Character Analysis: The Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

Hello, and welcome to Comic Contemplation! Normally, you'd think I'd be doing a comic book review right now, but your wrong! Today is the first ever posting of Character Analysis, something I'll be doing, every so often in place of my reviews. Today, I'll be looking at a lesser known hero, The Sandman. And no, this is not the Marvel version that can turn to sand, or Vertigo's creepy Neil Gaiman creation. This is Wesley Dodds the first Sandman!

Name: Wesley Dodds
Alias: The Sandman
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 172 lb
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Character History: Wesley Dodds was born in 1910 as a Jewish-Catholic. At age 7 Wesley's Mother died and he was sent to the Orient where he learned Herbalism, Martial Arts, and Origami. Eventually he traveled all over Asia and Europe with his father. Eventually Dodds moved back to America. Around this time (1938) the Dream of the Endless was imprisoned in the universe and a bit of it was implanted into Dodds soul. This caused him to dream about crimes and, being unable to rest, he decided to take up crime fighting. Using his fortune he created a lab, sedatives, and hypnotic gasses. He bought different gas masks and soon took up the mantle of The Sandman! He also was one of the first ever heroes to team up with another, which he did with a college friend, Lee Travis who became The Crimson Avenger! (Maybe he'll be in one of these Analysis!) Anyway Dodds faced many villains such as The Phantom of the Fair, The Tarantula, Scorpion, Dr. Death, and The Butcher. After defeating criminals Sandman left them with a Poem folded in Origami. Later, after the U.S. entered WWII, President Roosevelt organized a group of heroes who formed the Justice Society of America, the predecessor of the Justice League. Sandman also joined the All-Star Squadron. Later, while Sandman was out on business, a crime was committed and his girlfriend, Dian Belmont dressed up as him and chased after them. She was wounded and later reported dead (She wasn't actually dead though.) and Wesley obtained custody of her nephew Sandy Hawkins, who later became his sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy! On Sandy's advice, Wesley changed his costume from the more menacing trench coated version, to a more lighthearted one, in which he wore gold and purple (Honestly I hated the Gold and Purple version of him.) Both versions of him can be seen here. (The original's on the top right and the Purple and Gold is on the bottom right.) Anyways, tragedy struck as
once again, a heroes sidekick falls from grace. I'm not saying this happens often (*cough* Bucky *cough*) but Sandy was almost killed by an explosion. This time it was because Wesley's prototype for a silicon bomb went off. This didn't kill Sandy, but it mutated him into a giant, raving, Silicon Monster (Clayface, anyone?) This forced Wesley to put Sandy into stasis as he looked for a cure, and over time retired from being Sandman altogether. and he quite the Justice Society which was endig soon anyway. Wesley then spent his life on business trips with Dian Belmont, while looking for a cure for Sandy. This lasted for quite some time, until one night he couldn't take it and he visited Sandy in stasis. He

apologized for not having cured him even though he was trying his best. Suddenly a future version of Sandy appeared, saying that Sandman had cured him and that now Sandman had to stop an assassination attempt on President Truman with the rest of the Justice Society. The supervillain assassin turned the Golden Age Atom into an Atomic Bomb, but with the hep of Johnny Thunder's lightning bolt, Yz, they were able to turn him back to normal. The assassin fled into the timestream, and the following Time distortion made the Justice Society members forget the entire adventure. Later, in the 1960's Sandman came out of retirement along with the rest of the JSA. To prevent himself of remembering Sandy's transformation he changed back to a variant on his original outfit as seen above to the left. Later after a fight with a horrible villain, Shatterer, Sandy was cured and they once again fought side by side. Later, in the 1980's Sandman had a stroke causing him to restrict his abilities. Despite this, he still fought with The JSA in Limbo during Ragnarok. Then after Zero Hour, Dodds was aged and retired from crime fighting. Eventually he traveled the world one last time, and when confronted with the Gray Man on top of Mt. Kailash, he jumped off the mountain, killing himself, rather than reveal anything tho the Gray Man. Dodds body was laid to rest next to his wife, Dian 's, in Valhalla, a graveyard where many other superheroes were put to rest. His old sidekick, Sandy, read his Eulogy. Later during Blackest Night, Sandman was resurrected along with the other dead Justice Society Members. A picture of him as a black Lantern appears to the left. Later, during Flashpoint, Sandman is seen alive during a gathering of superheroes. He also appears alive in the New 52 in the comic Earth 2, though in this version, he is the leader of a group of Sandmen, has white hair, and is supposedly Canadian. As you can see, Wesley Dodds aka Sandman was a great unknown superhero. I hope after reading this you'll appreciate him better. This is the reason for Character Analysis. Its to show lesser known heroes like the Crimson Avenger, or The Shadow, not to show people like Batman, or Spider-Man. Anyway, tell me which comic book you'd like me to review next, or which character to analyze next! Excelsior!

Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963)

Welcome to Comic Contemplation! The only blog that reviews All Heroes. Recently a lot of you have wanted me to do Iron Man! So here we go! Also, if you haven't already noticed, I change the color of the text for each super hero. For Iron man, I've decided to do gray until he changes his suit to gold, and eventually red and yellow. Anyways, onto the review!

"Iron Man is born!"

Our story starts off at a highly guarded area were Tony Stark (NOT Robert Downey Jr.) is working on a top secret project for the government. Tony has invented transistors, which are so powerful they can rip open a foot thick steel vault. We then find out Tony is not just a scientist but also a Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist. Mean while in southern Vietnam, a communist leader, Wong-Chu, is taking over multiple villages. He says that if any man beats him in a fight he'll free the village, but so far, that has not happened. Around the time this all is happening, Tony stark visits Vietnam to see his transistors in action. They beat back the communists, but Tony sets off a booby trap, and Wong-Chu finds him. They find that he is a weapons inventor and that (Due to shrapnel near his heart) he only has one week left to live. They decide to trick him into making them super weapons until he dies. Tony realizes their plan and plays along until they leave him alone. Then he decides to invent something that will keep him alive, and help him escape Wong-Chu. After a few days they give him a fellow prisoner, Prof. Yinsen to help Tony. Together they invent the original Iron Man armor (Since Wong-Chu is only having Tony design the weapons I'm not sure where they get the supplies to make the armor. My guess is that they made it out of old Tin Cans and Paperclips.) Anyways, when they're almost done, Wong-Chu starts to come. To distract him and give Tony time to put on the armor, Prof. Yinsen attacks Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu shoots him as Tony hides with the armor. Tony swears to avenge the Prof. and leaves. Later when Wong-Chu is once again fighting to keep the villages under his control a mysterious figure challenges him. Wong-Chu accepts and the stranger takes off his Trench coat and Fedora to reveal Iron Man! Wong-Chu freaks out and calls Iron Man a machine. Tony is insulted and throws Wong-Chu into 
the forest. Wong-Chu is a sore loser and tells the guards to shoot Iron Man (This should be funny.) All the bullets bounce off him. "Quick get the grenades!" someone yells. Well thats plain unfair so Tony simply reverses the magnetism of the grenades causing them to fire on Wong-Chu's troops. How does he accomplish this amazing feet? With a magnet. A super genius and he uses a magnet to fend off grenades? Beside, can't his armor hold up to an explosion. I know he made it in a cave but still, its bulletproof. Anyways Wong-Chu turns on a loud speaker to tell the troops to destroy Iron Man. Tony interferes and all the Loudspeakers produce is static. Then Tony tells the troops to abandon Wong-Chu and they don't hesitate to. Iron Man chases after Wong-Chu who pins him under a Filing Cabinet. Honestly? He's bulletproof and can divert grenades, but you can trap him under Filing Cabinet? (Note to Self: If ever fighting Iron Man bring Filing Cabinets. Its Iron Man's Kryptonite.) Wong-Chu takes the advantage and tells the Guards to kill all the prisoners. Iron man response is to cover him with oil and light him on fire
using a blowtorch to light him on fire. This results in a huge
explosion that probably killed all the prisoners Iron Man was trying to save in the first place. Iron Man then walks into the jungle wondering what will happen to him.

I have two notes. One, why is Iron Man gray in this issue? Its the color of actual Iron. It makes too much sense! Two, this is a really good origin issue for Tony,  but it talks about the Vietnam war. I checked and now Tony's Origin has been upgraded to the War on Terror so he's not 50 years old. Its the same deal with Captain America. Originally he was only trapped for 20 years in Ice but now its been 80 to 90 years. Poor Cap. Anyway tell me what you think of the review and what hero you'd like to see next!

Detective Comics #27 (May 1939)

Last time on Comic Contemplation I covered the first ever appearance of Flash the Fastest Man Alive! This time I thought I should do something more people know about. Yep, it's time to go back to 1939 for the first appearance of the most EPIC hero ever. Its time for me to review Batman! More specifically his first appearance, Detective Comics #27! Lets go!

