Biography of Sandman (Earth-Two), 1939-1940

The following is a **biography of the Sandman from 1939 to 1940**.

## Biography

### 1939

By mid-1939, the Sandman was an established entity: a mysterious and potent force against crime, while living as bored millionaire playboy Wesley Dodds by day, much like his contemporary Batman. Around that time, actress Vivian Dale was kidnapped by the Tarantula for a ransom of $500,000. Sandman realized that Dale's home was quite old and had a number of hidden passageways inside of it. He stalked his way through Dale's home at night, finding and incapacitating Tarantula with his gas gun and freeing Ms. Dale. Sandman bound Tarantula for the police, who arrested him soon after.

At the New York World's Fair, Dodds and Evarts of the Dodds-Bessing Steel Corporation planned to exhibit a ray-gun that Dodds had invented, commissioned by the government. Evarts also opted to bring the plans for the weapon, which struck as Dodds as odd, as they weren't necessary or even appropriate for the public to see, and bringing them to such a public and international space risked having them stolen by foreign agents. At the Fair, Dodds and Evarts met with federal agent George Henry and some of his allies to go over the plans. Suspecting the worst, Dodds concealed a critical piece of the plans during his demonstration. Indeed, after his presentation, the lights went out and the plans were gone when they returned. Sandman investigated the national archives later, and found that the man he had spoken to was not George Henry at all. He found the real Henry tied up at the steel building nearby, and asked for his assistance in taking down his impostor. Henry, who had pursued Sandman for his vigilante dealings in the past, told him that it was foreign spy Boris Leland, who had a yacht in the docks nearby. Sandman arrived at the dock to find that Evarts was directly involved in getting the plans to Leland. Evarts was desperate for money, and had agreed to sell Leland the plans for a million dollars. Dodds gassed Evarts, Leland, and Leland's cronies for police capture, recovering the plans and storing them in a government vault in Washington, D.C. Dodds went on to oversee the ray-gun's successful exhibit at the World's Fair.

Sandman spotted a woman at the docks, who herself was spying on a narcotics operation on a boat nearby. A drug user who couldn't afford his latest fix threatened to rat out the dealers, who promptly murdered him and threw him into the bay. The woman, reporter Janice Blue, accidentally made a sound and was attacked by the criminals. Sandman rescued her and knocked out the thugs, allowing them to be brought to justice, while Janice was left with a dazzling story to print. When a series of Dodds's former Navy buddies wound up dead in a short amount of time, Dodds attributed their deaths to Teeter Sneed, a former Navy pilot who had been convicted of manslaughter on their testimony and had recently been released. Dodds knew that another of the men who had accused him, Steve Weber, was likely to be attacked next. He assembled two of his closest friends from the Navy, Clyde Dunlap and Happy O'Shea, to protect Weber as he flew a transport flight over the western states. Dodds, Dunlap, and O'Shea had been known as the Three Sandmen in the service, a likely inspiration for his vigilante persona. The three pilots quietly trailed behind him as Sneed made his anticipated attack. Sneed forced Weber to make an emergency landing, but Dodds forced him into one himself. Dodds radioed for help, ensuring that Sneed would be taken into custody once more. Shortly afterward, Dodds traveled to an island in the south seas, where he protected a pearl-harvesting operation from a group of natives manipulated by a thieving pirate.

While sitting in his home one night, Dodds was accosted by a burglar. He recognized the man as Billy Winnslow, a childhood friend, and talked him down from the attack. The two spoke, and Winnslow told Dodds that he was seeking revenge against a mysterious man known as the Face. The Face, a criminal master of disguise, had targeted Billy and his sister Sue for their inheritance of an oil well in Oklahoma. Sue had committed suicide, while Billy had been framed and served five years in prison. A police officer soon arrived, ostensibly to investigate the burglary, but it was actually the Face in disguise. He shot both men, killing Winnslow and injuring Dodds. After spending a week in the hospital, Dodds investigated the police-uniform lead, tracking down the supplier of the local force's uniforms as the Sandman and finding a secret ledger in his establishment. He went to an address linked to a suspicious buyer, eventually following the lead to the Face himself. Sandman pursued the Face in a daring car chase, knocking him into the river below to his death. Sandman then investigated word of an attempted kidnapping of singer Gloria Gorden, but instead uncovered a scheme by her and her husband to fake her kidnapping and claim fraudulent insurance money.

### 1940

At the start of the year, Sandman uncovered and brought down a convoluted counterfeiting scheme run by his friend Dudley Jones, alias the Coin. Jones had coerced their mutual friend Charley Hall, Hall's wife Dora, and her twin sister Nora Luftus to be a part of the business. All but Nora wound up dead, as Jones killed the Halls and accidentally shot himself in a scuffle with the Sandman.

## Notes

1. ↑ The Sandman's first published appearance is in *New York World's Fair Comics*, but his first chronological appearance is generally considered to be *Adventure Comics* #40.

## References

1. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #40a: "The Tarantula Strikes." (July 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Christman, Bert (art).
2. ↑ *New York World's Fair Comics* #1i: "Sandman at the World's Fair." (April 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Christman, Bert (art).
3. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #41a: "On the Waterfront." (August 1939) Christman, Bert.
4. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #42a: "The Three Sandmen." (September 1939) Christman, Bert.
5. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #43a: "Island Uprising." (October 1939) Christman, Bert.
6. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #44a: "The Sandman Meets the Face." (November 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Flessel, Creig (p), Flessel, Creig and Fred Guardineer (i), Guardineer, Fred (let).
7. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #45a: "The Golden Gusher." (December 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Flessel, Creig (art).
8. ↑ *Adventure Comics* #46a: "The Sandman Meets with Murder." (January 1940) Fox, Gardner (w), Whitney, Ogden (art).