Sandmen
Wesley created by Bernard Christman • Sandy created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
+ History
The original Sandman
(from the
cover of
Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 5:
Wesley Dodds was the son of investor Edward Dodds and his wife Marina. His mother died when he was a boy and his father passed away in the mid-1930s. He had a brother, Gerald, who became trapped in Warsaw after the invasion of Poland (Gerald's ultimate fate is unknown).
The seeds of Wes' career as an adventuror were sowed in 1916, when an English occultist imprisoned the Lord of the Dreaming, Dream of the Endless. As the universe attempted to compensate for Dream's absence, young Wesley Dodds began having strange, prophetic dreams. (Sandman v.2 #1) Years later, Dodds actually met the imprisoned Dream, who acknowledged "there is some of me in you." The Lord of the Dreaming stripped Wesley of his memory of this meeting. (Sandman Midnight Theatre)
Over the years Wesley's prophetic dreams became more of a curse. His restless nights compelled him don a gas mask and trenchcoat to become the Sandman, one of the first so-called "mystery men" to burst onto the scene, in 1938. In his first major case, he solved a series of murders committed by a killer called the Tarantula. (Adventure #40, Sandman Mystery Theatre #1-4)
The Sandman's adventures brought Wes into contact with several other men also destined for careers as mystery men. These included Rex Tyler, who became the Hourman (#29-32); Ted Knight, later Starman (#37-40); Jim Corrigan, the Spectre (#42); and Polish pilot Janos Prohaska, the Blackhawk. (#45-48)
Wesley met Dian Belmont shortly after he became the Sandman. Dian would become Wesley's soulmate, and although they never married (despite Wes' proposal [#70]) and had no children, they were deeply committed to one another and remained together their entire lives. At one point, Dian became pregnant with Wes' child and consulted Dr. Charles McNider (the future Dr. Mid-Nite). (#55) She ultimately chose to have an abortion because their relationship at the time was uncertain. (#56)
In 1939, the Sandman met Isabella Sforza, a romance writer who became the killer called Mantis. Wes' worldview was forever changed when he discovered a garden of corpses in the Mantis' lair. The Mantis nearly killed Wes, and after this case, he began experimenting to invent a stronger "incapacitant." He eventually succeeded in creating a chemical that induced a sleep from which the victim might never wake; but he never used this weapon in the field. (SMT: Sleep of Reason #4)
Sandman and Sandy's
wartime costumes
In late June of 1941, Dian designed a new costume for Wes (one more in keeping with his peers'). She showed the costume design to mystery writer Jonathan Law, who was also inspired to become the Tarantula. Shortly after this, Dian was apparently killed while wearing the Sandman's original costume. (All-Star Squadron #18) Perhaps not long after, it was discovered that Dian had survived. She and Wes then became the legal guardians of Dian's nephew, Sanderson Hawkins. "Sandy" and Wes began wearing Dian's designs and shared adventures until 1946. (Adventure #69-102)
In 1942, the All-Star Squadron formed a group of young sub-group called the Young All-Stars and charged them with touring the country to promote war bonds. Sandy was reluctant to join them; he believed his experience made him superior, and so his relationship with the others was strained at first. He was especially hostile to the young heroine Tsunami, who had previously fought the Squadron. Sandy stayed with this group only to the completion of their tour, then he returned to adventuring alongside the Sandman. (Young All-Stars #1-6)
In 1947, Wes began experimenting with a new "silicoid" gun, a device which accidentally turned Sandy into a silicon-based monster. Not knowing what else to do, Wes contained Sandy in his basement until he could devise a cure. This, coupled with Wes' health problems led him to retire as the Sandman. (JLofA #113) Over the years, Wes remained largely in retirement through the JSA's continued activities. His next recorded adventure was during the JSA's team-up with the fledgling Justice League of America. In this adventure, the Sandman returned to his original costume. (JLofA #46-47)
His failure to cure Sandy led Wesley to seek psychiatric help from a Dr. Raymond Baxter. Baxter employed hypnosis, and Wes forgot everything about his role as Sandman — and Sandy's predicament. Several years later, Wes was lured into a trap by the Sandman's one-time enemy "Snooze" Simpson. As a result of his ordeal, Wes recovered his memories and renewed his vow to restore Sandy's humanity. He succeeded; but while Sandy had not physically aged since his transformation, he was no longer truly human, but a silicon-based being. (DC Comics Presents #42, 47) The Sandman was ever-willing to continue his adventures, but Wesley Dodds was the unfortunate victim of multiple strokes. The first happened shortly before the infamous Crisis (Infinity, Inc. #1), and he suffered another upon the JSA's return from the infinite battle at Ragnarok. (Justice Society v.2 #1)
Exit Light, Enter Night
The Sandman shared his final stateside adventure with the son of the original Starman, Jack Knight. (Starman v.2 #20-24) After this, Dian and Wes departed for a tour of the Far East, intending never to be heard from again. (#30) Knowing that she was dying of cancer, Dian wanted to spend her last days in the land of her own dreams — the exotic lands of the Middle East. After they arrived in Afghanistan, Dian was kidnapped by militants led by a man named Masad. Wes was forced to don his mask once more to free her from her captors in Kashmir. This time, for the first time ever, he used the experimental version of his sleeping gas. He unleashed the gas on Masad's men, causing them to enter a near-death nightmarish state. Dian shot Masad, who was also exposed to the gas, and they left him for dead. Later in Jalalabad, Wes decided to leave all his equipment — including the stronger gas and its antidote — behind in a trunk. Later Masad would return to find this trunk and to face Wes' successor in the Middle East, Kieran Marshall.
