The Sinister Six spotlight is back with the penultimate installment. Today, I’m here to talk about:
Much like Scorpion and Rhino, I had an idea in mind when I wrote Sandman into the Sinister Six. I wanted him to be aloof and apathetic at first glance, but intelligent and observant when you look closer. The weird uncle to this evil found family, who teaches your three-year-old how to use a lighter and then dips before he has to deal with the consequences.
His motive is fairly straightforward. All he wants to do is get enough money to stop doing crime, get a fake ID, and move somewhere far away. With that in mind, I settled on his backstory.
Flint Marko began his criminal career as a desperate man. What started as a last resort in order to survive became his singular source of income, which sent him on a downward spiral towards continuous arrests, breakouts, and desperate attempts to free himself from the cycle he was caught in. If he could just take enough one time-- one time-- he would be able to leave this life behind him.
But with Sunset Spider in the picture, his goal is proving more and more difficult. She always manages to show up wherever he is, sending him straight back to prison and then vanishing into the horizon.
One night, a narrow escape from her takes a tragic turn when--
He isn't really sure what happens that night.
A wrong turn onto a sandy property marked with warning signs.
When he awakens, something is wrong. His body will not move. His body is not there. He isn't breathing. But for some heaven-forsaken reason, he is still alive.
By sheer force of will, he re-forms from the ground. His eyes open, and he lifts his hand to his face. It is only partially formed, made from sand, falling back to the ground. He glances at the rest of his body, to find that they, too, are barely there, still one with the earth.
He cannot bring himself to scream.
Little by little, he stands. He learns how to navigate this new form. And, upon realizing he doesn't need to eat or sleep, his mind turns only to one thing: scraping together the money to leave New York once and for all.
With the power bestowed on him by... whatever happened to him, he is almost able to reach his goal by stealing all the money he can from banks, only to be stopped by Sunset Spider. Every time he comes close to it, she is there, making stupid jokes and destroying everything he's worked for.
So when he's approached with a job offer, one that promises him enough money to go anywhere he pleases, he is ready and willing to target Sunset Spider herself. After all, his employer assures him, once Sunset Spider is out of the picture, he'll be free to take all the money he needs until he can leave his life of crime behind.
And maybe then he can distance himself even from the thought that plagues him every night: that he may not even be human anymore.
(And then evil found family ensues.)
