Sandman (Marvel)

Sandman appeared in 1963 Marvel Comics called Amazing Spider-Man.

William Baker was the son of Floyd Baker and his wife. William's father left while William was an infant. As a child, impoverished, he learned how to steal. Young William loved going to the beach and building sand castles, but trips to the beach were far and few between because his mother was an alcoholic. One day, William built a large and detailed sand castle only to watch it wash away when it started to rain. The young Baker boy became determined that he was going to make something that would last. William took his love of making things out of sand and used it for school art projects. He had developed a crush on his teacher Miss Flint, but was heart broken when he learned that she was engaged to a stockbroker. This made William believe that the only way to attract a beautiful woman was with money. Baker was tormented by an older student named Vic. On the day he learned that Miss Flint was going to be married, Vic and his friends trashed William's work and beat him up. William ran home to his mother without telling any of the school administrators what happened, and was determined to look after himself. The next time Vic and his friends tried to bully William, he fought back and easily trounced them. When he got in trouble with the school principal, William couldn't help but notice that not only were his bullies afraid of him, but girls noticed him fighting back as well. For the first time in his miserable life, William felt joy. Soon enough, young William became a bully in his own right, beating up on those smaller than him.

Soon William became friends with Vic and his goons and rapidly rose to be the leader of their gang. To sound tougher, William began calling himself Flint, after his old teacher. In high school, Baker became a football star and began dating a cheerleader named Marcy. William has given two accounts of what happened next. He has stated that he accepted money from the mob to throw one of his games. While a late recounting, William has stated that his friend Vic had racked up heavy gambling debts and threw the next game to get out of trouble. Whatever the case, William's coach figured out what happened and had him expelled from school. However, in the later account, William had stated that he violently assaulted his coach after he confronted him. Flint and Vic then began committing petty crimes and started working their way up. When Flint tried to give gifts to his mother she rejected them, having heard rumors of his criminal activities. Arrested while making his getaway from a robbery, Flint found himself in the same prison as his father. Wanting to know who his father was, but ashamed to reveal his identity, William introduced himself as "Flint Marko". When Flint was out, he, Vic and Marcy plotted heists, and when he was arrested again, he spent time with his father until the day his father was released from prison.

The events that led up to William Baker becoming the Sandman vary from account to account. In one telling, Flint caught Vic and Marcy having an affair. After beating up Vic, he went on a crime spree that led to yet another incarceration. Sent to Ryker's Island, Flint eventually broke out of prison, causing the manhunt that led to him getting his powers. Another states that during one of his later arrests, Flint learned that his father was released from prison and broke out in order to be with him.

It was during his flight from the authorities that Flint Marko was exposed the radiation that gave him his powers. Accounts of the actual cause vary. Originally, it was stated that Flint hid from the authorities at the site where a nuclear bomb was being tested. Another account states that Marko was near the site of a nuclear reactor that detonated, and yet another states that he hid in a cave where radioactive waste was being stored. Whatever the case, after being exposed to radiation, his body interacted with the sand under his feet mutating Marko in such a way that he could turn his body into sand and manipulate each grain to shape any form he desired. Flint has stated that it was after his powers he caught Vic and Marcy together and unleashed his powers on them in a fury before fleeing, but he left them alive.

While on the run in New York City, Flint, now calling himself the Sandman, began a crime spree and crossed paths with the novice hero Spider-Man. Spider-Man battled the Sandman but was forced to flee when his mask ripped open in order to protect his secret identity. Later the Sandman decided to hide out from the law at Midtown High School. There he decided to try and force the principal to give him a high school diploma, but he refused. Baker's big mistake was choosing the high school that Spider-Man attended in his alter ego of Peter Parker. Spotting the villain, Peter slipped away and battled him as Spider-Man. Ultimately the Sandman was defeated when Spider-Man sucked up his sand form in a vacuum cleaner and left him for the authorities. Sandman has later stated that he had intentionally allowed Spider-Man to "defeat" him as he had learned that his father was once again incarcerated. Back in prison, Flint broke himself and his father out. They then fled to Coney Island where they had the bad luck of running into Spider-Man again. This time the Sandman was outdone by nature when it started to rain. Losing his cohesion, the Sandman was felled by a bolt of lightning and was forced to flee the scene. His father regarded the Sandman as nothing more than a "good for nothing bum" and fled the scene.

