Sandman

The Sandman, born Flint Marko, is a career criminal and villain, known across North America for his repeated bank robberies. He is capable of transforming his body into sand and back at will, as well as making his sand form adhere to essentially any surface. Sandman is a member of the Frightful Four and of the short-lived Sinister Six.

Biography

Origin

By 1963, Marko was imprisoned in a maximum-security penitentiary, but managed to escape and hid out in a nuclear-weapons testing center on the beach. He was caught in the fallout of one test, and his molecules merged with those of the sand, giving him unique powers. Marko, to be known as the Sandman, attained the ability to shift his body's composition at will, instantly crumbling into sand or tightening as hard as steel. This also allowed him to stretch his body in unnatural ways, similar to Mr. Fantastic. Marko's new powers only encouraged him to further pursue his life of crime.

Early battles with Spider-Man

Sandman's robberies eventually led him to being pursued by the police across New York City, where he was spotted by the hero Spider-Man. The latter was unprepared for Sandman's unique powers, and tore his mask in the ensuing conflict, forcing him to retreat. Later, on the run from police once more, Sandman took refuge at Midtown High School, where he manically confronted Principal Davis, demanding a diploma that he'd never earned himself. Unbeknownst to Sandman, Spider-Man's secret identity Peter Parker was a student at the school, and he quickly donned the costume and engaged him once more upon hearing the commotion. Spider-Man led Sandman all across the school, ending up in the shop room where he baited him into completely transforming into sand and quickly sucked him up into a vacuum, trapping him. The bag containing Sandman was later recovered by the police and taken into custody.

His jailtime was short-lived, as he simply escaped through the bars—how and why he was released from the vacuum bag is unclear. The arrogant Sandman made his presence felt on a major bridge in town, stopping traffic and drawing in the police. He was met and challenged by the Human Torch. Sandman laughed off the teenage hero, declaring that he would only fight Spider-Man. He jumped off the bridge, seemingly to the river below, but in fact had turned to sand and clung to the underside of the bridge until Torch and the police left. The next day, Sandman saw Spider-Man on television standing on top of a building publicly challenging him. Sandman made his way to his foe, sneaking up behind him and knocking him off the building. But in fact this had been Human Torch in a fake Spider-Man costume, and the two began to fight through the interior of the building. Torch led him through some ceiling sprinklers, dousing his own flame but changing Sandman's sand to mud and hindering his transformative powers. The two were left to fight one on one, and Torch's superior combat experience won out in the end. Sandman was returned to custody, apparently to more restrictive confines this time.

After getting free several months later (it is unclear whether he escaped or was released), Sandman was brought into a team formed by Doctor Octopus called the Sinister Six, alongside Mysterio, the Vulture, Electro, and Kraven the Hunter. The Six consisted of some of Spider-Man's greatest foes, but were nonetheless unable to defeat him in a series of individual battles, and were incarcerated once more. Sandman was soon out of prison once more, and happened to walk into Spider-Man in the streets. Spider-Man had recently garnered much negative press coverage after fleeing from a battle with the Green Goblin—the undisclosed reason for which being that his aunt May Parker had had a heart attack. Sandman took advantage of Spider-Man's unfortunate state, attacking him and forcing the hero to flee once again for fear of getting hurt and leaving his elderly aunt to fend for herself.

Not long afterward, Sandman allied with the Enforcers, who had resumed fighting crime because (and only because) Spider-Man had disappeared from the streets of New York, owing to his muddied reputation. One day, they happened upon the Human Torch flying through the sky. After Montana roped him down, the others used their combined efforts (primarily Sandman's sand powers) to staunch the Torch's flames and take him captive. At almost exactly the same time, Spider-Man returned to action, defeating small-time criminals across the city. Sandman plotted to use the Torch as bait to defeat Spider-Man once and for all, and kept Torch in a tube with just enough air for him to breathe, preventing him from using his fire. Spider-Man arrived as planned, fighting the criminals and freeing the Torch in from his oxygen-light tube encasement in the process. The two battled their enemies and managed to incapacitate the Enforcers, but they wound up getting in each other's way and allowed the Sandman to escape. He didn’t get far however, falling into police hands and deciding to take being incarcerated over going back to Spider-Man.

The Frightful Four

The Sandman met Paste-Pot Pete in prison, and the two broke out together. They commandeered a plane to make good their escape, and happened to rescue a third villain, the Wizard, in midair. Wizard had been defeated by the Human Torch and left to ascend far into the atmosphere. The three decided to form a team to combat the Fantastic Four, and Wizard went on to recruit the mysterious Medusa to round out their ranks. The newly dubbed Frightful Four infiltrated the Fantastic Four's headquarters at the Baxter Building, catching the heroes off-guard in their home. Wizard nearly managed to send three of the Fantastic Four into the atmosphere with his anti-gravity device, but Human Torch managed to put a stop to the Frightful Four's plans. The villains fled and regrouped, leaving the heroes off-balance and shocked that they were almost defeated so easily. Wizard went to great lengths to enact his vengeance on the Fantastic Four, constructing an underground base with a massive bomb inside it beneath a remote Pacific atoll. He and the others (including Trapster, a rebranded Paste-Pot Pete) lured the heroes to the atoll and stranded them there, leaving them to seemingly die in the explosion. A month later, the Frightful Four went to the Baxter Building and found that their enemies had not returned. They were however scared away by a burst of flame in the sky that they assumed was the Human Torch, but which was in fact the Asgardian Balder, arriving on Earth for an unrelated matter.

Against the Frightful Four's hopes, the Fantastic Four did in fact survive and return to New York. After a brief falling out between the Thing and the rest of the team, the Frightful Four captured Thing and used the "id machine" of Wizard's creation to alter the hero's mind, manipulating his anxieties and turning him to the side of evil. Thing proved to be a potent ally against the rest of the Fantastic Four, but in the end, the heroes' cunning and steadfast alliance allowed them to return the Thing to normal and finally bring the Frightful Four to justice, with the exception of Medusa, who slipped through the Human Torch's grasp by way of Wizard's anti-grav ship. Wizard was hospitalized by the Thing while Sandman and Trapster were left in their cell wondering whether Medusa would help them escape, or if she had given up on the Frightful Four.