Character Creation
The Sandman (William Baker, a.k.a. Flint Marko) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A shapeshifter endowed through an accident with the ability to turn himself into sand, he started out as a recurring adversary to the superhero Spider-Man, but has redeemed himself over time, eventually becoming an antihero.
The Sandman has also been an enemy of the Fantastic Four and is a founding member of the supervillain teams the Sinister Six and the Frightful Four.
The character has been adapted into various other media incarnations of Spider-Man, including films, television series, and video games. In live-action, he was portrayed by Thomas Haden Church in Spider-Man 3 (2007) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
An illusionary creature based on the Sandman appeared in the MCU film Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019). In 2009, the Sandman was ranked as IGN's 72nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
The Sandman first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (Sept. 1963), created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko as an adversary of Spider-Man.[3][4][5] The character returned in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 and The Amazing Spider-Man #18-19, and was soon depicted in other comics, such as The Incredible Hulk and The Fantastic Four.
The Sandman served as the villain of the first issue of the Spider-Man spin-off series Marvel Team-Up (March 1972), which gave him a more morally ambiguous depiction.
Writer Roy Thomas later commented, "I've been pleased to see Sandman's gradual redemption, whose seeds perhaps I helped plant in that story. He just seemed to me like a character who might have that in him ..."
Subsequent stories stuck with the character's original depiction, but a decade later the more sympathetic portrayal of the Sandman returned, starting with Marvel Two-in-One #86 (April 1982), in which the Sandman is given co-star billing with his nemesis the Thing. The Sandman was later an ally of Spider-Man, as well as a reserve member of the Avengers and a member of Silver Sable's "Wild Pack" team of mercenaries.
Besides being most notable as a Spider-Man supervillain, he has also been depicted as a Fantastic Four antagonist in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic books (mostly due to being introduced as a founding member of the original Frightful Four) along with being on the heroic side (being an Avengers reserve member) until being introduced as a tragic supervillain in the Spider-Man comics once again.
Fictional character biography
William Baker was born in Queens, New York. At three years old his father abandoned him and his mother, a cleaning lady. In these early years she took her son to Coney Island beach. He lost himself happily in sand sculptures, a craft he would use in secondary school under the encouragement of his teacher (and first crush), Miss Flint.
In preparatory school, a boy named Vic and his two pals bullied William until he learned to fight using opponents' motions against themselves, a technique he performed as if he "slipped through their fingers like sand." Vic and his buddies posed no match to William, who wore them down and who they even befriended throughout high school. At this time, William, a football player on his school's team, used football to channel his anger to apply it to what he sensed as a nascent change in himself. While playing football he adopted the moniker "Flint", the last name of his affection, Miss Flint.
Vic incurred a large debt to a mob. In desperation, he begged Flint to fix a football game he bet on to pay off his debt. Flint did, but found himself kicked off the team after the coach discovered his involvement in this corruption. The coach vituperated the young, tenderfoot trickster by saying that he will accomplish nothing of importance in his life. Flint roughed up his ex-coach, resulting in his expulsion from school and segue into a life of crime.
His illegal activity increased in depth and scope, turning him into a violent, bitter man. Eventually he ended up in prison on Ryker's Island where he met his father, Floyd Baker. He was friendly to his father but did not tell him who he was. He told Floyd his nickname, Flint, and a false surname, Marko, inspired by his former coach’s taunts about not "making a mark" on the world. He would use the alias Flint Marko from that point on (He changed his name also to prevent his mother from discovering he's a criminal). His father's presence ameliorated him. After Floyd is released from prison, Marko escaped.
Immediately, William fled to a nuclear testing site on a beach near Savannah, Georgia where he came into contact with sand that had been irradiated by an experimental reactor. His body and the radioactive sand bonded and changed Marko's molecular structure into sand. Impressed, he named himself the Sandman after his new powers.
