Sandy Hawkins

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Sandman
Cover to Justice Society of America #5 (2007) Art by painter Alex Ross
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Adventure Comics # 69 (December 1941)
Created by	Mort Weisinger Paul Norris
In-story information
Alter ego	Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins
Team affiliations	Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron Young All-Stars
Notable aliases	Sandy the Golden Boy, Sand,
Abilities	Silicon-based body is elastic and resilient, metamorphs into sand and emits seismic disruptions Prophetic dreams Proficient with many handgun based weapons, such as gas guns and wirepoon guns.

Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins, formerly known as Sandy, the Golden Boy, Sands, Sand, and currently as Sandman, is a fictional character, superhero in the DC Comics universe created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #69.

Contents 1 Publication history 1.1 Golden Age 1.2 Silver Age 1.3 The All-Stars 1.4 Last Days of the JSA 1.5 Armageddon Inferno 1.6 JSA 1.7 Our Worlds At War 1.8 Infinite Crisis 1.9 52 1.10 Justice Society of America 2 Character history 2.1 Sandy, the Golden Boy 2.2 The Creature in the Velvet Cage 2.3 Last Days of the Justice Society of America 2.4 Armageddon Inferno 2.5 Sand 2.6 Sandman 3 Timeline 4 Powers and abilities 5 Appearances in other media 6 References

[edit] Publication history

[edit] Golden Age

The Character of Sandy the Golden Boy was created as a side-kick to the Sandman. Created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, the character debuted as a tights-wearing youth (in the same vein as Robin the Boy Wonder) in Adventure Comics #69 (Dec 1941). This same issue also showcased a new yellow-and-purple costume for The Sandman.

[edit] Silver Age

The flourish of mystery-men comic books came to an end in the late 1940s. About ten years later DC Comics reintroduced some of the mystery-men characters in new books, but reimaged them as super-heroes, characters such as Green Lantern and Hawkman. September 1961 saw the publication of "Flash of Two Worlds" in The Flash #123. This was the first new story using an original mystery-man character, namely, the Flash (Jay Garrick). The concept of an Earth-1 and Earth-2 began to be developed and soon other 1940s characters were being used in modern stories. Sandy the Golden Boy was reintroduced to the public by writer Len Wein in Justice League of America #113 in 1974.

Len Wein wrote of his inspiration in the compilation book Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 3 (2004): "I had always been a fan of the Golden Age Sandman, and had always wondered why he'd been put back into his double-breasted Man of Mystery Gas-Mask outfit when he was revived, instead of the more traditional purple-and-yellow super-hero costume he'd worn in the latter days of the 1940s. This would make the perfect place to find out. Thus was born The Creature in the Velvet Cage."

[edit] The All-Stars

The 1980s saw writer Roy Thomas' World War Two era series The All-Star Squadron (pre-Crisis) and the Young All-Stars (post-Crisis). Sandy was brought into the Squadron storyline during the Crisis cross-over, beginning with issue #51 (Nov 1985). That book soon ceased printing and was replaced by the Young All-Stars (June 1987) where Sandy played a role in issues 2 through 8. This series states that Sandy is fourteen going on fifteen in the Spring of 1942.

[edit] Last Days of the JSA

Also written by Roy Thomas, this one-issue special published in 1986 depicts the departure of the JSA characters. Although taking place in the modern era (within weeks of the Crisis), Sandy is still depicted as a teenager wearing his WWII uniform of yellow-and-red. The story relates how he and other JSA members are taken into Ragnarok where they must fight forever.

[edit] Armageddon Inferno

Published in 1992, this four-part miniseries written by John Ostrander takes the JSA members out of Ragnarok and brings them back to earth, allowing writers to use them in future stories. Sandy is one of these characters.

[edit] JSA

The 1999 series JSA was preceded by a JSA Secret Files special. The special and the series reintroduced Sandy, but now as a young man calling himself Sand. This new and further development of the character was written by James Robinson and David S. Goyer. Issue 18 of the series, written by David Goyer and Geoff Johns, introduced retconned history for the character including his "killing" of Johnny Sorrow in 1944. The JSA/JSA storyline (JSA 68-72, 2005) has Sand time travel to 1951 and interact with The Sandman; writer Geoff Johns states the present-day age of the character as being "biologically 25," but his birth year is changed to 1926 (Roy Thomas had given the character an age of 14 in 1942 making the birth year 1928), the "Velvet Cage" story from the 1970s is also referenced and rewritten to an extent, the year of the silicoid accident is changed from 1947 (JSA Secret Files #1) to 1945. Issue #83 (2006) is part of the One Year Later reboot of the DC comics line; in this issue written by Paul Levitz, Sand is no longer shown as a member of the JSA. Sand makes no more appearances in the series which ended with issue #87 (2006)

[edit] Our Worlds At War

This one-shot from Sept 2001 was written by Geoff Johns as part of the multiple-book cross-over event dealing with the Earth invasion by Imperiex. Sand is the leader of the JSA, the team sent into space to deal with the enemy's spaceship.