Dian died either during or soon after this trip; the story of her passing has never been told. Without his true love at his side, it was not difficult for Wes to choose to sacrifice himself against Mordru. His death prevented the evil magician from learning the identity of the next incarnation of Dr. Fate. (JSA Secret Files #1)
The
Sandman's funeral served as the impetus to reform the Justice Society
— and for Sandy's return to adventuring. Sandy
became a founding member of the new Justice Society. (JSA
#1) Wes left more than one legacy to Sandy. Not only did he
inherit a tidy fortune, but he also began having the disturbing and
prophetic dreams which had plagued the Sandman. Now calling himself Sand,
he quickly became a cornerstone of the new JSA.
Sandy's transformation gave him additional powers. He could transform his body into sand and travel through the earth, riding fault lines. After joining the JSA, he acquired a costume developed by TylerCo that would change form along with him. Sand began taking a leadership role, inviting the new Mr. Terrific to join the JSA, (#5) and he was soon voted the team's Chairman. He was instrumental during one of their most challenging hours; when Imperiex threatened to annihilate the universe, Sand led a massive new All-Star Squadron to the planet Daxam, where they freed the planet from Imperiex's planet-sized ship. (JSA: Our Worlds at War)
Sanderson Hawkins as
Sandman IV
(from JSofA #5, 2007)
After a dispute between Sand and Hawkman, Mr. Terrific was elected team Chairman. (#27) Not long after, during a difficult battle against Mordru and Eclipso, Sand spread his entire being through the earth in order to stop a massive earthquake. He did not return from this heroic endeavor. (#50) For a time he was lost, but thanks to the expertise of explorer Cave Carson, Sandy's lingering sentience was discovered. (#52) He was finally freed from both his mental and physical imprisonment by Carson and two teams of JSAers. While missing, Sandy's consciousness had assumed the role of the late Garret Sanford: Sandman II. (#63) The "astral JSA team" battled for control of Sand's psyche and another team found his physical essence deep within the Earth. Dr. Fate banished the goblins and Power Girl brought his body to Earth for restoration. (#64)
At some point after the second great Crisis, Sandy finally took the name Sandman (IV) (52 #29) for himself and adopted a costume not unlike Wesley's. When the JSA founders began rebuilding the team with so-called "legacy" heroes, Sandy was on-board again as well. (JSofA v.3 #1)
Sandy has had no known romantic engagements or children.
The Non-Sandman, Kieran Marshall
The legacy of Wes Dodds' experimental sleep gas: Masad
and Kieran Marshall
(Sandman Mystery Theatre: Sleep of Reason #5, 2007)
Seven years after Wes and Dian's visit to Afghanistan, their foe, Masad, recovered Wes' left-behind artifacts. Masad duplicated Dodds' experimental gas and its antidote and became an unaffiliated terrorist.
After being shot and dosed with the gas by Wes and Dian, Masad connected with an other-worldly power in his dreams. In this realm, Masad's cruel mentor taught him how to be the ultimate survivor and warrior. Two years after the incident, Wes Dodds died and his "gift" of prophetic nightmares was passed on to several individuals. One was Sanderson Hawkins, Another was Masad. And a third was Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Kieran Marshall.