Powers and Abilities[]

Sand Body: Sandman's body is an amorphous blob of animated sand. He originally possessed the ability to mold the sand into a shape that appeared to be completely human, and from that form convert his body (or parts of it) back into sand at will. How much control does he have over this form and how similar does it function to his previous state is not yet known.
Sand Control Transferral: Since Marko's original body is dead, he is capable of giving control of his sand form to another body. He once used this ability with Spider-Man.
Immortality: Sandman is immortal in the sense that he no longer ages. A possible future version of him had lived for billions of years.
- Self-Sustenance: Sandman also no longer require the need for food, air, or rest.
Body Conversion-Sand: Sandman originally possessed the superhuman ability to convert his body into sand by mental command. The sand functioned identically to, and appeared to be, normal flesh. However, he could convert all or parts of his body into animated sand at will. His brain had attained subliminal awareness of all granulated particles of his body. Through conscious effort, he could affect the degree of molecular cohesion between the numerous adjoining surfaces of his particles and thus cause locomotion of discrete volumes, down to the individual grains. There appears to be no limit to how long the Sandman could remain in his sand-state. If he had been to be rendered unconscious while in his sand-state, he would remain in that state, although the relaxing of his control over his particles would cause him to become an amorphous pile of sand. Sandman's mind continued to function in astral form even when he had turned his head into sand and even when the particles of sand that composed his brain were widely scattered. The limit to how far the particles of his brain can be dispersed before he was unable to reassemble is not yet known.
Superhuman Strength: As a consequence of having a body composed of animated sand, the Sandman possessed phenomenal superhuman strength, able to lift up to 85 tons under optimal conditions.
Density Control: His radically mutagenically altered body composition and increased density enabled him to compact or loosen the particles of sand that make up his form. Consequently, the Sandman can become as hard as sandstone, or disperse his body so that he becomes invulnerable to physical attacks. A favorite tactic of the Sandman is making himself slightly dispersed when an opponent punches him, and then making himself rock-solid again, entrapping his opponent's appendage.
Shape-Shifting: He could shape his sand-state body into any continuous shape he can imagine, including his forearms into weapons like hammers, spiked maces, and large fists, forming ram horns on his head, stretching, elongating, deforming, expanding, flattening, or compressing all or portions of his body at will, like Mr. Fantastic, phase through small openings, etc..
Sand Blasts: He could project his sand particles outward at high speeds and, when in the shape of a bulky object, with the impact of a large sandbag.
Glass Generation: Sandman learned some new tricks from the Wizard, including altering the formation of his sand particles and reshaping them into glass. This granted him the ability to reflect light and energy off of him.
Reformation: The Sandman maintained mental control of the particles of which his body is composed so that he could reform his scattered grains unless a substantial portion of his body mass has been isolated.
Sand Conversion: He could also convert common grains of sand around him into constituents of his body to replenish portions he might lose track of during battle. In this manner, he could increase his overall size and volume (to some as yet unknown limit), or that of his limbs.
Sand Clones: Thanks to having such good mental control over his own molecules, he was able to create duplicates of himself, each one capable of acting on its own.
- Giant Form: The clones, should they be in agreement, were all able to fuse together into a giant Sandman, about the size of an eight story building.
Wall-Crawling: He was somehow capable of using his sand to allow him to walk up walls.

The Sandman has an above-average knowledge of science, being self-taught.

Arsenal[]

The Sandman briefly used a suit that he created with Reed Richards' stolen equipment, that he used to mix chemicals with his sand to create new effects. Some of the chemicals could make his sand into a slippery puddle, a sandstorm, solidify him to a brick-like form, adhere him to vertical walls, and coat him with a substance that would turn into a poisonous powder when heated by the Human Torch's flame.

Weakness[]

Water: The Sandman's weakness that makes him most vulnerable is water. Water can soften his sand granules therefore, Sandman cannot control them and has to wait for them to dry.
Heat: Temperatures of 3,400 degrees Fahrenheit can cause his highly impure silicate composition to fuse into amorphous silicate (glass).
Soul Molecule: Over the years, Spider-Man managed to discover that Sandman's consciousness is located in only one grain of sand, which has Marko's brain pattern and is responsible for commanding the other grains of sand what form to take. With the proper instruments, it can be induced to it different ideas which makes Marko change his form against his will. If that grain is separated from the another and isolated, Marko can't recover his mass.