Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins, formerly known as Sandy the Golden Boy, Sands, Sand and currently known as Sandman, is a character appearing in comics published by DC Comics. He was created by writer Mort Weisinger and artist Paul Norris, he first appeared in Adventure Comics #69. After being unutilized for several years, he was reintroduced by writers David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns in the comic JSA in the late 1990s and with a greatly expanded set of powers and responsibilities. He eventually took on the name of Sandman, succeeding his former mentor. Publication history Golden Age 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. Silver Age 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 reimagined 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". In this story, it was revealed that, in the 1940s, Sandy had been transformed into a huge, sand-like creature when an experimental weapon Sandman was testing exploded. Wracked with guilt, Sandman stopped wearing the costume he'd worn as Sandy's partner