Marshall came to Afghanistan as a photographer, embedded with U.S. troops. Kieran was kidnapped by Masad and discovered the Sandman's weapons in Masad's possession. Kieran donned the mask and gun and escaped, vowing to stop Masad's terror plot. Although he was successful, Masad survived once again. During this time Marshall also met a girl named Alia who exhibited some of the Sandman's prophetic abilities. Alia aided Kieran and implored him to fight evils of war with his camera. The result was an acclaimed photo essay in Time magazine. (Sandman Mystery Theater: Sleep of Reason #1-5)
Kieran was said to be divorced. It was not revealed whether he had children.
The Enigmatic and Pivotal Dian Belmont
Dian Belmont is the biggest curiosity to current Sandman continuity. She herself played the role of "Sandy" — twice. (SMT #45, 69) It is unclear if her partnership with the Sandman was ever more extensive than these two cases.
In Sandman Mystery Theatre, Dian was portrayed as an only child, so the part about Sandy being her nephew remains unexplained. Also, the circumstances of her return from the dead (following the events of All-Star Squadron #18) have yet to be told.
Dian did not appear in Adventure Comics after the Sandman's costume change (by Jack Kirby). She was similarly absent from the tales involving Wesley's hypnotic amnesia and Sandy's transformation. If we are to believe that she and Wes were always together, then surely her presence would have influenced both of the aforementioned situations. (Perhaps she, too, underwent hypnosis.)
As a writer, Dian achieved the ultimate, winning the Nobel Prize for her novel Whispers in Darkness. (Starman v.2 #20)
Legacy
All the men who have taken the name "Sandman" owe their position to Dream of the Endless. This powerful, elemental cosmic entity was the source Wesley's dreams. Though Dream is commonly referred to as "the Sandman" because of the title of his popular series, he was never called "Sandman."
While Dream was imprisoned, two of his errant minions, Brute and Glob bestowed some of Dream's powers on Garret Sanford, Sandman II. (Sandman v.1, 1974) Sanford eventually committed suicide and Brute and Glob coerced a new pawn: Hector Hall, the son of Hawkman. (Infinity Inc. #48-51) Hall's tenure as Sandman III was brief. Soon after this Dream was released from his imprisonment and reclaimed his power and domain. Dream punished Brute and Glob and killed Hall. (Sandman v.2 #12) Incidentally, Hall's infant son Daniel was chosen by Dream to be his successor. (Sandman #22, 40, 69-72)
Dream Girl, a member of the 31st century Legion of Super-Heroes also shares the ability to walk among the Dreaming and glimpse the future.
Notes & Continuity
Before the Sandman Mystery Theatre series, Secret Origins #7 (1986) established the date of the Sandman's debut as June 10, 1939. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the debuts of several heroes (including the Sandman, the Flash and Hourman) have been moved earlier to fill the void left by the elimination of the Golden Age Superman and Batman. The Sandman's first published appearance was in New York World's Fair Comics #1, released April 30, 1939, although the story in Adventure #40, which was published in early June 1939, preceded it chronologically (and was probably written first). Dian Belmont's first appearance was in Adventure #47 (February 1940). The Tarantula in Sandman Mystery Theatre story bears little resemblance to the villain of Adventure #40, which was reprinted in Justice League of America #94 (1972).
Wesley Dodds may have been the DCU's first costumed adventurer, though it is debatable. Some accounts, such as Golden Age Secret Files #1 (2.01), suggest that the Crimson Avenger was the first costumed hero in current DCU continuity. However, Secret Origins #5 ties the Crimson Avenger's debut to the famous broadcast of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds on Halloween of 1938 (months after Wes became the Sandman). This may suggest that while the Avenger may have been the first prominently known masked avenger (thanks, perhaps, to Travis' publicity in his own newspaper), he was actually preceded by several other heroes including Dr. Occult, Quicksilver, the Sandman, and (probably) the Flash. See the JSA Chronology of the Golden Age.
Alex Ross' first work for DC Comics was a story of Wes drawn for the Sandman Mystery Theatre Annual #1 (1994)
+ Powers
Save for his prophetic dreams, the Wesley Dodds had no metahuman abilities.
Before his transformation into the silicoid monster, Sandy was also a normal human. Since then, however, he can change his body (which is now silicon-based) into any form. He can also use this ability to travel through the earth.
Appearances + References
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All-Star Comics #1-21 
