Wesley Dodds – The Sandman
Wesley Dodds as The Sandman returned in a limited series written by Robert Venditti with art by Riley Rossmo. How did he get on? Read our comic book round-up of Wesley Dodds as The Sandman.
The Sandman is DC comic book royalty.
No, not that Sandman. Neil Gaiman created his Sandman in 1989. Wesley Dodds, a completely different Sandman, was created 50 years before Gaiman’s Sandman. As the Sandman, Wesley Dodds existed in Golden Age of comics and was a founding member of the Justice Society of America.
Wesley Dodds is a vigilante hero created by Gardner Fox and Bert Christman in 1939 (the same year as Batman). Unlike Batman who has managed to adapt to different time periods, Wesley’s appearance and methods locked him into the 1930s.
Wesley’s business suit, hat and gas mask are a far cry from Batman’s distinctive appearance that exists beyond the 1930s. While Batman has a utility belt, Wesley uses a sleeping gas gun to knock out criminals. At this point, they are similar. Batman’s appearance is design to inflict fear in criminals. Wesley’s sleeping gas is designed to induce nightmares in the criminals that are dosed with his gas.
The resurrection of Wesley is closely linked to his methods.
Wesley sacrificed his life back in 1999 to protect the power of Doctor Fate from a supervillain. Last summer’s DC comic book event, Knight Terrors, gave Wesley temporary resurrection. By which we mean he came back as a zombie. Using Lazurus resin, Deadman (who happened to be possessing the body of a sleeping Batman at the time) brings Wesley Dodds back from the head to help combat a supervillain in search of the nightmare stone.
Beyond the Knight Terrors summer event, Dawn of the DC and the New Golden Age provided an opportunity to return to some Golden Age characters with a couple of six-issue miniseries, including Wesley Dodds as The Sandman written by Robert Venditti with art by Riley Rossmo.
Wesley Dodds: The Sandman provides a good measure of nostalgic storytelling with a modern perspective that deals with issues and ways of representing the past that were not possible at the time. But don’t worry, there’s no preaching or rewriting the past. The action is still the focus of the story.
Wesley’s six issue miniseries throws up back into the 1940s and starts with a bang.
Wesley is throwing himself into a little crime fighting which is a good amount of fighting with some strategy and detective work. But Wesley is also a troubled character. In the decades of stories after his first appearance, Wesley developed dreams that predicted future crimes. He would then use his detective skills stop criminals.
While the original stories didn’t address the emotional and psychological stress of these dreams, the news miniseries incorporates elements of doubt and the weight of being responsible for the safety of others.
In the story, these responsibilities are given form in Wesley’s notebook which is a collection of his failed gas experiments and consequently provide formulas for a series of lethal gasses that could inflict considerable harm on others.
The fire at Wesley’s home creates a massive problem for the titular hero who is afraid his formula will fall into the wrong hands and will be used to bring massive destruction on the world.
In addition to presenting Wesley as a more emotional vulnerable character, the story also provides the opportunity to discuss elements not possible in the 1930s and 1940s. A few years after the creation of Wesley Dodds, the creation of the Comic Code Authority attempted to regulate the stories in comic books. If you’ve read some vintage comic book horror you’ll know things can get pretty extreme and probably not the kind of thing you’d want a child to read. However, the Authority also brought restricts to the representation of other elements in comics.
In the case of Wesley’s new miniseries there is greater freedom to discuss the ethics of war. Wesley and his mentor Wheeler Vanderlyle pitch Wesley’s knock out gas to Colonel Breackinridge for military use. The meeting doesn’t go well and challenges Wesley’s ideas about knocking out the enemy with the harsh reality of war and the need for lethal solutions.
And it isn’t just business and the military that get an overhaul in the modern story. Wesley’s fiancé, Dian Belmont, is given a more active role. As the daughter of the district attorney, Dian is able to access information to help Wesley’s vigilante adventures, but there is also a greater awareness of the dangers. She is not a helpless damsel in distress. She carries a derringer and doesn’t get kidnapped once in the whole story. It doesn’t seem like much, but it's a big difference.
The six-issue Wesley Dodds as the Sandman miniseries is a pleasure. The story didn’t feel like it needed a six issues. Four would have been sufficient. But there is a great deal going for the series and the character. The story is an interesting perspective. The art is original and engaging. It is nostalgic. It is exciting and it provides a satisfying read.
Pick up your copy of Knight Terrors for some zombie Sandman (this is a paid affiliate link and as an Amazon Associate I will earn a small income from qualifying purchases, but won’t cost you any more).