Marko clashed with Peter Parker/Spider-Man for the first time at Midtown High School. He escaped Spider-Man in his first battle, but later Spider-Man found the Sandman hiding in his school. He sucked Marko into a vacuum cleaner and handed it over to the police. The Sandman escaped by getting through his jail cell window after turning himself to sand, but was recaptured by the Human Torch after the Torch lured the Sandman to a building by disguising himself as Spider-Man, then activating the sprinkler systems. After a while he resurfaced as a member of the Sinister Six, led by Doctor Octopus. He battled Spider-Man inside an airtight metal box, but the Sandman was defeated due to Spider-Man having stronger lungs than him. Alongside the Enforcers, he captured the Human Torch but later succumbed to Spider-Man and the Human Torch. After Spider-Man defeated Flint numerous times, Flint diverted his attention to other super heroes. He teams with the Wizard, Paste Pot Pete and Medusa to form the Frightful Four to combat the Fantastic Four, which attacked during Reed and Sue's engagement party. The Fantastic Four with the help of a few other super heroes pounded this fledgling group. In another battle he lost against the Four, he donned a diamond-patterned green costume with a purple cap and was joined by Blastaar. Later he and the Hulk dueled for the first time. Mandarin joined him in his next conflict against the Hulk.
In time Sandman discovered—starting with his hands—that his body can transform into glass and that he can reverse that effect. He contracted cancer and overtook a medical research center. He battled Wonder Man but was cured of cancer by radiation. Afterward, he allied himself with Hydro-Man to battle their mutual enemy, Spider-Man. An accident merged the two villains into a muddle-headed mud monster whose rampage was cut short when Spider-Man and the police dehydrated the monstrosity. Months later, the supervillains managed to separate their masses and went their separate ways.
Depression sank into Baker in an episode where he had second thoughts about evil. The Thing of the Fantastic Four saw Baker's angst and urged him to straighten himself out and use his ability to do good. He began boarding with the Cassadas and teamed with Spider-Man against the Enforcers. Sandman then made sporadic appearances in Spider-Man comics assisting his former enemy. The first such appearance had him coming to the rescue of Spider-Man and Silver Sable, who were outnumbered and surrounded by the Sinister Syndicate. Silver Sable was impressed by Sandman's performance and recruited him as a freelance operative. Doctor Octopus coerced him into rejoining the Sinister Six, but he turned against the clan, so Doctor Octopus (the leader) turned him into glass for his treason. Spider-Man, however, saved the Sandman. Sandman also appeared as part of The Outlaws, a group of reformed Spider-Man enemies, such as Prowler, Rocket Racer, Puma and Will o' the Wisp, that would occasionally aid Spider-Man.
Later he received a presidential pardon and briefly joined the Avengers as a reserve member. Later, he became a full-time mercenary in the employ of Silver Sable, as a member of her Wild Pack, serving alongside heroes such as Paladin and Battlestar. Sandman was one of the few heroes temporarily overwhelmed by his evil doubles during the Infinity War. This double almost kills them all.
In The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #4, Marko turned against Spider-Man and his sometimes ally Thing and declared his allegiance to evil and his former employer, the villainous Wizard. This change proved egregiously incompatible to what many Sandman fans had thought Sandman had become: a hero. This outcry caused Marvel to rush out a story, inPeter Parker: Spider-Man vol. 2 #12, which retconned The Amazing Spider-Man #4 in which the Wizard kidnapped Sandman and used his mind control machine, the Id Machine, to control the sandy monstrosity.
The machine worked too well and Sandman went about re-forming the Sinister Six to destroy both Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, only to be double-crossed by Venom, whom Sandman recruited as the sixth member of the team. During Venom's brawl against Sandman, the vicious black symbiote's mouth ripped a chunk of sand from Sandman. That missing sand destabilized Sandman, causing him to lose his ability to maintain his human form. Before falling into the sewer (as a nod to fans who rejected Marvel's attempt to re-villainize the character), Sandman admitted that part of the reason for his fall from grace was the trouble he had coping with life on the good guys' side, and asked Spider-Man to tell his mother he's sorry he didn't fulfull his promise to her, to be a force for good. Sandman washed away and slid down a sewer, from which he mixes into Jones Beach, New York and is thought dead.