"The Case of the Chemical Syndicate"

To start I think I'll tell you what Batman's introduction into the world was: "The 'Batman,' a mysterious and adventurous figure  fighting for righteousness and apprehending the wrong-doer, in his lone battle against the evil forces of society... His identity remains unknown." Well I'm not so sure about that last part, I do like this intro, but I do like the way they portray him, as a figure of mystery as you do not yet know his identity. This will be ruined very quickly, but for the time I'll go with it. Anyways, we start off with two really bored guys sitting in a police department, wishing something interesting would happen. Um, shouldn't police officers be happy that no comes are being committed? Anyways, the men are introduced as Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne. Gordon says nothing interesting has happened recently except for a mysterious fellow people call The Batman. Then the phone rings and the Comish picks it up. A owner of a chemical company has been murdered! Gordon decides to take Bruce with him (Probably against regulations) and they speed to The company owner, Lambert's, house. They interview his son who's fingerprints were on the murder weapon. He says he didn't do it and tells the following story. He was out for the night, and when he came back home he heard a groan. It's his Father! As Lambert's son pulls the knife out of him he gets the impression that something had just jumped out of the window. Lambert says something about a contract and then he croaks. That's how Lambert Jr.s fingerprints got on the knife. The police decide he's innocent without even attempting to do anything other than photograph Lambert's body, so already you can tell that the Gotham Police Department is useless. Then another man, Crane calls. I'm guessing he has no relation to Jonathan Crane and I'll leave it at that. Apparently he was one of Lambert's three partners in the chemical business. He says that before his death Lambert got a death threat and told Crane about it. Now Crane's gotten a death threat and he's very worried he'll be the next partner to be murdered. The Comish tells him they'll be right over. I'm already betting this Crane guy is going to die due to the failure of the police. Bruce decides to leave and the police start to head over to Crane's house. Sure enough, Crane gets shot before the police arrive and the crooks steal a piece of paper from a nearby safe. Could it be a Contract? Who knows! Anyways the crooks go to the roof and suddenly are approached by the Dark Knight himself!

This panel, is the first ever appearance of the Batman. As you can see he still has a long ways to go, but this is still the Batman we all know and love. Batman proceeds to take down the criminals, taking out the one in the green shirt with a punch to the face, and hurls chubby over the side of the house. He then proceeds to grab the paper they stole. The police who were sent there to protect Crane (A little late, aren't they?) They immediately blame Batman and
Commissioner Gordon yells to chase after him. The next
panel they're interviewing Crane's butler (Huh?) who tells them Crane has died. Batman then drives off in his Batmobile, which is currently a just a red convertible named 'His Car.' Meanwhile the third of the four chemical partners, Paul Rogers, goes to meet the fourth, Alfred Stryker. Stryker's huge butler, Jennings tells him to come in and promptly hits him over the head with a club. He then ties him up in a gas chamber in Stryker's basement laboratory. Jennings says that after Rogers is out of the way, he'll control everything. The butler did it! Before the glass chamber is closed, however, batman dives in and clogs the gas pipe with a handkerchief then shatters the gas chamber with a monkey wrench. Batman then Judo flips Jennings and Stryker comes running down to see what happened. After finding out, he draws a knife and attempts to stab Rogers. So, it was Stryker? Then what was  Jennings mumbling about? This is an example of Golden Age writing people. Batman stops Stryker and reveals his plan. Stryker had made a contract with the other partners to pay a little each year to eventually own the company. Stryker decided to kill them, since they were the only ones who knew about it, so he could control the company without paying. Stryker suddenly pulls out a gun, but before he can shoot Batman, Batman punches him into a vat of acid that's in Stryker's house for some reason. Batman's response? "A fitting end for his kind." Wow Batman. That's cruel. Later Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne meet again and talk about what happened. Bruce says its a 'Nice Fairy Tale' and leaves. Gordon comments on how boring Bruce is. Later it's revealed to the reader that Bruce Wayne is Batman! This isn't really a suprise anymore as Bruce's double identity is known by everyone, but its a nice twist.

This ends another comic review. Comment to tell me what Comic you'd like to see next!

Showcase Presents #4 (October 1956)

Hello there! This is the first post to my new blog, Comic Contemplation! This blog is somewhat similar to other blogs such as Bat to the Beginning or Batman Completion. But this blog is different than those. In this blog I won't be reviewing one hero over a period of time. Instead I'll be reviewing ALL heroes over ALL time! This post I'll be reviewing what kicked off the Silver Age of Comics. . . Showcase #4, The first appearance of Silver Age Flash!

"Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt!"

Our story starts off with a full page panel showing Flash running straight out of the comic book (Even though all the panels are out of order.) That means he's so fast he's allowed to break the Fourth Wall. The next panel shows a completely unrelated scene in which 2 guys from a Radar Station notice a super fast object which has broken the sound barrier and is still gaining speed. (Nowadays some jets do that all the time, but back then it was probably incredible.) The two men wonder what the strange object could be. Obviously they have not looked at the previous page, but anyways the comic turns back the clock to a Lightning storm over (The fictional) Central City. In a police laboratory we see a man reading an old Flash Comics issue. This comic shows the old Jay Garrick Flash who is just about to be replaced with. . . Barry Allen! Barry basically wonders if the Flash could exist in real life and then proceeds to a entire cabinet full of dangerous chemicals. As Allen messes with the bottles a flash (Get it?) of lightning crashes through a open window straight into the chemicals and Barry. Barry is completely unharmed which I doubt would happen in real life. (Of course I don't think people with Super Speed exist in real life either so I'll just ignore this minor technicality.) Barry decides to go home and he goes outside and starts to chase after a taxi. It doesn't stop but Barry keeps running and before you know it hes across town at a diner. He ignores what has just happened and goes in to eat. A clumsy waitress spills her food as Barry is sitting and it suddenly freezes in mid-air. This is the result of Barry vibrating extremely fast or something and he catches all the food and puts it back on the tray the waitress was carrying. Barry decides everything that happened was a fluke and goes back home. The next day he meets his girlfriend Iris West who says he's the slowest man alive. Suddenly everything slows down again as Barry sees a bullet heading towards Iris. He pushes her out of the way and later finds out this was the work of the dreaded. . . Turtle Man! The scourge of the Flash! The bane of men! The. . . The. . . Oh wait no one knows who the Turtle Man is. Well I guess I'll take it in stride. Barry decides to go after the Turtle Man and he creates a costume based on the old Flash and heads out after him. Barry chases to a crime scene where the Turtle Man has struck but none of the money has been taken. He realizes later that the Turtle Man has gone back after everything's cooled down and taken the money (Wait, what? How does that even work?) Anyways Flash sees Turtle Man's Shadow and chases it. He runs straight into a wall though since the Turtle Man has simply painted a fake shadow on it. Okayyy Turtle Man. I'm not sure why you would do that. No one knows who Flash is yet! Anyway, Flash recovers and chases after Turtle Man who escapes via Boat. Flash attempts to go after him in another boat, but Turtle Man has cut a hole in it Well who cares Flash can run on water anyway. He captures Turtle Man and everyone knows who The Flash is because he's interviewed by about 6 reporters right after he turns in Turtle Man. Yeah Barry why don't you give away your identity well your at it?

"The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier!"
We start off with a very derpy looking guy shaving (Um. . . What?) He says something about not taking too long to shave and then the shaver flies straight out of his hands. The same thing happens to a television tube and a car generator. But then the force goes too far and takes Barry Allen's test tube beaker. Barry sees someone leave the station at super fast speed and chases after him as the Flash. The strange bald guy that's been doing this stuff gets away though by shooting Flash with rings of FIRE! He then goes to a field where he recounts his origin story. His name is Mazdan and he's from the future (I really doubt people from the future will have stupid names like Mazdan though.) He was a criminal and was supposed to be sent to the future when Earth is desolate but the rocket malfunctioned and he ended up in the 20th century.Now hes going around stealing gold to repair his Time Machine and get back to the Future (No pun intended.) Flash catches him on his next robbery though and hes sent to jail. Somehow Mazdan gets out using a contact lens. A Contact Lens. Really? Anway Flash captures him about 30 seconds later and makes Mazdan tell him what he is up to. Barry realizes this will kill thousands of people and thinks up a different way to get Mazdan to the future. He runs really fast and breaks the Time Barrier. He gives Mazdan to the authorities and goes back to the present satisfied. A police officer remarks that there's been no more robberies and this is literally Barry's response: "I guess the thief was caught--and is serving TIME... Somewhere!" Oh Barry your so funny making inside jokes to yourself. Ha ha ha.

Anyways this has been my thoughts on the First ever Silver Age appearance of the Flash. Leave comments to tell me what you think and also suggest what comic I should review next!