Sandman (DC Comics)
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- For other comic book characters with the same name, see The Sandman (comics).
Template:Superherobox Sandman, alias Wesley Dodds, is a comic book superhero in the DC Comics universe, best known for his stories set during the 1940s and his "costume" consisting of a green business suit, fedora, and gas mask. He is a member of the Justice Society of America. He was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bert Christman and first appeared in World's Fair Comics #1
Following his debut, Sandman appeared in Adventure Comics from issues #40 to #102. Sandman was one of the earliest superheroes (then called "mystery men" for lack of a better term), though his status as such is debatable as he came rather from the detective tradition seen in the pulps of the 1930s. He had no superhuman powers, but was armed with an exotic "gas gun" that could compel villains to tell the truth, as well as put them to sleep.
In 1941, he was given a more superheroic yellow and purple costume by artist Chad Grothkopf, as well as a yellow-clad kid sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy. This version of the character was famously written and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
During and after the Silver Age, Sandman made occasional appearances in JSA/JLA teamups. He was one of a number of JSA members who found themselves in the "Ragnarok Dimension" during the early Modern Age. A minor retcon in Neil Gaiman's Sandman suggested that his chosen identity was a result of Dream's absence from his realm, and that he has an aspect of the Dreaming within him. This gave him prophetic dreams, allowing to him to avert disasters, such as the destruction of Washington D.C. at the hands of Per Degaton in recent issues of JSA.
A film-noir retelling of the original Sandman's adventures appeared in a 1993 series intended for adult readers entitled Sandman Mystery Theatre.
A one-shot special by Gaiman, Sandman Midnight Theatre, has Sandman interact with the back-story of Gaiman's book, as a visit to Britain leads to an encounter with Roderick Burgess and the imprisoned Dream.
In the present day setting, the JSA were released from Limbo, and a retired Wesley Dodds was shown as the "elder statesman" of superheroes, most notably in a team-up with Jack Knight, the son of Dodds' JSA teammate Starman.
In 1999, a year after the end of the Sandman Mystery Theatre series, Dodds committed suicide rather than allow the location of Dr. Fate to be mined from his mind by the villianous Mordru in JSA #1. His still-youthful but now grown-up sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy, became known simply as Sand and took his mentor's place as a member of the Justice Society of America. Like the Marvel Comics Sandman, Sand had gained the power to turn into sand.
In Mark Waid and Alex Ross' Kingdom Come, Wesley Dodds is tormented by prophetic visions of Armageddon. After his death these visions are passed to the protagonist, Norman McKay, who was one of his only remaining friends. Later it is revealed that the visions were sent to Dodds because his tenure as Sandman somehow gave him an affinity for dreams and their intepretation. Whether this is an allusion to the origin appearing in Gaiman's Sandman and Books of Magic or not is open to speculation, although the prophetic element strongly suggests it.