Sandman's body and mind became scattered throughout the beach. This separation lasted too long for him, causing his mind to split into good and its opposite, evil, which when dominant created sand vortexes to ensnare beach combers. Spider-Man arrived to confront Sandman, using Sandman's mental instability to free his captives and causing him to explode.
His sand wafted throughout New York and touched down into piles forming beings that personify him: the good, the bad, the gentle and the innocent. Spider-Man located these sandmen in an attempt to convince them to unify. Sandman's evil persona merged with his innocent and gentle personas, but Sandman's good one rebuffed the evil one. Because Sandman's mind can only handle his separated personalities for a limited time, he lost his ability to retain himself, crumbling and blowing away, leaving Spider-Man to ponder the nature of his scuddled foe.
Sandman was later one of the villains recruited to recover the Identity Disc, but during its recovery he was seemingly killed in a mutiny. At the series' end Sandman was found alive and working with Vulture to manipulate the other villains.
Sandman returned in Spider-Man: The Gauntlet storyline, which redefined the character and his powers/mental state. While investigating a series of murders and a missing girl named Keemia, whose mother was one of the victims, Spider-Man traced the murders and the abduction to the Sandman, the girl's father, who was hiding on Governor's Island with Keemia. Sandman's powers had evolved to where he could create duplicates of himself who had their own personalities and, to Marko's shock, claim they committed the murders.
Spider-Man snuck away and used a fan to obliterate the sandmen. Originally Spider-Man believed Keemia would be handed to her grandmother, but instead she was sent to a foster home by Child Protective Services. Carlie Cooper, one of Spider-Man's friends, was under police suspicion for tampering with evidence from the murders committed by Sandman's duplicates. She was exonerated, but Sandman was still at large.
During the Origin of the Species storyline, Sandman was among the supervillains invited by Doctor Octopus to join his villains' team where he became involved in a plot to receive a reward and secure some specific items for himself. Sandman went after Spider-Man for Menace's infant baby, but ended up colliding with Electro. Spider-Man went on a rampage against the villains after the infant was stolen from him by the Chameleon. Sandman hid with Shocker and the Enforcers in the dock. However, Spider-Man collapsed the floor of a building, which falls into the water. Sandman attempted to rise to attack, but Spider-Man shot him using Shocker's vibrational air blasts.
In Big Time, he was part of the new Sinister Six, along with Mysterio, Rhino, Doctor Octopus, Chameleon, and Electro. He rose up against Doctor Octopus' plan to detonate New York, saying that his daughter Keemia is still there. He was later angered when, during a confrontation between the Sinister Six and the Intelligencia, Doctor Octopus teleported the Wizard into the upper atmosphere with the Intelligencia's equipment. Sandman was talking with his former Frightful Four teammate and old friend at the time, prompting Sandman to violently attack the Mad Thinker when he was going after Electro because he claimed that he did not want to lose any more friends.
When Doctor Octopus put his plan into action, Sandman was satisfied with the job because of the planned two billion dollar "compensation fee", which, he reasoned, would help him gain custody of his daughter. Although he was sent to guard a facility in the Sahara Desert (giving him complete control of the largest body of sand in the world), he was defeated by Spider-Man, Black Widow and Silver Sable when Spider-Man identified and isolated the one grain of sand that contained his conscious mind. Spider-Man and Silver Sable then violently interrogated Sandman to reveal all of Doctor Octopus' secrets.
Character Evolution
Although he pulled many schemes to earn cash, Spider-Man stopped him every time. He grew to hate Spidey and want cash. Joining the Sinister Six, he became a frequent enemy of Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Daredevil. At one point early in his career he joined the Frightful Four alongside Trapster, Wizard and Medusa in their battles with the Fantastic Four. In a fight with Hydro-Man, he was mixed with him into a mud monster. This gave him a new sense of worth and outlook on life and changed him to the side of good. He was even recruited to be a reserve member of the Avengers, but has had trouble fitting in with them. Later, he was recruited and joined Silver Sable's Wild Pack. While in the Wild Pack he would become romantically involved with Silver Sable and would lead an offshoot team of Sable's Wild Pack called the Intruders.
Major Story Arcs
Nothing Can Stop... the Sandman!
