Science's Less Accurate Grandmother: Wesley Dodds: The Sandman by Robert Venditti and Riley Rossmo

When I left off my JSA's project's original run back in 2023, it seemed to me that the JSA as we had known it up to 2011 was dead: in the era of the New 52, Earth-Two was reinvented was an alternate Earth invaded by Apokolips, and the idea of the JSA as 1940s forerunners of the Justice League was gone. I don't really follow DC continuity the way that I used to; if I had, I might have known that the JSA was being (or already had been) reinstated into DC continuity. There was a new Justice Society of America ongoing, but this was (I think) by Geoff Johns and I have no interest in seeing him do his third run on the title; I don't know why DC always thinks the way to revive a property for the present day is to hand it over to someone who first wrote for it thirty years ago. What I eventually discovered, though, is that part of what DC called the "New Golden Age" were three miniseries featuring JSA characters: the Jay Garrick Flash, the Alan Scott Green Lantern, and, of course, the Wesley Dodds Sandman. These looked interesting enough that I decided to pick up the trades, extending my immeasurably long JSA reading project to a mere fifty-seven installments.

Wesley Dodds: The Sandman

Collection published: 2024
Contents originally published: 2023-24
Acquired: November 2025
Read: December 2025

Writer: Robert Venditti

Artist: Riley Rossmo

Colorist: Ivan Plascencia

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

Back in the day, I read most of Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle's Sandman Mystery Theatre, the Vertigo series that chronicles Wesley Dodds's adventures as the original Sandman in the late 1930s. I didn't finish it, because at the time DC didn't have any collected editions that spanned the whole series (I think this has been rectified now). This made a lot of adjustments to Wesley Dodds lore, in particular regarding his relationship to his girlfriend Dian, making her almost a co-partner with him as the Sandman. Robert Venditti and Riley Rossmo's interpretation of Wesley and Dian clearly owes a lot to Wagner and Seagle's—which I appreciate because of how good SMT was! Wesley and Dian are much as I remember in their relationship, while Wesley himself is that interesting combination of authoritative as the Sandman but nebbish as himself that worked so well in that series. According to my chronology notes, the last collected SMT story was set in 1939; this book takes place in 1940, so it seemingly even works as a long-delayed continuation of Sandman Mystery Theatre. Maybe someday I'll reread it in that context and see how it holds up. (The one thing I know it's missing, though, is an appearance by my favorite SMT character, Lieutenant Burke.)

The premise of this story is that Wesley has grown increasingly anxious about the war in Europe; he's haunted by how his own father was changed by the previous war, and wants to stop something like this from happening again. He develops the gases he uses as the Sandman for battlefield applications, trying to come up with a way that will help the Allies win the war with a minimum of enemy casualties... but along the way, he discovers some deadly gases too. The Army turns down his nonlethal gases, but it seems like someone might know the truth of who Wesley is and wants his lethal weaponry.

I've missed these two.
from Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #1

It's not quite the grounded tone of Sandman Mystery Theatre, but that's fine, this is its own thing, and Venditti and Rossmo do a great job with it. It's a bit more exaggerated, but in a way that really works; you get the horror of the premise without going full-on Vertigo. This is my first time encountering Rossmo's work, and I liked it a lot. Sort of darkly cartoony, enhanced by some great atmospheric coloring from Ivan Plascencia.

Possibly the only way to ever get me to think it's okay to use Sandy is to use him as a dark omen of a foreboding future... just never as an actual character.
from Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #4

The story is a bit noirish, a bit detetectiveish, though not terribly complicated or surprising; if you thing it through a bit, you won't be surprised by much that happens. I didn't mind, though, because it hit all the notes I wanted from a story like this. Some dark turns, some investigating, some nightmares, some good fights. It's very much character- and theme-driven, which feels like all too much a rarity in contemporary superhero comics. The glimpses of Wesley's future and past are both very well done.

C'mon, give me volume 2!
from Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #6

I think DC's "New Golden Age" initiative is already over, alas, because I would gladly read a second miniseries or even an ongoing from this team. I hope these takes get picked up somewhere!

This post is the fifty-fifth in an improbably long series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Jay Garrick: The Flash. Previous installments are listed below:

All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)

The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)

All-Star Squadron (1981-87)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)

Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)

America vs. the Justice Society (1985)

Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)

Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]

Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)

All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)