Sandy the Golden Boy

Sandy Hawkins
Cover to Justice Society of America #5 (2007) Art by painter Alex Ross
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Adventure Comics # 69 (December 1941)
Created by	Mort Weisinger Paul Norris
In-story information
Alter ego	Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins
Team affiliations	Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron Young All-Stars
Notable aliases	Sandy the Golden Boy, Sand, Sandman
Abilities	Silicon-based body is elastic and resilient, metamorphs into sand and emits seismic disruptions Prophetic dreams Proficient with many handgun based weapons, such as gas guns and wirepoon guns.

Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins, formerly known as Sandy, the Golden Boy, Sands, Sand, and eventual successor of his mentor Wesley Dodds as Sandman, is a fictional character and a superhero in the DC Comics universe. Created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, he first appeared in Adventure Comics #69.

The character of Sandy the Golden Boy was created as a sidekick to the Sandman. Created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, the nephew of The Sandman's girlfriend Dian Belmont, the character debuted as a tights-wearing youth (in the same vein as Robin the Boy Wonder) in Adventure Comics #69 (Dec 1941). This same issue also showcased a new yellow-and-purple costume for The Sandman.

The flourish of mystery-men comic books came to an end in the late 1940s. About ten years later DC Comics reintroduced some of the mystery-men characters in new books, but reimaged them as super-heroes, characters such as Green Lantern and Hawkman. September 1961 saw the publication of "Flash of Two Worlds" in The Flash #123. This was the first new story using an original mystery-man character, namely, the Flash (Jay Garrick). The concept of an Earth-1 and Earth-2 began to be developed and soon other 1940s characters were being used in modern stories. Sandy the Golden Boy was reintroduced to the public by writer Len Wein in Justice League of America #113 in 1974.

Len Wein wrote of his inspiration in the compilation book Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 3 (2004): "I had always been a fan of the Golden Age Sandman, and had always wondered why he'd been put back into his double-breasted Man of Mystery Gas-Mask outfit when he was revived, instead of the more traditional purple-and-yellow super-hero costume he'd worn in the latter days of the 1940s. This would make the perfect place to find out. Thus was born The Creature in the Velvet Cage."