Still in pursuit of the authorities, Sandman continued his crime spree within New York City. Making daring robberies and successfully robbing banks thanks to his newly acquired abilities, Sandman would capture the attention of the city’s newest costumed hero, Spiderman. Unaware of Sandman’s powers and abilities, Spiderman was bested by the boastful Sandman as the two fought on the rooftops. Almost exposing Spiderman’s identity when tearing his mask after the hero fell from the rooftops, Sandman continued on with his mindless crime spree.
Eventually Sandman would encounter Spiderman again when the villain broke into Peter Parker’s school while fleeing from the police. Bullying Principal Davis into giving him a high school degree while holding several classmates hostage, Spiderman would attack Sandman in another fight. Managing to avoid Sandman’s display of powers, Spiderman would defeat the villain with an industrial vacuum cleaner. Trapped in an container and in sand form, Sandman was finally captured and imprisoned by the authorities.
Revenge of The Sandman
Sandman would later escape custody and encounter Fantastic Fours Human Torch. Much like Sandman’s fight against Spiderman (who was secretly watching the incident), Sandman would also prove himself to be a difficult enemy for the Torch as well. Managing to defeat Sandman with a water sprinkler, Sandman was recaptured once more only to successfully escape again. Still wanting vengeance against Spiderman, Sandman would accept Doctor Octopus’s offer to join other vengeful Spiderman villains in an attempt to take out Spiderman once and for all as the Sinister Six.
As Spiderman fought each villain individually, Sandman would be one of the last villains to be defeated by the web-slinger before successfully taking down the entire Sinister Six. Managing to elude the authorities, Sandman would encounter Spiderman once more when he managed to chase the hero into hiding. After this event, Sandman would form an alliance with the Enforcers and make his attempt to gain revenge against the Human Torch. Successfully capturing him by surprise, Sandman and the Enforcers would find themselves against the confident Spiderman. With Torch being released and the Enforcers defeated, the exhausted Sandman found himself easily taken down and pinned by two patrol officers, facing the most humiliating defeat in the hands of both enemies.
The Frightful Four
After Sandman freed himself from custody with the assistance of another costumed criminal known as Paste Pot Pete, both would share strong similarities on their goals and enemies to where they decided to form an alliance. It would be of luck that they would discover another villain, the Wizard who was incapacitated in the sky after his recent fight with the Human Torch. Rescuing him, Wizard offered his services in a partnership and all three men formed an alliance to gain their vengeance against the Human Torch. Realizing that the Human Torch was now more involved with his team, Wizard would recruit the amnesiac Inhuman known as Medusa to act as their female member. With a group of four members that wore matching colors of purple and pink, Wizard acted as leader of the group and dubbed themselves as the Frightful Four.
With the Frightful Four, Sandman almost successfully defeated the Fantastic Four twice. First time when they interrupted Reed Richards and Susan Storms engagement party and entrapping them. Next by almost blowing up the Fantastic Four while they were trapped on a secluded island. Their next attempt would prove to their greatest when Wizard managed to have the Thing turn against his own teammates. However this caught the Fantastic Fours attention as Sandman was defeated and captured alongside with his team, besides Medusa who managed to escape. Sandman’s stint with the Frightful Four did manage to gain some confidence and benefits with Wizards aid of technology support.
As Paste Pot Pete changed his name to Trapster, Sandman would wear a costume designed by Wizard to help increase Sandman’s powers and manipulation. Because of this, Sandman felt confident enough to take on the Fantastic Four alone. Managing to stand his ground against the team of heroes, Sandman accidentally activated Richards Negative Zone portal which caused the alien Blastaar to enter the scene. With both Sandman and Blastaar sharing the same goals of defeating the Fantastic Four, both villains would form an alliance that proved unsuccessful as Sandman fell into a river and dispersed.
Managing to reform himself, Sandman desperately tried to obtain a space warp machine to retrieve Blastaar from the Negative Zone. This plan found Sandman battling a new and much more powerful enemy known as the Hulk. Later forced into allying with the Mandarin, Sandman fought the Hulk once more and was ultimately defeated when the green monster threw Sandman into a high-pressure vat that caused him to turn into glass. Found and cured by the Wizard, Sandman would rejoin the Frightful Four on their attempt to kidnap Franklin Richards who was currently being cared for by the sorceress Agatha Harkness.