[edit] Infinite Crisis

This seven-issue miniseries from 2006, written by Geoff Johns, recreated the DC multiverse. In its pages Sand plays a role in the fight against Superboy Prime.

[edit] 52

This weekly book told the tale taking place after the Infinite Crisis miniseries and before the One Year Later reboot of DC's comic book line. Issue 50 (Apr 2007), written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, & Mark Waid, shows World War III in progress (the battle against Black Adam), and Sand is a member of the JSA.

[edit] Justice Society of America

This book debuted in Feb 2007, written by Geoff Johns. The cover of this book shows the round table of the JSA surrounded by 17 heroes including Sanderson Hawkins, now wearing a black cape and fedora reminiscent of the original Sandman, but also gloves and a mask unlike any other incarnation of Sand or The Sandman - it appears to be a cross between the masks of Hawkins & Dodds, and mixed with designs borrowed from the Helm of Dream of the Endless. According to Geoff Johns' interview in Wizard Magazine # 180 (October 2006) Sand will become the JSA's "Recon Man" doing more detective work in the process. This character was brought in on issue #3 appearing in a cloud of smoke and speaking of nightmares, attributes more recognizable of Wesley Dodds than for Sanderson Hawkins. Issue #5 shows this version of Hawkins as more sober and serious than previous incarnations. For about a year the character is not used in the new series, his face and name are not part of the JSA roll call found framing the main story page. He is not seen again until issue #14 (2008) where Geoff Johns portrays the character as a man tormented by perverse and horror-filled nightmares.

[edit] Character history

[edit] Sandy, the Golden Boy

Sanderson Hawkins was born in the year 1926.^[1]

When Sanderson was seven years old his father left his mother (JSA #69, 2005)

Sandy's origin was explained following the conclusion of Sandman Mystery Theatre: Sandy was sent to the All God's Children Orphanage after the death of his parents. There he met Dian Belmont, an employee of the orphanage and Wesley's love interest. Dian immediately took a liking to the boy and later, after discovering that she was Sandy's aunt, adopted him as her ward. Sanderson was a big fan of Thrill Comics, which contained heavily fictionalized adventures of the Sandman. In particular, he liked to identify himself with the Sandman's fictitious sidekick in the comic strip, who looked similar to Sanderson and even shared his surname. Inspired by these comic book adventures, and dreaming to one day become the sidekick of the real Sandman, Sanderson began his career as a costumed crime fighter. After Sandy became involved in one of the Sandman's cases, Wesley decided to give the boy a chance at being his apprentice and made Sandy his ward as well. Soon after, Sandy learned that Wesley was really the Sandman, and the two began a prolific career as a superhero duo.

It was in 1941 That he assisted the original Sandman, going by the name of "Sandy, the Golden Boy" and became that mystery-man's side-kick.

In the early Spring of 1942 Sandy assisted the All-Star Squadron against the Monster Society of Evil (as this storyline takes place during the Crisis and on Earth-Two, it may or may not be canon).^[2]

In April 1942 President Roosevelt proposed that five youths with amazing powers be named All-Stars and go on a war bond tour across the USA, Sandy volunteered to go along. The newcomers were Arn Munro, Fury, Flying Fox, Neptune Perkins, and Tsunami. Sandy's secret purpose for joining these Young All-Stars was to keep an eye on Tsunami whom he was sure was a spy for the Imperial Japanese. His belief was later proven false, however, and he soon left the Young All-Stars to rejoin his mentor and partner The Sandman.^[3]

In 1944 Sandy fought beside his mentor and others of the JSA in Starman's hometown of Opal City. They fought Johnny Sorrow, who was "nothing more than a costumed crook with a gimmick." When Sandy harpooned that gimmick - a subspace prototype - it seemingly killed the crook. Actually it sent him into a different dimension where he was altered into something less than human and where he encountered the creature called the King of Tears. When Johnny returned to earth he killed six of the seven heroes known as the Seven Shadows and opened a portal to earth for the King of Tears. Only the power of the Spectre stopped the creature, it was reduced literally to tears which were kept in a vial and guarded by the JSA.

