Sandman (Marvel Comics)
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Facts and Stats
- Real name: William Baker, a.k.a. Flint Marko
- Group affiliation: None; formerly the Sinister Six, Wild Pack, Avengers and Frightful Four
- First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #4 (1963)
- Height: 6 ft. 1 in.
- Weight: 240 lbs. in human form, 450 lbs. at maximum density and normal mass
Summary
Sandman (a.k.a. Flint Marko; born William Baker) is a character in the Marvel Comics universe, traditionally an adversary of Spider-Man. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (Sept. 1963). His body has been changed into sand, which he can control completely. He may also absorb nearby sand and reconstitute it into his body. He was portrayed by Thomas Haden Church in the 2007 film Spider-Man 3.
Sandman Character History
At the age of three, William Baker was abandoned by his father and forced to live in poverty with his mother. Throughout high school, William turned to theft and cheating to get through class and to make ends meet at home. After accepting a bribe, Baker was expelled from school and soon found work as a mob enforcer. Under the alias Flint Marko, Baker became involved in more and more illegal activity, and slowly developed a violent and bitter personality. Eventually he ended up doing hard time on Ryker’s Island for his dealings but managed to escape. Immediately after he fled to 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 Marko’s molecular structure was altered into a sand/dirt-like substance. Marko soon found that he could transform any or all of his body into sand, and adopted the name Sandman to match his new powers.
Marko clashed with Spider-Man for the first time at the school which the hero attended as Peter Parker. Marko was defeated by Spider-Man (who used a vacuum cleaner), but eventually resurfaced as a member of the Sinister Six led by Doctor Octopus. After being soundly defeated by Spider-Man several more times, Marko gave up and took a shot at battling other superheroes. Most notably, he created the original Frightful Four to combat the Fantastic Four, but his fledgling group of villains were beaten by the experienced heroes.
Sandman eventually discovers that—starting with his hand—his body is slowly transforming into glass, although he is able to reverse the effect. Afterwards, he decides to resume his struggle with his original adversary, Spider-Man, and allies himself with Hydro-Man to do battle with their mutual enemy. The two briefly merge into an unintelligent and largely ineffective mud monster, but split apart. Afterwards, Marko becomes deeply depressed, and the Thing of the Fantastic Four supports him, and encourages him to use his power in the name of good. Sandman would then make sporadic appearances in various 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 is impressed by Sandman's performance and recruits him as a freelance operative. Sandman would also appear as part of the Outlaws, a group of reformed Spider-Man enemies such as Prowler, Rocket Racer, Puma, and Will o' the Wisp, who would turn up from time to time to help Spider-Man.
Flint briefly joins the Avengers as a reserve member. Later, he becomes 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.
He eventually reverts to his villainous ways, claiming to have faked his heroic career, although it was revealed that the Wizard had used his mind-controlling "Id Machine" to force him to act as a villain.
Sandman then rejoins a new incarnation of the Sinister Six, which is working with one of Spider-Man's deadliest enemies, Venom. Venom reveals that he had joined the team to make sure no one else kills Spider-Man, and turns on the remaining five. Dealing with Marko, Venom rips off and swallows a chunk of sand, which apparently destabilized Sandman's body structure. His body slowly begins to crumble away. He blames Spider-Man, but ultimately asks him to deliver a message to his mother. He also expresses remorse that he could not pull off the task of becoming an official superhero. The Sandman then crumbles to pieces and seems to die, washing away down a sewer and ending up as part of Jones Beach, New York.
Sandman's body and mind scattered with the grains of sand. The major part of his mind merges with the beach and begins swallowing people in an attempt to piece himself back together. Spider-Man tries to free the captured people from Sandman's beach consciousness, which is his evil mindset, and succeeds when Marko explodes from too many clashing mindsets. Soon the sand of the beach begins to spread to different areas around New York, and all of the different aspects of Sandman's shattered mind form individual beings - Marko's good side, evil side, feminine side and childlike side. Spider-Man locates all of the different versions of Sandman and attempts to convince them to return to one being. Sandman's evil side merges with his child and feminine sides, but Sandman's good side doesn't want to allow evil to become a part of him again. The new Sandman responds by abandoning his good side completely, which eventually crumbles into lifeless sand and blows away. While the new Sandman is not the sadistic monstrosity that his purely evil side was, he is a criminal and seems to lack any desire to become a hero or do good.
Sandman is one of the villains recruited to recover the Identity Disc, but is seemingly killed due to mutinous behaviour. At the series' end, Sandman is revealed to be alive and working along with the Vulture to manipulate the other villains.
According to Spider-Man: Chapter One by John Byrne, Marko is related to the Osborn family. This has not been referred to by other writers.
Powers and abilities
The Sandman has been transformed into a silcon based organism with the ability to alter the malleable sand-like substance of his body, which can be compacted, dispersed, or shaped according to his will, something akin to a type of geokinesis limited to sand and small rock particles. Even if his body is blown apart, he is capable of reforming it. His striped shirt and cargo pants are both a part of his mass sand-like body. They are colored to appear as if he were wearing actual clothes.
Most of the time, he is mainly seen transforming his arms and hands into a sand mace or a sledgehammer to battle Spider-Man and his other enemies. He can merge with natural sand if it is in his direct vicinity like a beach or desert, thus he can manipulate normal sand like his normal body, add it to his physical size and strength, or use it to reform himself. Sandman has mental and physical control over every particle of sand in his body. His body seems to take the physical and chemical qualities of sand, as once he was mixed with cement ingredients and was turned into solid cement. Despite this weakness to cement, he remained alive like this but in a coma-like state, and returned to normal later. He possesses superhuman strength several times in excess of Spider-Man's, making him roughly equal to the Thing.[citation needed]
He once wore a uniform devised by the Wizard, which enabled him to mix chemicals into his body for various effects, but he has long since discontinued its use. This uniform, like his usual clothing, turned to sand and back when he did. If exposed to extreme heat, Sandman will turn to glass, but if shattered, he can control his glass shard form and reform himself. This, however, takes time to complete. He is invulnerable to most physical attacks and projectiles from most firearms simply fly right through him, but he is vulnerable to large amounts of water and ice. He once disintegrated when the supervillain Venom bit off a piece of him, separating it from the main part of his mass and thus causing him to lose control over the rest of his body. After a prolonged period of disintegration, he appeared to die, but washed up on a beach, where he reformed himself using the sand he found there.
