy: this is a land where people’s ambitions can be realized by the sheer force of their enterprising spirit. It was a nation founded on liberty and self-reliance (even, of course, as it stole those things from the indigenous peoples); what but Dreams could lead to such arrogance?
Desire presupposes that the American Dream might better be identified as the American Desire. A lust for independence, a lust for fame and fortune, a lust for liberty, and the rising rocket of capitalism. The very drive of the American colonization, Manifest Destiny, the ever-present flow of people Westward toward gold, toward Hollywood, not people following their dreams but people wanting something that few actually achieve.
It isn’t just the characters in our story that are being manipulated: it’s the whole of the American people.
On a level closer to home, the machinations of our resident dream, the Corinthian, come into focus. After several issues being plied and tempted by the demon Azazel – tempted to commit the murderous crimes for which he was created – we find that the Corinthian has only been playing along. He breaks away to search for a deeper truth about Flynn’s undead murderess (and object of Max’s affection), seeking to liberate her in a play for leverage.
All this moves us toward our impending conclusion – there’s only one more issue to go, with even more to uncover (is Meroni actually an angel? What is Mr Teague’s larger intent?).
Nightmare Country: The Glass House continues taking big swings, making huge statements, and delivering major revelations. The book continues to deepen the legacy from which it was born, leaning into gruesome, metaphysical truth on a scale that could only be accomplished in a Sandman title. All of this seems bigger than what could possibly be held in a single issue or even its larger collection of miniseries, and yet it is handled masterfully by writer James Tynion IV and artist Lisandro Estherren, becoming a vital part of the mythos.
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