Are we at the beach or did we just get a visit from Sandman? Marvel unleashed the latest trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, the next jam-packed installment in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man franchise, and boy do we have a lot to unpack. As expected, this trailer further confirmed the existence of the villainous team known as the Sinister Six in the MCU by including appearances by Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), which were three of the villains featured in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man trilogy, along with Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Electro (Jamie Foxx), who were both antagonists in Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies. But wait…that’s only five villains. Shouldn’t the Sinister Six have, well, six? Let the speculation commence!
Marvel has given us a lot to work with already. (The multiverse tends to do that.) So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of one of Spidey’s messier foes. Who is Sandman in the comics and what was his role in Spider-Man 3? Is it true he was once an Avenger?
Who Is Sandman?
Marvel comics contain an incredibly vast vault of villains equipped with complicated and interwoven storylines. Sandman happens to be one of the first baddies that Spider-Man battles in the comics. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Sandman first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #4 in 1963. Before he was a criminal, he was simply William Baker, a high school football player who made some bad decisions and got caught. The naive New Yorker accepted a bribe from a teammate named Vic, who paid William to throw the football game. William was not only caught for his wrongdoing, but also expelled from school. (He has anger management problems to thank for that.) Quickly following expulsion, William funneled his time and energy into a life of crime. To give you an idea of exactly how intense his criminal activity had become, it landed him behind bars at Ryker’s Island Prison. (Gulp.) It was there that he met his father and fellow inmate Floyd Baker, the very man that abandoned him when he was just three years old. Rather than revealing his true identity to his dad, he referred to himself by his criminal alias, Flint Marko.
Flint somehow escapes maximum security prison and scoots his way over to a beach in Savannah, Georgia, which just so happens to be near an atomic testing site. Nothing good typically comes from hanging out around nuclear test sites, and as one might expect, things go awry. An explosion at the test site sends an absurd amount of radiation into the air, which fuses his DNA with the same chemicals found in sand. In a matter of seconds, Flint discovers that he has a new physiology and more importantly, that he can shapeshift and manipulate sand, easily falling to dust or turning rock-solid. (Not too shabby.)
As mentioned earlier, Sandman first tackled Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #4, where he ended up in a scuffle with Spidey at Spidey’s high school. In a bit of an anti-climactic yet genius twist, Spider-Man lures the not-so-bright Sandman into the high school’s basement. Right when Sandman morphs himself into loose sand, Spidey switches on the vacuum that the janitor had been using earlier that day and sucks the grainy guy up.
Sandman has a rich and complex history. While he’s likely most associated with the web-slinger, he’s had his fair share of disagreements with everyone from the Incredible Hulk to the Fantastic Four, even serving as a member of the not-so-cleverly-named Frightful Four, essentially the villainous version of the Fantastic Four. (Though he did end up befriending The Thing at one point and even questioned his life of crime.) Through various storylines and character arcs, it becomes clear that Sandman is much more than a man made up of sand. In fact, starting in Avengers #329, there was a storyline in which Sandman was actually a “reserve” member of the Avengers and fought alongside Spider-Man. But most important of all, Sandman was one of the founding members of the Sinister Six, which was headed by Doctor Octopus, and also consisted of Mysterio, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and Vulture.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Thomas Haden Church brought Sandman to the big screen in Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man 3 from 2007. Ah, 2007, simpler times when we thought that having more than two villains in one movie was considered busy. Sandman stuck to his convicted criminal roots here, but his motivations had pure intent. He resorted to crime in an attempt to secure money for surgeries for his sick daughter. (Now who do you feel bad for?) But the real reason Spider-Man had it out for him was that Flint killed Peter Parker’s beloved Uncle Ben, who died in the first Spider-Man. Once Peter figures out that it was Flint, and not the man he originally suspected, he’s able to hone his anger and resentment and aim it at Sandman.
The two fight it out in a sewer (where it becomes quite clear that water is not Sandman’s friend) and Spider-Man turns him into a mushy, muddy mess. Sandman isn’t completely gone, however, and is tracked down by Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who is determined to squash Spidey under his boot. Rather than being killed by the end of the movie, Flint and Peter end up having a tearful heart-to-heart. Flint tells him that he never wanted to kill Uncle Ben, but was startled when his crime partner came running toward him with the stolen cash and pulled the trigger. He also explains to him that he committed the robberies in the first place to keep his daughter alive. Peter sees a bit of himself in Sandman, admitting that he, too, has done bad things. Peter even tells Sandman that he is forgiven for killing his uncle. (I’m not crying, you’re crying!)
Sandman had a very peaceful exit from Spider-Man 3, as he literally drifted away atop a building into thin air. Since his storyline in the end of the movie was somewhat ambiguous, there are a lot of different directions this story could go in. What happened after that heartfelt conversation and why would he be returning to fight Spider-Man? All of our questions will (hopefully) be answered when Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17th.
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