Sandy the Golden Boy

sandy inks colors resize

Personal information

Real Name:  Sandy Hawkins

Residence: New York City
Occupation: Student, adventurer,
First Appearance (Golden Age): Adventure Comics #69 (December 1941)
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): Justice League of America #113 (October 1974)

Character History

Sandy Hawkins was born in the United States in the late 1920's, though little of his early life is known. He is the nephew of Dian Belmont, paramour to Wesley (Sandman) Dodds but the exact relationship is unknown. In the earliest records, he was a New England teen who imitated Sandman's early gold and violet uniform. On a road trip in 1942, Wes Dodds encountered a giant bee, the product of a local apiarist, Elijah Buttsford. Buttsford had generated a mix of thyroid extract and pollen that caused the bees to grow to enormous size, risking havoc as the territorial animals began to build an enormous hive. Bess Buttsford, daughter of Elijah and friend to Sandy, led the two costumed figured to her father's workshop and explained that the bees had taken her father. Quickly tracking them, the pair rescued Buttsford and sealed the hive, flooding with carbon dioxide gas and killing the bees (Adventure Comics #69).  After helping the hero out on this case, the two took up a life of adventuring together in which Sandman taught the younger hero his methods of crime fighting. While most of the case work involved cleaning up New York's mob elements, Sandy occasionally participated in national level case work with the Justice Society or as a member of the All-Star Squadron.

As part of his battle against crime, the Golden Age Sandman had developed an arsenal of chemical weapons, ranging from sedatives to noxious gases. In 1945, he developed a prototype weapon based on silicon, the exact nature of which is unknown. In the first activated test of the weapon, it exploded, exposing Sandy Hawkins to an unknown kind of radiation. Within moments, Sandy was altered into a giant crystalloid monster, raging and angry. The creature that was Sandy was unsteady, however, and when in collapsed momentarily after forming, Wes Dodds sedated it. For decades thereafter, Sandy Hawkins was kept in a special chamber in an unconscious state as Dodd's feared unleashing the unknown creature on the world (revealed in Justice League of America #113).

Decades later, a lapse in the system interrupted the anesthetic gas into Sandy's "velvet cage" and the Sandy revived. Sensing a shift in the tectonics of New York City, the mute Sandy went on what seemed to be a rampage toward the epicenter. Dogged by the combined Justice League and Justice Society, Sandy was finally cornered and subdued. After recovering his voice, he explained that his rampage had been solely a function of his inability to speak and his need to contain the forces of the shifting faultlines. Confronting Dodds after years of silence, Sandy revealed that initial irrational rage, he had contained himself and was actually quite normal but was unable to communicate such due to the anesthetic effects of Dodds' chamber. Crushed with shame, Dodds and Sandy parted company, Dodds seeking psychiatric redress for the weight of his actions, Sandy into a series of experimental programs funded by Dodds to reverse his condition (Justice League of America #113).

Years later, Sandy was taken prisoner by a Dr. Arnold Price, a physician/scientist who had been studying his powers and structure. Price, now known as the Shatterer, planned to harness the geo-sensitive powers of Sandy's body to unleash rather than absorb seismic energy. By initating a series of eartquakes, the Shatterer could then blackmail the city and avenge himself on his colleagues. The Shatterer's plans were derailed by the return of the newly active Golden Age Sandman. Stunning the villain, the Sandman freed his former partner and rigged a quick experiment. Reasoning that, if a silicon explosion had turned him silicon, a organic explosion would turned him back, Dodds' set off an explosion of organic reagents. When the dust cleared, Sandy Hawkins emerged, seemingly normal. Regaining his senses, the Shatterer attacked but a tremor caused by Sand's "residual" seismic energy opened the earth beneath the villain and consumed him (DC Comics Presents #47).

At that point, Sandy set off with Sandman to find his place in the world.  What that became on Earth-Two has never been revealed.

Powers and Abilities

As a youth, Sandy Hawkin was extremely athletic and excellent hand-to-hand combatant for his age.  He was a skilled marksman with the wirepoon gun, Sandman's standard weapon.  He had strong emerging detective skills, the result of training with Sandman and other heroes of his time.  Once he was transformed into a silicon monster, he possessed an array of superhuman powers, including size alteration, an crystallized form that largely invulnerable to normal force injuries and the ability to change in form into pure sand and move along fault lines.  Once he was restored to normal form, he appeared to retain some seismic-like abilities but the full extent of those were never revealed in the Earth-Two timeline.

