Thursday, May 24, 2007

Costume Hall of Shame - the Sandman, pt 2


No, not the bad guy from Spider-Man. We already talked about his horrible look, remember? No, I'm talking about the second costume worn by the original Sandman of the 1940's (actually, it's the third if you count the time he changed from an orange suit to a green one).

This is the earliest example I can think of where revamping a character just ruins it. I know not everyone loved the green suit and fedora with the yellow and purple gas mask, but I thought it made him look appropriately creepy. When they remade him, they gave him a bright yellow spandex costume (because criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot and nothing scares them more than a guy prancing towards them in bright yellow) and a kid sidekick. Then, just in case there was any dignity left in the character, they got rid of the gas gun that put his opponents to sleep - a gimmick that justified his name in the first place.

As you can see, he remains a creature of nightmares, but now for all the wrong reasons. Hey, just because I'll rob a bank and shoot at cops with my tommy gun doesn't mean I want to have your blonde, cherubic sidekick in my bedroom. What are you implying???

3 comments:

SallyP said...

I'm actually fond of Sandy the Golden Boy, but Wes was a lot scarier in his old outfit. And besides, fedora's are just CLASSY!

Adam Barnett said...

Couldn't handle Sandy. First, I don't think it's much of a help to a secret identity when your sidekick's name is also the first name of your ward (ie., Captain America's Bucky). I also had a hard time with the term "Golden Boy." What the heck did that mean? It sounds like urine is involved, and I really don't want to think that whole thing through!

Anonymous said...

I like how Sandman writes the bad guy a note, instead of just handing him over to the police