In 1945 Sandy was exposed to strange gases and chemicals in an explosion during the testing of an experimental "silicoid" gun being developed by The Sandman. Sandy's flesh and bone were transformed into silicate, he became crazed and then unconscious. The Sandman placed him in a glass cage filled with gases that he believed would keep Sandy unconscious until he could find a cure. The other JSAers discovered what had happened but could not help Sandy. While Sandy suffered from being aware yet unable to move a muscle, The Sandman suffered from guilt over what had happened, guilt made even stronger by his own teammates - he heard the Green Lantern say "There's a reason we don't have children as sidekicks." (cf Justice Society of America #113, 1974; the year is given as 1947 in JSA Secret Files #1, 1999, but changed to 1945 in JSA #70, 2005, other details from JSA #68-72, 2005)

In October 1951 a time-traveling Sand Hawkins appeared in New York and approached The Sandman in the townhouse which was his secret HQ. Sand looked upon Sandy trapped in the velvet cage, knowing that his younger self was fully aware, fully conscious, if only immobilized - Sand did not alert The Sandman to this fact, nor did he try to change history. Sand called upon The Sandman to assist the disbanded JSA of 1951 and the JSA of the future in saving history from Per Degaton. The battle takes place on October 30 outside the White House where Degaton attempted to use the body of The Atom as an atom bomb, but the villain and the time-traveling fascists called the Red Morgue from the year 2666 are defeated. Afterwards the incident fades from the memory of those in 1951 becoming nothing more than a dream.^[4]

[edit] The Creature in the Velvet Cage

This tale is told in Justice League of America #113 (1974), writer Len Wein places it on Earth-Two during a JLA/JSA team-up. Although current continuity references it, not all the details are canon.

During the 1940s Sandy worked as partner and protege of The Sandman. At one point, however, the Sandman built a "silicoid gun" in hopes of creating a better crime-fighting weapon. In the testing phase it exploded and bombarded Sandy with radioactive silica particles. Sandy's body immediately was transformed into a silica-based hulking monster. The Sandman placed the youth into a gas-filled glass chamber, a 'velvet cage', which kept Sandy comfortable yet unconscious. Sandy was kept in this suspended animation for many decades while the Sandman searched for a cure.

Decades later, after the JSA had regrouped, there were earth tremors in the city where Wesley Dodds maintained his Sandman HQ, and the place where Sandy was kept. The glass cage cracked and Sandy regained consciousness. He became aware of the tectonic activity below the city, his sand-like body connected to it in a way. In an effort to save lives Sandy tracked various quakes, in the process fighting with members of the Justice Society and the Justice League who believed Sandy to be a monster. With his silicon body Sandy absorbed the ground tremors and gave the heroes enough time to deal with the fault line so that a major earthquake was avoided. Sandy was later given medical and scientific help in order to revert his body back to a human form.

note: The JSAers included The Sandman, Wonder Woman, the Flash & Hourman, the JLAers were Superman, Batman, Green Lantern & Elongated Man. The Sandman's residence was located in York City, a large city by the ocean. Part of the story included the fact that no one knew that Sandy had been turned into a monster by Wesley's experiment and that Wesley had invented a lie and harboured it for decades - also, the tale ended with Sandy being assisted by the Amazons of Earth-Two in finding a cure to restore his human form - current continuity states that after the accident the other members of the JSA did find out, Wesley did not lie about what had happened, and that it was Wesley Dodds who finally found the cure for Sanderson. The modern rewrite occurs.^[5]

[edit] Last Days of the Justice Society of America

A short time after the Crisis the JSA was gathered and taken by Dr Fate into Ragnarok. Among this group was Sandy clad in his 1940s yellow-and-red tights and looking no older than a boy. They are told by Fate that the earth will be destroyed unless they remain in Ragnarok and fight a battle that will last forever. They accept the challenge. Only Dr Fate, Power Girl and the Star-Spangled Kid return to earth.

[edit] Armageddon Inferno

Sandy and the other JSA members were pulled from Ragnarok into a different dimension by Waverider. They are given the task of defeating the villain Abraxis, and with the help of the natives they do just that. In the aftermath, instead of returning to Ragnarok they are allowed to return to earth, others have taken their place in the fiery battle of Ragnarok.

