SANDMAN I (Wesley Bernard "Wes" Dodds)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Gardner Fox and Bernard Christman

Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Wesley Bernard "Wes" Dodds
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Financier; formerly adventurer
Status: Deceased
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Single; cohabiting with Dian Belmont
Known Relatives: Edward Dodds (father; deceased); Marina Dodds (mother; deceased); Gerald Dodds (brother)
Base of Operation: New York City
Group Affiliation(s): Justice Society of America, All-Star Squadron
Gender: Male
Height: 5'11" (later 5'9")
Weight: 172 lbs. (later 145 lbs.)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown, later Grey
First Appearance: Adventure Comics #40 (July 1939)
Creators: Gardner Fox and Bernard Christman

There is no land beyond the law. Where tyrants rule with unshakable power! Tis but a dream from which the evil wake. To face their fate, their terrifying hour! - Poem commonly left behind by the Sandman

OVERVIEW

One of the first Golden Age mystery men, and a founding member of the original Justice Society of America, Wesley Dodds recently gave his life in order to prevent a great evil seizing control of the power of Fate.

HISTORY

Wesley Dodds was born in 1913, the son of wealthy industrialist Edward Dodds and his young wife Marina. Young Wesley was a bookish lad, somewhat fearful of his stern father. When Wesley's mother died in late 1917 Wesley was sent to a number of boarding schools before he and his brother Gerald joined their father in Europe after the end of the First World War. After a fight, Gerald left the family to find his own way.

Heeding the advice of a fortuneteller, Edward sent young Wes to live abroad, mostly with people heading up his father's various business interests, mostly in the Far East. There, Wesley soaked up the Oriental wisdom and lifestyle, learning to speak several languages, and honing his body with martial arts and Yoga. Concluding his schooling in America, Wes Dodds graduated Magnum Cum Laude from Princeton with degrees in Business and Chemistry. Briefly returning to the Far East, he began to suffer from dreams that drove him nearly insane until he began acting on them when he came to live in the US again, after the death of his father. In these weird and horrid nightmares that, unbeknownst to him were caused by the Lord of Dreams known as Morpheus, who was at that time imprisoned by Roderick Burgess, he saw visions of Morpheus and of criminals and grave injustice.

Inspired by the man in the strange helmet that he had seen in his dreams Wesley bought a number of gas masks and used part of his fortune to develop a special sedative green gas that was both a "truth serum" and a narcoleptic agent, and the delivery system in the form of a "gas gun". Donning one of the masks and a gas gun he then set up a new identity for himself and began righting the wrongs of New York City in the early part of 1938 as The Sandman as he investigated and put an end to the crimes of his dreams. Operating outside the law, he became the target of NYPD Lieutenant Tony Burke, a hard-nosed and unyielding bully of a lawman. Crossing paths with Burke on several occasions, they came to an understanding that The Sandman could go places and was privy to information that Burke could ultimately use.

Attending a charity ball at the request of one of his father's old friends, Judge Thomas Schaeffer, Wesley was introduced to District Attorney Lawrence Belmont and his daughter Dian Belmont. The young Dian aided and later fell in love with Wes Dodds, aiding him on several occasions, and ultimately joined Wesley on a search for his estranged brother in early 1940. It is not known what the result of that search was, but it is known that The Sandman had begun to fight crime again in New York City in late 1940.

In early November 1940, The Sandman was drawn into a conflict with Nazi spies along with six other American "mystery-men" and became a founding member of the Justice Society of America. His contribution to the group, other than financial, was supplying the meeting place, the top floor to a Manhattan, NY hotel that he owned. Inspired by his fictionalized comic book adventures, a young man took to the New York rooftops, fighting crime under the name Sandy, The Golden Boy. He later became the ward of Dian Belmont, the common-law wife of Wes Dodds, and took to sporadically adventuring with The Sandman as his partner, beginning in July of 1941.

On an adventure with the Justice Society, The Sandman, along with other members and their confederates, was exposed to chronal energies that had the effect of retarding the aging process. This gave Wes greater longevity in adventuring than might be expected in later years.

The Sandman, as a member of the JSA, joined the wartime "super-group" The All-Star Squadron and Sandy became a member of an affiliate group, The Young All-Stars.

As World War II drew to a close, two events lead to the eventual retirement of The Sandman. First was the heart attack he suffered, forcing him to curtail most of his physical activities. Next was the injury of his partner, Sandy. While working on a "silicon gun" to beef up his fighting style, Sandy was injured and mutated in an explosion. Changed to a hulking, mute monster, The Sandman placed Sandy in a state of suspended animation. Too ashamed to seek outside help, Wes worked nearly fifty years to reverse his condition, meeting failure after failure. After retiring, Wes Dodds pursued financial and social goals to help better his fellow man, along with moral support for Dian, who later in life became a best-selling author. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

About nine years ago, as his former comrades in the Justice Society began to come out of retirement, at least on a semi-regular basis, The Sandman reappeared, solely in the company of the JSA, assisting them and the Justice League on several occasions. Nearly seven years ago, the creature formerly known as Sandy was accidentally freed and recaptured with the assistance of the JSA and JLA. Several months later, a criminal seeking to enhance his reputation captured and accidentally cured the Sand-Creature. However, Sandy had not aged while transformed and is now in his early twenties.

Wes suffered another stroke and finally curtailed his crime-fighting career. He appeared with the Justice Society on two occasions, the last of which saw the group cast into a recreation of the Norse Gods Gotterdamerung. They were freed after more than two years in this Limbo, whereupon Wes suffered yet another stroke. While in the hospital, he aided Hourman and Johnny Quick in saving a South African freedom fighter. Soon afterwards, The Sandman was among the assembled heroes who fought Extant and as a result he was robbed of the chronal energies that kept him youthful. He aged to his natural state of over eighty years old.

Now hard-of-hearing and arthritic, Wes retired from the super-heroic community entirely. He was sought out by and aided Starman, Jack Knight. Soon afterwards, he and Dian left the United States to tour and relive his youth in the Far East. After the recent death of Dian, Wes became aware of the mystical menace of The Dark Lord. Fearing that he might unwittingly aid him, and unable to fend off any further attacks, Wes threw himself off a cliff, going finally to that Great Eternal Sleep.

Before dying he told Speed Saunders to tell Sandy that now it was his time to dream, as the piece of Morpheus' essence that had inspired him to become Sandman in the first place was transferred to Sandy Hawkins, who began getting the same weird dreams that Wesley once had.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

The Sandman was a disciple of many Eastern martial art techniques and disciplines. Using karate, judo and Yoga to hone his body to his peak performance, he acquired an arsenal of mostly defensive weaponry. Primary among these was the "Gas Gun" which projected a spray of green gas that incapacitates and renders the victim open to suggestion. He was immune to the effects of the gas due to the functioning gas mask that was part of his costume. The Sandman used his gas to delve information, since no one could lie under its effects.

Later in his career, he employed a "wirepoon", a gun-like device that fired a small harpoon that aided him in reaching heights and avoiding felons. As Wes Dodds, his financial riches aided him in being able to apply himself where needed, in whatever social circles he needed to travel.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Sandman in chronological order click here

PROFILE REFERENCES

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #20 (October 1986)