Dreamer

Creation

Nia Nal/Dreamer was created for the Arrowverse series Supergirl, debuting in it's fourth season and was the first transgender superhero on television. Based on and depicted as the 21st century ancestor of Nura Nal/Dream Girl, Dreamer was conceived by executive producer Greg Berlanti, as well as showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller.

In February 2020, Dreamer's actress Nicole Maines approached DC about bringing the character to the comic book universe, allowing Nia to live on beyond the Supergirl series.

This led to Maines writing Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story, a graphic novel which depicts Nia's main continuity origin, as well as being involved in all of the character's major comic appearances.

History

Origin

Nia Nal was raised in a small town called Parthas, where humans and aliens peacefully coexisted. Nia's mother Isabel came to Earth from the planet Naltor and was one of their Seers who could dream the future. This ability is passed down the matrilineal line, allowing one daughter per generation to inherit the gift.

It was believed that Nia's older sister Maeve would inherit their mother's powers, which led to Maeve dedicating her life to studying and preparing for them. Nia thought of herself as a supporting player in Maeve's story until she was fifteen, when a schoolyard incident led to her powers awakening.

Wanting to protect her sister from the truth, Nia ran away to Metropolis where she met Taylor Barzelay, Kat Silverberg and Yvette Turner. With them, Nia felt that she was able to be herself and they became sisters to her. However, Nia was soon found by Sybyll, one of the Seers of Naltor, who convinced Nia that she could give her powers to Maeve.

Nia returned home and confessed to her mother and Maeve that she's inherited the powers. Maeve demanded to know how Nia got them, rejecting her identity as a trans woman. Isabel tried to help Nia but upon realising that Sybyll had followed Nia home, went to confront her. Nia soon followed and discovered her mother dead at Sybyll's feet. A fight ensued which culminated with Nia unleashing her Dream Energy upon Sybyll.

When Nia came to, Sybyll was gone. Maeve was gone too following their mother's funeral and Nia began studying Isabel's books on dreams, vowing to honor her and embracing her identity as the Dreamer.

Siege of Gamorra

After seeing a vision of Henry Bendix killing many of the world's greatest heroes, Dreamer travelled to the Fortress of Solitude to warn the current Superman, Jon Kent. Having met her future descendant Nura Nal, Jon passed onto Nia a pair of gauntlets Nura made to help her channel Dream Energy. Nia also informed Jon that his father, the original Superman, would be returning.

Dreamer's warning of what Bendix will do caused Jon and Jay Nakamura to take the fight to him on his home turf of Gamorra, with the help of Dreamer and The Revolutionaries. While there, Dreamer's visions helped Jon prevent Bendix's energy weapon Skywatch from destroying Gamorra and everyone on it.

Lazarus Planet

While being offered a job at the Daily Planet by Cat Grant, Nia (who's now had her powers for almost three years) found herself experiencing a vision of Doctor Fate's helmet and travelled to the Hall of Justice as Dreamer to converse with Robin, Supergirl and Batman.

Together, they came to the conclusion that finding the Helmet of Fate was their best chance of defeating Devil Nezha. After failing to obtain the helmet's location from the current Doctor Fate, Khalid Nassour, through his dreams, Dreamer was guided to the Helmet of Fate in the Dreaming by a mysterious voice which told her that "Fate itself flows through you".

Once Dreamer found the Helmet of Fate, she decided to return it to the Hall of Justice and allow the heroes to use it to combat Devil Nezha. However, upon emerging through it, Dreamer discovered that it had been submerged in the Lazarus Pits on Lazarus Island. Thus Dreamer herself has now been exposed to Lazarus resin.

Knight Terrors

When much of Earth's population was plagued by their worst nightmares, this superhero whose powers revolve around dreams was apparently nowhere to be found.

Beast World

Following her exposure to Lazarus resin, Nia has been seeing visions of the future while awake and struggling to distinguish them from reality. One such vision is of explosions occurring across A-Town, a neighbourhood of Metropolis occupied by aliens.