This plan ultimately backfired against the team when Agatha quickly defeated the entire team and caused Sandman to slowly revert back into glass. Desperately trying to find a cure, Sandman would break into a clinic and force a blood specialist to complete a transfusion with the only person in the hospital who had the same blood type as the Sandman’s, which was Betty Ross. After the transfusion, Sandman was restored to normal while Betty Ross was temporarily turned into glass. This caused another encounter with Hulk, who defeated Sandman by throwing him into a body of water.
Finally reforming himself together again, Sandman decided to step away from his criminal rampage and visit his mother on Christmas Eve. However, trouble would still follow Sandman as both Spiderman and Human Torch came across Sandman and attempted to capture the villain. While trying to fight off both heroes, Sandman was captured and released by Spiderman after realizing Sandman’s true intentions on visiting his mother.
Sandman still continued his connections with the Frightful Four as the team found themselves struggling to replace Medusa, who was actually the most valuable member of the team. Even though his stay within the Frightful Four proved no better, Sandman would also continue on making several attempts on pursuing a solo criminal career. Hired by Crime-Master and Kingpin, he would later find himself recaptured by Spiderman and placed within a special designed containment bubble designed by Reed Richards.
Sandman managed to free himself with the assistance of Baron Brimstone as both villains found themselves battling both Spiderman and Machine Man. After both men were defeated by the heroes, Sandman would later find himself allying with another villain with somewhat similar powers, who was known as Hydro Man. This alliance eventually found itself short-lived and ending with both villains fighting each other until they accidentally merged into monstrous being known as Mud-Thing. After Spiderman successfully halted Mud-Things path of destruction, both Hydro Man and Sandman were still merged until finally being separated after a long period of dormancy.
The Heroic Pursuit
After being fully reformed, the recent event managed to not only cause Sandman to be traumatized, but unsure of his goals as being a criminal. Sandman would have an ironic encounter with one of his enemies in a local bar. Rather than fighting against the Thing, Sandman befriended the hero as he helped influence Sandman into reforming from being a criminal. This not only had Sandman gain a new friend and trusting friend, but also steered his future goals on redeeming himself for his past crimes. Starting with his first enemy, Sandman helped Spiderman on defeating his old allies the Enforcers. Even though Sandman was trying to make good attentions with the public and their heroes, Sandman was still a wanted man and was forced into changing his name to Sylvester Mann.
Sandman's heroic pursuit would turn for the better when he not only helped Spiderman against the Sinister Syndicate, but also the notorious mercenary Silver Sable. Impressed with Sandman, Silver Sable would hire Sandman to help and assist her against future threats. Alongside with Silver Sable and other heroes, Sandman defended European nations against Dr Octopus and the Sinister Syndicate, captured the communist criminal Albert Malik A.K.A The Red Skull, and disrupted an illegal arms deal between Madame Menace and Dr Octopus. As Sandman continued his career as an employee with Silver Sable, luck would turn for the worst when Dr Octopus forced Sandman into joining his newest incarnation of the Sinister Six. Doing so, Sandman played along with Dr Octopus’s unknown goals until he grew fed up with his stay in the Sinister Six that ended with Dr Octopus turning Sandman into glass. Later returning to normal, Sandman continued his heroic career and continued assisting Spiderman.
Return to Villainy
The Wizard would later capture and alter the mind of the Sandman to revive his evil persona. Back to his evil ways he would rejoin the Sinister Six. While a member of the Sinister Six , he and Venom clashed over who would be allowed kill to Spider-Man, and was severely injured. Being bitten by the murderous villain caused Sandman to slow lose control over his molecular structure. In his worsening condition, he blamed and attacked Spider-Man, but before completely degrading into pure sand, he asked Spidey tell his mother that he tried to be good. Luckily for both, Sandman's grains merged into a beach and he eventually returned.
