Sandman (DCU character)
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Wesley Dodds/Sandy Hawkins/Kieran Marshall; Garrett Sanford/Hector Hall; Dream/Daniel Hall |
| Occupation: | pulp detective, superhero, anthropomorphic personification |
| Relationships: | various |
| Fandom: | DC Comics |
| Other: | Wikipedia article |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Sandman is the pseudonym of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. All named after the folklore character said to bring children good dreams, DC has tried to tie them into a common continuity.
Canon
1939-1946 - Wesley Dodds
Appearing in Adventure Comics, the first Sandman, Wesley Dodds was first designed as a pulp detective character who had prophetic dreams. He wore a gas mask and carried a gun which sprayed criminals with sleeping gas. He later segued into a superhero in a purple and gold costume, using sand and a blowtorch and was made a member of the Justice League. He even had a sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy aka Sandy Hawkins.
1974-1976 - Garrett Sandford
Introduced by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the second Sandman was Garrett Sandford. While designed as a superhero, the character was intended to be the actual folklore myth. However he was portrayed mostly as a superhero in a red-and-gold costume, protecting the dreams of children from his fortress in the "Dream Dimension" with a bag of sleepy sand and two nightmares, Brute and Glob as his muscle. This version appeared only in only 6 issues from 1974-1976[1].
1983 - Dr. Garrett Sandford
Simon and Kirby's version of the character was retconned, appearing in Wonder Woman #300 and Justice League of America Annual #1, where Sandford was a UCLA professor trapped in the Dream Dimension and unable to leave for longer than an hour at a time. He wore the red and gold suit and battled nightmares, but this time a red hourglass was featured on the front. He was revealed to have committed suicide as a result of this imprisonment in Gaiman's The Sandman series.
1988 - Hector Hall
The next Sandman was Hector Hall (son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl), who married Hippolyta Trevor, the daughter of Diana Prince and Steve Trevor from Earth-2 and came to the Dream Dimension with his wife after his body was consumed by the Silver Scarab. His 'new' body was Garrett Sandford's, who had gone insane with his imprisonment and committed suicide. There was an appearance in Infinity Inc. #50 (1988) and then nothing until Gaiman repurposed the character for The Sandman series for DC and Vertigo in 1990. Hall's only appearances as the Sandman are in Infinity Inc. #49–51, The Sandman vol. 2, #11–12 and The Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad #2; it was established in Gaiman's books that Hall himself was dead and that the Dream Dimension was merely an off-shoot of the main Dreaming belonging to the mid of a young boy called Jed Walker and siphoned off by AWOL nightmares Brute and Glob - everything previously done with the character (including the Kirby version of Garrett Sandford) was solely part of Jed's dreams. Morpheus undid the sundering and Hall's spirit was sent to the realm of the dead. A later incarnation (son of Hawk and Dove, aged up to adulthood), would become Doctor Fate.
1990-1993 - Morpheus
See individual page for full details.
While Neil Gaiman had originally pitched an idea using the Hector Hall Sandman, DC asked for a new character, resulting in Dream of the Endless. The character has arguably been the most popular version. It was retconned that the other DC Sandman characters were in various ways derived from Morpheus or his activities.
1995-2020s - Daniel Hall
Son of Hippolyta Trevor-Hall and Hector Hall and gestated in the Dreaming itself for two years, Daniel was "claimed" by Morpheus as "his". What this meant in the end was that Daniel became the new Dream of the Endless at the end of The Sandman comics. Like his predecessor, he is tall and thin and has eyes like stars, but with white hair and white robes, rather than black.
1941-2020s - Sanderson Hawkins
Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins was originally Sandy the Golden Boy, sidekick to Wesley Dodds' Sandman, until an accident with an experimental weapon trapped him in the form of a giant sand creature. He spent several decades in a glass cage to stop him dispersing before being released in 1982 (DC Comics Presents, Whatever Happened To? #47), not having aged a day. He joined the Justice Society of America, wearing a costume reminiscent Dodds' original fedora and cloak, developing the prophetic dreams of his mentor and involved in more of a detective role, albeit with a silicon-based body.
Fandom
None of the non-Morpheus Sandmen have a large fan-following, but there are enough works for Wesley Dodds, Hector Gall and Sanderson Hawkins to warrant tegs at AO3. Garrett Sanderson rarely appears as a main character, but is included in Justice Society of America stories by way of his membership with that team. The peak of fandom seems to have been during the 2000s, although in the wake of the new Sandman television series and interest in the original comics, Hector Hall has some more recent works appearing.
Slash is popular, with Wesley Dodds being paired most often with with teammate Ted/Knight and Sandy Hawkins with Henry King Jr, Jason Todd and Jack Knight. Smittywing, in particular, wrote a number of stories about Garrett Sandford and Sanderson Hawkins, which can be found at their archive Smittyworld 2.0.
Notable Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Legacies by Green Gallant (2011) - Connor meets Sanderson Hawkins at the funeral of Garrett Sandford.
- Sand and Stars Series by Smittywing - Sanderson Hawkins/Jack Knight
Meta
- I took time to check the appearances of Garrett Sandford, the second Sandman, pre Neil Gaiman... Maki's Experiment (2022)
External Links
For links to Morpheus/Daniel Hall fanfiction, see Dream (The Sandman)