After suiting up and failing to warn the citizens of A-Town of the impending destruction, Dreamer enlisted Superman's help in getting the word out, noting that people don't know her and need to hear this from someone they trust. Superman helped the people evacuate to Parthas where aliens can be safe, while Dreamer faced off against Livewire who was mutated by energy released across the planet by Beast Boy.

The next day while having breakfast with Jon in Parthas, Nia recalled a dream about a secret being revealed. She soon realised what it meant as the pair were visited by Amanda Waller, who threatened to expose Parthas if Dreamer didn't do a mission for her. Despite Jon's objections, Nia agreed to Waller's terms.

Dreamer's mission was to stop Afterthought from inciting a prison riot at Belle Reve that Nia knew would kill many of the prisoners and Afterthought himself. Dreamer succeeded in her mission, but it was revealed that she was Waller's real target, and now Waller knows how to manipulate Nia to her own ends.

Powers and Abilities

Nia's powers are based around dreams. She is able to dream the future, astral-project, channel the Dreaming into energy and use it to create constructs. Nia can also travel to and from the Dreaming physically, bring elements from the Dreaming into reality, and travel through others' dreams.

Additionally, Nia is skilled in combat and has occasionally been known to use gadgets outside of the gauntlets which help her channel Dream Energy.

Personal Information

• Height: 5'7"
• Eye Color: Brown
• Hair Color: Brown
• Birthday: March 15
• Species: Half-Human, Half-Naltorian
• Relatives: Paul Nal (father), Isabel Nal (mother), Maeve Nal (sister), Nura Nal (descendent), Mysa Nal (descendent)
• Place of Birth: Parthas
• Base of Operations: Metropolis
• Occupation: Superhero

Other Versions

Arrowverse

Nia was introduced as a new reporter at CatCo Worldwide Media and became mentored by Kara Danvers. After being caught falling asleep at work on numerous occasions, Nia said that she had narcolepsy before eventually confiding in Kara that her family was from Naltor and that she could dream the future.

After her mother's death and Maeve's betrayal, Kara wanted Nia to know she wasn't alone and revealed to her that she's Supergirl. Kara and Brainiac-5 helped Nia accept her destiny as Dreamer and allowed her to join the Super-Friends.

Brainy trained Nia and built her gauntlets to help harness Dream Energy. Soon, Nia and Brainy started dating before this was complicated by Brainy removing his personality inhibitors and working with Lex Luthor to stop Leviathan. Eventually the pair resolved their issues however and worked together to retrieve a sample of Kara's DNA from Midvale in 2009 so they and the rest of the Super-Friends could rescue her from the Phantom Zone.

Some time later, Nia gave into her desires to see her mother again and released Nyxly from the Dream Realm in exchange for one more day with her. During this day, Isabel helped Nia understand and accept her powers, in addition to making her realise that she has to confront Maeve.

This confrontation happened some time later when Nia needed Maeve's help to find the Dream Totem. They journeyed into the Dream Realm to find it, but upon doing so Maeve attempted to take it for herself. This led to an argument where Nia finally stood up for herself and truly embraced her identity as the Dreamer. Later, Maeve asked Nia for forgiveness, which was denied but Nia did offer her a second chance to make things right between them.

Two years later, while trying to take her powers to the next level, Nia found them being taken away by a mysterious hooded figure and experienced a vision of Iris West-Allen being murdered.

Nia travelled to Central City to converse with Iris and revealed to her that she's a career role model. Nia and Iris were soon confronted by the hooded figure and trapped in Iris' dreams. There, they witnessed Iris' alternate futures while the hooded figure pursued them.

Eventually, Nia realised that the hooded figure was actually guiding them and that in order to restore and advance her powers, she had to stop trying to control them. The hooded figure revealed herself to be Nia's ancestor and the first Dreamer, who returned Nia's powers and allowed her and Iris to wake up.

Nia's ancestor would go on to teach her more ways of utilising her abilities. It has also been eluded to that Nia and Brainy will get married and that Dreamer will start an LGBTQ+ Centre.