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!