Sandman was one of the villains recruited to recover the Identity Disc, but after questioning their would-be leader, is apparently killed by a compound that makes him fall apart. It is revealed that he and Vulture manipulated the other villains for the quest, and that Sandman informed the actual leader who they thought they were working for.
During the period of time in which Spider-Man's identity was public, Sandman went to him asking for his help. His biological father, an offender named Floyd Baker, was accused and falsely convicted of murdering a man that looked suspiciously like Uncle Ben; Sandman had tried and failed once before to rescue him, and saw the unmasked vigilante as his only option. Peter did not believe him at first, but after some honest words and looking at the evidence, he agreed to save his father. With the help of an emo kid who had witnessed the murderer, the two learned that the real murderer was Chameleon 2211, who had taken Uncle Ben's form after murdering Spider-Man 2211. Battling him at Midtown High, Spider-Man use the future Spider-man's helmet to switch Chameleon with Sandman's father right as he was in the electric chair, saving his life and giving them time to know each other as they made a break for it.
Sandman later developed the power to make sand clones of himself each slightly different. One of the clones got into a relationship with a young woman Alma but a rogue clone ended up killing her. Now deranged he takes her daughter Keemia believing she is his daughter and she also believes he is her father. Spider-Man attempts to rescue Keemia and tells Marko the truth. He is able to defeat Sandman but Keemia is sadly put into foster care. Upon defeat Sandman vowed that he would get revenge and always be his enemy from now on.
Ends of the Earth
He was later seen alongside the resurfaced Sinister Six as one of the six members. He aids Doctor Octopus and his fellow villains in taking over the world, defeating the Avengers, and working with the end goal of getting his daughter out of a foster home. When he is placed in charge of the Sahara Desert, Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Silver Sable confront him. Spidey uses advanced tech to pinpoint his Soul Grain - the one grain his body that controls himself - to defeat him.
Superior Six
Sandman, along with other villains who had classically been members of the Sinister Six, were defeated, abducted, and mind-controlled by Spider-Man (whose body is possessed by Doctor Octopus) as part of his Superior Six. The newly-dubbed "heroes" stop an attack by the Wrecking Crew, all the while it being clear that Spider-Man is forcibly making them save lives with mind-control technology. After a battle with Lightmaster and his Masters of Evil, the technology wears off, and the vengeful villains decide to have their revenge. Spider-Man narrowly defeats them, but Sandman spitefully reveals that the hope Spider-Man used to inspire in him is now dead.
When all of the world's heroes and villains are inverted into acting the opposite way they normally do, Sandman is inspired by his past as a hero to rescue an unjustly imprisoned small-time crook. He breaks into his jail and does so, but is dismayed when the news still reports him as a villain.
Sandman later appears inside the new super villain prison outside of New York called the Power House. When the Thing is placed there under false charges of murdering the Puppet Master, he becomes one of his few friends on the inside and protects him discreetly a couple times. He reveals that he is helping the hero because someone is sending care packages to his daughter (obviously the Thing),and he's grateful for it. In return for this help, Ben let him in on his plan to escape the Power House. They narrowly get out with the help of the Fantastic Four's allies. Sandman returns the favor by acting as part of the Wizard's new Frightful Four to fight the Quiet Man's army.
Human No More
Sandman's ability to hold his sandy form together begins to wane, so he visits two criminal doctors, The Wizard and the Mad Thinker, They do no small part to help. He also started getting odd visions about what looked to be another life and his past. After collapsing in broad daylight, Sandman was found by Spider-Man. Although dismayed to be unable to help his former enemy, Spidey gave him one last relief by taking him to the beach his mother brought him to as a kid. He then turned to grains and was blown into the wind, apparently gone.
However, it was later revealed that because of a rift between dimensions, a parallel and more powerful version of Sandman had actually taken over his body, intent on continuing his lifespan. Together with Spider-Man, Sandman took control of his new completely-sand body and sent the parallel version of himself packing to his own dead world. The two then bid goodbye, Sandman hopeful and scared about his much tougher and grainier form.
