What did you think of Sandman as a hero?

[Mike]

Sandman is a great and dangerous villain.
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[The Overlord]

Well, there was always Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch.

I prefer Sandman as a villain. I don't think anything good was ever done with him as a hero. Now there were some good stories about him being on the path to redemption, but once he was a card-carrying good guy... nothing.

I don't think they way they turned him back into a villain was the way to go about it either though. I think it would have worked a lot better if he had just fallen back on hard times, didn't have anywhere to go, and robbing banks or hiring on to a supervillain team was the only way he could think of to make a living.

The problem is for him to remain a villain, he needs a good reason for him to be a villain, otherwise, why wouldn't he join the winning team after a while. Spider-Man 3 was a crappy film, but they tried to give Sandman a motive beyond ''being a one-dimensional greedy professional criminal''.

How many great stories have been there been with Sandman since he became a villain again? I don't even mind if he goes back to being a villain, but if he does they need to something with beyond, he is greedy, he robs banks and Spidey stops, make him a villain, but give him some more sympathetic M.O, don't make him just a mook or a bank robber with a flashy power set. Like if he is still working for Silver Sable, why would he have fallen on hard times again?

[Alan2099]

Like if he is still working for Silver Sable, why would he have fallen on hard times again?

How often do you see people hiring Silver Sable in comics?

[The Overlord]

How often do you see people hiring Silver Sable in comics?

Fair enough, I would give that a like if I could.

[Agent Z]

How often do you see people hiring Silver Sable in comics?

Well she doesn't appear much but she usually seems to be doing well for herself when she does.

[Ying Ko]

Sandman and Juggernaut should both be Thunderbolts stalwarts, those guys keep going back and forth being good and evil for years.

Anyway, can anyone tell me the Avengers issues where Sandman is an active member of that team?

[Alan2099]

It starts with Avengers 329 and lasts until 333.

He later showed back up for the first few issues after Heroes Reborn. He also had a blink-and-you'll-miss-him appearance in JLA/Avengers.

[Ying Ko]

It starts with Avengers 329 and lasts until 333.

So all of 5 issues then. Should read that sometime. Thanks!

[K7P5V]

Speaking as a fan of the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, I enjoyed how the creative team handled Flint Marko's Sandman. The subtle hints and the slight possibility of a turn to heroism was most convincing, as this clip so admirably demonstrates:



BTW: the clips were taken from the episode entitled "First Steps" from the 2nd season of the animated Spectacular Spider-Man

[The Overlord]

At this point, I do not mind him being a criminal, though frankly, they should do that brainwashing nonsense, but he should have defined redeeming qualities and not just be another one-note greedy thug villain.

[Darthfury78]

I enjoyed him as a hero it was an interesting twist on his character. They could have gotten a lot more mileage out of his new status quo than they did.

Sandman being turned back into a villain was even more of a travesty than Otto reverting to Doc Ock. The reason was stupid and his reversal served no interesting storyline purpose as he's been a non-entity ever since.

This is way characters like Sandman should have been loaned out to The X-Men, FF, and Avengers respectively. This would be the only way for the character to evolve instead of making him into a bad guy that has long since played out. Imagine if Sandman was a member of the X-Men.