The Corinthian: character abilities
The Corinthian is many things: nightmare, medium that reflect the darkness dwelling in the subconscious of human being, saint patron of serial killers and incomparable babysitter. In addition to all this, there are several references to his other abilities and powers in the comic books.
We do not have many opportunities to see the Corinthian fight. In The Kindly Ones, the three most significant occasions are the fight against the wolf, Loki and the spider Nybbas: all very important, as they demonstrate Corinthian's great physical strength; an element this, among others, that allowed him to first retrieve Daniel and then protect him in the castle.
INSPIRE AND COMMAND DREAMERS' THINKING AND ACTION
This apparently is an almost "obvious" aspect (dreams and nightmares inspiring human beings) but very fascinating especially because of the implications it has with a character like the Corinthian. In Overture, during a dramatic confrontation with Morpheus, he makes an explicit accusation against his Lord: he can inspire and command Gilles de Rais, the famous Bluebeard, to commit any kind of nefarious deeds but he himself cannot be the one to do them in the waking world. This suggests a connection between the Corinthian and the ante litteram "collectors" he inspired that precedes his escape into the waking world, though less systematically than he would do later. More importantly, however, the word command implies that the Corinthian's power does not merely inspire, but may also be able to exert substantial action in the real world, albeit indirectly.
Perhaps my favorite, which I fervently hope to see well represented in the TV show in the future! The Kindly Ones reveals to us this gift of the Corinthian: he can use the eyes as a tool to see the past and the future those to whom those eyes belonged (and it is a gift he can offer to others, as seen in The Corinthian Death in Venice). You're sick/No, I am a visionary is one of the most beautiful exchanges in the entire comic! (and it's emblematic that Corinthian refers to himself with this expression).
This is an ability shown in Death in Venice: the Corinthian, in the waking world, can takes possession of a man's body (and the man's hair turns white). This is one of his most disturbing and intriguing abilities and not far from the clairvoyance shown in The Kindly Ones: seeing the victims' lives through their eyes could be called a kind of possession, albeit in reverse.
These are perhaps among his best-known talents (thanks also to the splendid Nightmare Country panels). Artistic creation, whether intended symbolically or otherwise, is a concept strongly associated with this character (and words such as visionary, collector, collection refer to the art world). "I am everybody's story. I am Dream's story" he states in The Glass House, and this would presuppose a kind of passive acceptance of his always being a tale, never a narrator. But the Corinthian, when he writes, brings back memories of victories in a life that is not his life. It is precisely inherent in his being the will to be a storyteller and not just a narration (obviously with all that goes with it).