Sinister War
Having returned to the beach to continue to collect himself, Sandman was tracked down by Doctor Octopus, under the influence of Kindred, to put the Sinister Six back together. Flint followed his new team to the premiere of Mysterio's movie to recruit him but found Mysterio being attacked by the Savage Six, angry about their portrayal of themselves in his movie.
They are able to get away with Mysterio in their ranks. With his illusion tech, they get close to Spider-Man during a brawl in a graveyard with the other supervillain teams. Eventually, Doc Ock uses a piece of Black Ant's helmet to knock everyone, including Flint, out through the ear centipedes Kindred was using to control them.
Sinister Adaptoid
After going their separate ways, The Living Brain kidnapped Sandman and five other foes of Spider-Man's. He was using them to program a new Super Adaptoid to hunt down and defeat Spider-Man so that the Living Brain could fulfill its original purpose, answer the question "Who is Spider-Man?"
In a fight with this Sinister Adaptoid in the Living Brain's lab, Spider-Man uncovered his villains in shackles. Against his better judgment, he decided to release them so that they would aid him in defeating both the Super Adaptoid and the Living Brain. When they found the Living Brain's control center, the Sinister Six wanted to kill it.
Believing it to be alive, Spider-Man defended the Living Brain's life. Seeing Spider-Man put his life on the line for an enemy whose life Spider-Man considered equally valuable satisfied the "Who is Spider-Man?" question. Thus, the Living Brain trapped the Sinister Six and agreed to Spider-Man's demands that it be temporarily taken offline and given to proper authorities.
Ravencroft
Flint would eventually turn himself into Ravencroft, trying to reclaim his life as William Baker. Being made up of many particles makes it difficult for his mind not to splinter, so they outfitted Sandman with a sonic disruptor, which would activate anytime the Flint identity tried to use his powers. Eventually he runs into Peter Parker, visiting another patient. Peter checks on his well-being, pretending to be a friend of Spider-Man, who cares about William's rehabilitation. William tries to get a message to Spidey through Peter that he was recently invited back to the Sinister Six, who were teaming up yet again to take on Spider-Man.
Eventually, Sinister Six member, Electro, would volunteer to break Sandman out of Ravencroft, but Spider-Man was there to stop him. Unfortunately, Sandman's sonic distruptor was disabled long enough for the sand particle with the Flint Marko identity to escape Ravencroft in a flower pot carried by one of the inmates on their last day. This allowed him to finally reunite with the Sinister Six, while the William Baker Sandman eventually became unstable and fell apart.
Spider-Goblin
Doctor Octopus reunited the Sinister Six so that they may have their vengeance on the Living Brain. Unfortunately, Osborn, who had been using the Brain for his own science, was on to them. Now being overwhelmed by the Goblin identity yet again, Osborn used Hobgoblin's Winkler Device to alter Spider-Man's brain into having his own goblin identity. He then released this Spider-Goblin on the Sinister Six. With Osborn's ingenuity, Spider-Goblin was able to overpower Electro and throw him into Sandman. Electro's lightning turned Flint into a glass prison.
Powers
As an accidental victim from the affects of radiation, Sandman’s body is now entirely made of sand. With the radiation blast causing his organic body to be fused with the elemental sand, his astral form only holds his own entire body structure together. Unlike Dr Strange who can control his astral form at will and leave his physical form, Sandman’s astral form is forever bonded with any sand he comes in contact with and cannot be separated, despite how far his sand body is separated or scattered. A unique feature that Sandman has is that he displays the ability to become organic and display human physiology at will. Displaying human features such as eating, breathing, bleeding, fatigue, and capable of feeling pain (depending on his current form or mental stress).
Sandman also has control over every sand particle that composes his body, because of this Sandman can travel more quickly followed by a trail of sand. Usually he’s traveling like this with both feet, as a sand mound, or a thin long trail. Aside from traveling, Sandman could also project his body into growing taller or by exerting his body outwards at high speeds, in other words he could throw his own body against unexpected opponents.