[edit] Sand

After the suicide of The Sandman, Sandy - now a young man - found himself with the same prophetic dreams that Wesley Dodds had had. The death of his mentor had been precipitated by the actions of Mordru the Dark Lord, who was hunting for the child who would be the next incarnation of the being called Dr Fate. Mordru was stopped by a handful of heroes who then decided to remain together as the new JSA, led by Sandy - now calling himself simply Sand. After the battle with Mordru Sand found that he had the ability to transform himself into sand as well as other powers over earth derived from his ability to control silica compounds and the generation and control of seismic energy. As Sand, Hawkins uses a gas mask and 'gas gun' similar to that of his mentor, he was also given a special uniform designed by Tylerco that can dissolve and reform along with his own body.

Due to his years in suspended animation, Hawkins has occasionally found it difficult to adjust to life in the 21st century and remains a somewhat withdrawn member of the superhero community. His home Dodds Mansion (also known as the JSA Brownstone) was inherited from his late mentor and has served as the headquarters for the modern Justice Society.

Shortly after the re-forming of the JSA, the members were attacked by a new Injustice Society led by Johnny Sorrows (last seen in the 1940s). Johnny kidnapped Sand and once again opened the portal to earth for the King of Tears. But this time the Spectre (a different incarnation from the one who dealt with the monster in the 1940s) could not stop the beast. It took the combined tactics and power of the JSA to overcome Johnny Sorrow and then the King of Tears.

During the Earth invasion by Imperiex, Sand was contacted by United States President Lex Luthor and asked to deal with the spaceship/energy platform of the alien foe. Sand took the current JSA members and all reserves (28 heroes in total) into space to confront the ship. They were successful in disabling the ship and severing its link to Imperiex. The heroes then returned to earth. (these events take place before JSA #26)

For a while, Sand was involved in somewhat of a romantic triangle within the JSA. Kendra Saunders (aka Hawkgirl) confided in Hawkins that she was upset about the recent return of Hawkman and her apparent predestined fate to be his lover. As Sanderson attempted to comfort her, Kendra kissed him—potentially as a way of distancing herself from Carter Hall, the newly resurrected Hawkman, looking on outside the window. Later, the three apparently resolved their differences, but it became quite apparent that Sanderson did in fact have strong feelings for Kendra.

It was after the return of Hawkman that the members of the JSA held a vote to decide who should be their chairman. Sand lost that vote as did Hawkman, it was Mr Terrific who succeeded Sand as the second chairman of the new JSA.^[6]

Later (during the "Princes of Darkness" storyline^[7] Sand was transformed back into the form of a silicoid monster by the magic of Mordru, he was controlled and then imprisoned by Mordru. At the end of the disaster Sand was freed but the planet was still in danger; Sand dove into the earth, merging with it, in order to prevent earthquakes and volcanic explosions across Earth. He did not resurface when the earthquakes subsided and was believed dead by some.^[8] There was some tectonic pulses which Cave Carson was able to decipher as morse code spelling out J-S-A.^[9] In actuality Sand was not dead, he was in a limbo state, his body trapped beneath the Earth while his soul was trapped in the fragment of Dreamtime once inhabited by the Garrett Sanford and Hector Hall.

Sand was eventually saved when two segments of the JSA both dug into the bowels of the earth (with Cave Carson as guide) and entered into the Dreamtime (with Brainwave as guide). While in the Dreamtime, Sand took on the image of Sandman (the Jack Kirby character of the 1960s) which had also been taken up years previously by Hector Hall. Sand was brought back to real time after a brief battle with Brute and Glob and with the assistance of Hawkgirl (Doctor Fate informed her that she was Sand's emotional bridge due to his feelings for her). After his return, Sand has much more control over his powers, using them in new and varied ways that he didn't before including levitating rock and generating lava.^[10] But his self-image is far from innocent as revealed after a battle with Solomon Grundy: "Grundy may be a twisted and abnormal force of nature -- but so am I."^[11]

Shortly after the murder of Sue Dibny and during the wave of fear that hit many heroes - fear for the safety of their family members (in the Identity Crisis miniseries) the time-traveling Degaton took advantage of the situation and attacked the current JSA members and their families, but in various time periods. Sand was then taken by Rip Hunter back to October 1951 in order to convince The Sandman to fight again as a JSAer (this was after the JSA refused to unmaks and so disbanded). This encounter culminated with a battle on lawn of the White House - for Degaton wanted to assassinate President Truman. Degaton and the Red Morgue were defeated, the timeline was saved, and Sand returned to the present.^[12]

