365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…
September 2nd - Sandman / Wesley Dodds
Wesley Dodds was the son of a wealthy industrialist. A passionate herbalist, Dodds traveled the world in search of rare and exotic herbal compounds, ultimately discovering a recipe for a powerful anesthetizing gas. The gas could put anyone who came into contact with it into a deep sleep without any negative after effects. Slightly diluting the compound made the gas into a hypnotic substance, effectively a truth serum.
During his travels, Dodds encountered the dream deity known as Morpheus The Sandman. The encounter resulted in Dodds gaining moderate prognosticatory powers where he would have dreams that predicted events in the future.
Upon returning to the States, Dodds met the superhero known as StarMan (Ted Knight). Inspired by the hero, Dodds decided to become a masked mystery man himself. He devised a special gun that could shoot out his sleeping/truth gas and donned an overcoat, fedora hat and gas mask, becoming the crime fighter known as The Sandman (an alias he chose in honor of Morpheus).
The Sandman would go on to have many adventures, often accompanied by his girlfriend Diane Belmont (who was a gifted detective and investigator in her own right). Later, The Sandman helped to form the first iteration of The Justice Society of America and took on Diane’s nephew, Sandy, as his sidekick and protégée.
At the onset of the Second World War, the Sandman changed his costume and took to wearing a yellow and purple jumpsuit more in tune with the outfits of his fellow superheroes. He was soon thereafter recruited into the All-Star Squadron and fought alongside the Allied Forces during World War II.
Dodds ultimately retired and although he and Diane never married, the pair remained together for the rest of their lives. Dodds would periodically don his original costume to aide Ted Knight’s son, Jack, who had become the new Starman. Late in his old age, Dodds’ ventured on a final mission to prevent Mordru from obtaining the helmet of Dr. Fate. The villain was defeated yet Dodds’ perished valiantly in the battle. His mantle has since been taken up by his former sidekick, Sandy Hawkins.
A version of the hero appeared in the 1990’s Flash television series portrayed by actor Jason Bernard; another version appeared in the show Smallvile played by actor Ken Lawson.
The Sandman first appeared in New York World’s Fair Comics #1 (1939).