Once Sandman’s body is scattered or dispersed despite the distance, he could quickly reform himself back together again. Because of himself being made of sand materials, Sandman possesses a high increase in strength that could increase more as his body intakes more sand or sand materials. It’s unclear of the highest amount of strength the Sandman can possess or how big his body can grow, what is known is that at his highest strength level Sandman can stand his ground against individuals with massive strength such as the Hulk and the Thing. If Sandman does manage to lose a certain amount of sand within his body, he could easily restore the lost amount with any other found sand materials.
Having creative skills in sculpting and molding prior to his accident, Sandman is capable of transforming his body into any solid object he desires. Such as transforming his hands into weapons like mallets, clubs, maces, transforming his entire body into complex machinery, objects, and even impersonating people and animals as well. However each form Sandman chooses to change into doesn’t cause Sandman to gain the abilities or memory of that chosen form, and also the form is entirely made of sand as well. For example, if he were to transform his hand into a gun, he wouldn’t be able to shoot any live rounds. Or if he were to change into Spiderman, he wouldn’t display any of his powers or abilities. Recently Sandman’s level of creativity and display of powers have caused him to take more advanced forms such as becoming a fully furnished castle.
Most of the time Sandman is seen wearing the same basic clothing that consisted of a striped green long sleeve shirt and dark brown khaki trousers, the same clothing he worn in the radiation blast that granted his abilities. Transformed alongside with him, the clothing has also bonded and shared the same results of Sandman’s abilities. Even though Sandman has been seen wearing other clothing or costumes, most/ or all of his clothing is made up from his own mutated physiology. Much like the symbiotes ability to alter different styles of clothing, Sandman can also do the same but mostly restricted to the colors brown or green, the same type of colors from the clothing his body bonded with. Even though Sandman was once seen bearing the colors of purple and pink when he first Recently Sandman has displayed a new and unique form of abilities with his powers by multiplying himself into an army. Almost resembling the original Sandman, each form consists of Sandman’s emotions. Each form is equally powerful as the original and does carry the same basic abilities as the original.
Limitations
Even though Sandman displays unique and powerful set of powers and abilities, there also follows limitations. First is the fact that Sandman’s body retains the same reactions that material-like sand has with other elements, such as water and fire. Much like bodies of sand itself, Sandman could easily absorb water into his body causing him to lose control of his physique at a certain amount. Sandman’s body also reacts towards fire at the degrees of 3,400 Fahrenheit; this would cause Sandman’s entire body into glass, which immobilizes him until he’s restored to normal. Even though he’s still capable of retaining his conscious if shattered into glass pieces, Sandman is still trapped within his own body.
Possibly the most weirdest and awkward weakness Sandman has is with the villain known as Hydro Man, who also views Sandman the same way. Both men whose bodies each consist of a different elemental controlled by their conscious were to accidentally bond by fighting would most likely form into a single monstrous like being consisted of mud. With both men sharing no conscious or control, the after effects of being separated would cause both Sandman and Hydro Man a lengthy and traumatizing reaction.
Possibly kept secret and rarely seen is that Sandman does retain human form and does retain full functions and weaknesses. During his career as the Sandman, he has successfully contracted physiology sicknesses and even cancer. Even though he’s capable of reverting his body into sand at will, Sandman still carries any type of contracted sickness, cancer, or obtained diseases.
The greatest flaw in Sandman’s powers is the amount of mental stress his powers can cause. It’s a fact that Sandman can easily survive if his head is separated from his from his body and that he would still retain full conscious, but it also reacts towards his mental state. Over the years of mastering his abilities, the amount of creativity, and time he’s spent as a being made of entirely sand has taken a great amount stress on his mental health. Even though Sandman was an honored member of the Avengers and lived a career as a respectful hero, his mind was kept at a balanced state to where it was easy for the Wizard to change back to it’s original criminal mindset. After managing to separate himself into multiple beings, Sandman wouldn’t realize that he also separated parts of his conscious that each being developed on their own. This caused Sandman to perform actions without his full knowledge and capable of causing a conflict with himself in a mental confrontation.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
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A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: William Baker
Publisher: Marvel
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (September 1963)
Created by: Stan Lee (writer)
Steve Ditko (artist)
Sandman last seen in BP 2022 Day 73!
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/51937724912/