During the time of the Infinite Crisis a segment of the JSA went to Dr Fate's Tower found in Salem, Massachusetts, Sand was part of this team. They encountered Nabu and Mordru (both recently freed from their captivity) and Sand allowed his body to be possessed by Nabu. After Mordru temporarily defeated that Lord of Order, Sand fought Mordru using his control of earth and stone.^[13] Sand also accepted the request for help from Kid Flash when Superboy-Prime attacked Conner Kent.^[14] When Alexander Luthor successfully recreated a second earth it was a copy of Earth-Two, Sand and others who were connected to the pre-Crisis Earth-Two found themselves instantly transported to this new Earth-Two.^[15] In the aftermath of this Crisis Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all ceased active heroing, but the JSA and Sand along with it.^[16]

After the Infinite Crisis came World War III in which Black Adam was the antagonist. Sand fought alongside his JSA teammates in stopping the destruction wrought by Black Adam.^[17]

One year after the Crisis Sand is no longer shown as a member of the JSA.^[18]

[edit] Sandman

After the events of WWIII, the JSA comes together again. Vandal Savage begins murdering legacy heroes and their family members (either directly or through hired assassins), and a new Sandman appears.^[19] This is Sanderson Hawkins in yet another incarnation, he has taken up the mantle of The Sandman wearing an outfit similar to Wesley Dodds' original costume.

When the new Justice Society teams up with the new Justice League (the Lightning Saga crossover, 2007), Sand describes his abilities: "My nightmares are prophetic visions of violence waiting to be interpreted a thousand different ways. Every horror I dream is a glimpse into the pains of tomorrow." As to his tectonic powers, he agrees he can cause tremors and raise lava but adds, "when I'm feeling up to it."^[20]

After the coming of the Superman from Earth-22 and the murders of "god"-like heroes and villains (during the Kingdom/Gog storyline, the JSA tracks down William Matthews aka Gog.^[21] It is Sanderson Hawkins who uses his earth-powers to do so. Matthews, however, impales Hawkins and the two are transported to the HQ of the JSA in New York. A battle occurs which results in some JSAers being transported to Africa where Matthews is killed by the true Gog.^[22][23] Gog, god-like being from the Third World, first appears benign, it even gives Sand twenty-four hours of blissful, dream-filled sleep.^[24] Later, when Sandman wakes up from his good dreams, he discovers that his night terrors have vanished, which prevents him from saving a kidnapped child. After feeling a disturbance in the Earth's core, Sand discovers that Gog is rooting itself into the Earth, and if it remains for one more day, the Earth will die if it ever leaves.^[25] The rest of the JSA arrive to kill Gog and separate its head from the Earth, which is the only way to save the planet. The other society members following Gog attempt to protect it, until they see it attempt to attack a society member. All of the followers take up the fight, and Gog punishes them all by taking away its blessings, including Sandman's good dreams.^[26][27]

[edit] Timeline

As printed in the JSA Secret Files (1999):

9 years ago: Sandy is revived

4 years ago: the Crisis & the JSAs entry into Ragnarok

2 years ago: Armageddon Inferno, Sandy & the JSA members return to earth

[edit] Powers and abilities

As a being of living silicon, the Sandman has a number of earth-based powers. He is able to shift his body into a pure silicon or sand-form, in which he is more malleable and is able to alter his shape and density. He can pass his molecules through solid objects that contain traces of silica and is able to travel through the earth as easily as one would swim through water. Sand can mentally manipulate the earth and soil in his vicinity, causing it to rumble, change shape, levitate, or burst forth to attack his enemies. He is also able to produce seismic waves which have the effect of small, localized earthquakes, and is aware of both natural and artificial seismic effects.

Additionally, Sandman possesses a limited form of precognition, which manifests as occasional prophetic dreams. This ability was psychically passed to him by his mentor, Wesley Dodds, and derives from a fragment of the literal Sandman of folklore, Morpheus (a connection maintained by the current dream lord, Daniel).

Sandman also uses copies of his mentor's crimefighting equipment, including gas masks, gas guns, and a harpoon/grapple invention known as a "wirepoon" gun. These devices and his current uniform were constructed out of silica-compounds by the TylerCo company (owned by his teammate Hourman), allowing Sandman to bring them with him when he alters his shape. Sandman was trained as a detective, though this is an ability which he previously rarely utilized.

[edit] Appearances in other media

Hawkins has briefly appeared in a few episodes of the Cartoon Network animated series Justice League Unlimited, in his Sand persona making notable cameos in the stories "Initiation," "Clash" and "Panic In The Sky." His powers and origin are presumed to be the same as his comic book counterpart. Despite negligible screen time on the show, Sand was included as an action figure in Mattel's popular Justice League Unlimited line in early 2007.

[edit] References