Weaknesses and Limitations

As Sandy the Golden Boy, Hawkins was a normal adolescent and could be injured or killed as such.  After his silicone transformation, his limitations are not entirely clear.  The initial transformation did cause him to become raging and incoherent and he was vulnerable to sedative gasses that kept him largely unconscious for years.  Seismic disturbance also seemed to cause the silicon form a high degree of pain, the nature of which is not clear.
Multiversity Villains

Multiversity


In the Earth-0 timeline, much of Sandy's history is thought to be largely intact.  In this timeline, he is known to be born in 1928 and was 14 in 1942 when he became a member of the Young All-Stars, a spin-off team from the All-Star Squadron that consisted of sidekicks and teenagers with remarkable abilities. Sandy participated extensively when the group first formed battling Agent Axis (Young All-Stars #1-7 ), but largely remained affiliated with the larger All-Star Squadron with his mentor.    In 1944, he participated in a case in which the Justice Society pursued a small-time crook named Johnny Sorrow who had stolen advanced technology from The Light.  Over-eager in the battled, he shot Sorrow in a best containing the technology and opened a warp to another, horror-filled dimension in which he was transformed into a new being with a face that literally killed until he was banished back to that realm by the JSA (JSA Vol.1 #18). In 1945, he also participated in a case with the Justice Society and several members of the All-Star Squadron arresting the campaign of the conqueror known as the Stalker (The JSA Returns LS).  At some point, their casework crossed paths with the Manhunter (Paul Kirk) and it was revealed the methods of the two heroes had created conflicting approach to crime-fighting which had blossomed into a bitter rivalry (Manhunter Special Vol 2 #1). How much of this history is replicated in some form in the Earth-Two timeline is not clear.
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The accident which converted Sandy into a silicon life form also occurs in this timeline, this time in 1947 (JSA Secret Files #1).  He is also eventually restored to humanoid form and joins the Justice Society when they enter Limbo to stall Ragnarok from consuming the Earth (Last Days of  the Justice Society #1). He emerged with the rest of the Justice Society (Armageddon LS) but his activities afterwards remain largely unrevealed.

Near the turn of the millenium, Dian Belmont died of unrevealed causes and Wesley Dodds was drawn into a scheme of Mordru, a sorcerer and agent of the Lord of Chaos.  Realizing he cannot escape Mordru, Dodds commits suicide by throwing himself into a ravine and with his death, the semi-prophetic dreams that plagued him throughout his life pass to Hawkins.  Hawkins, now known as Sand, joins a new iteration of the Justice Society in bringing Mordru's schemes to an end and becomes the new chairman of the JSA (JSA Vol. 1 #1-4).

From this point, Sand remains a steady member of the Justice Society and periodically it's spin-off team, the JSA All-Stars.  He eventually adopts a new uniform, fusing elements of his Sand identity and Wesley Dodd's cloak and fedora and becomes the new Sandman (Justice Society of America Vol. 3 #1).   The Old God Gog temporarily removed his nightmarish visions but when it causes him to lose his ability to predict crimes, he relents and the nightmares return (Justice Society of America Vol. 3 #20-21).

The activities of Sand in this timeline after the Flashpoint Event are unknown

Appearances

Sandy's Golden Age appearances are largely included in those of Sandman in Adventure Comics #69-102 and are found delineated in his checklist appearances.

Other significant Appearances

Issue

Comments

Reprints

All-Star Comics #14

Fights Nazis in Greece with Sandman

All-Star Comics Archives Vol. 3

All-Star Comics #15

w/ JSA,  vs Brain Wave

All-Star Comics Archives Vol. 4

All-Star Comics #19

With the JSA, vs. Hector Bauer

All-Star Comics Archives Vol. 5

All-Star Squadron #31

Joins the All-Star Squadron

 

All-Star Squadron #51,53-54, 57-60

With the All-Star Squadron, 1940’s during the Crisis on Infinite Earths

 Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition #1

America vs. The Justice Society #3

Flashback

America vs. the Justice Society TPB

DC Comics Presents #42

Flashback to the accident that changed him

 

DC Comics Presents #47

Cured of Silicon body

 

Justice League of America #113

 Accident that turned him into a monstrous form revealed

Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3 TPB, Showcase Presents: The Justice League of America #6, Justice League of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus #1

Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #238

With Sandman and Wonder Woman vs. Kung