Sandman is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe, traditionally an adversary of Spider-Man. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (Sept. 1963). His body has been changed into sand, which he can control completely. He may absorb nearby sand and reconstitute it into his body, as well.

Sandman had frequently been cited as one of creator Stan Lee's favorite supervillains.  He will appear in the 2007 film Spider-Man 3, played by Thomas Haden Church.

BIOGRAPHY
William Baker was born in Queens, New York. At the age of three, William was abandoned by his father and forced to live in poverty with his mother. Throughout high school, William turned to theft and cheating to get through class and to make ends meet at home. After accepting a bribe, Baker was expelled from school and soon found work as a mob enforcer. Under the alias Flint Marko, Baker became involved in more and more illegal activity, and slowly developed a violent and bitter personality. Eventually he ended up doing hard time on Rikers Island for his dealings but managed to escape. Immediately after he fled to a beach near Savannah, Georgia where he came into contact with sand that had been irradiated by an experimental reactor. His body and the radioactive sand bonded, and Marko’s molecular structure was altered into a sand/dirt-like substance. Marko soon found that he could transform any or all of his body into sand, and adopted the name Sandman to match his new powers.

Marko clashed with Spider-Man for the first time at the school which the hero attended as Peter Parker. Marko was defeated by Spider-Man (who used a vacuum cleaner), but eventually resurfaced as a member of the Sinister Six led by Doctor Octopus. After being soundly defeated by Spider-Man several more times, Marko gave up and took a shot at battling other superheroes. Most notably, he created the original Frightful Four to combat the Fantastic Four, but his fledgling group of villains were beaten by the experienced heroes. He also fought the Hulk. An emergency blood transfusion between Sandman and Betty Ross following one of these fights turned Ross into a glass statue, but Doc Samson was able to reverse the effect. During his encounters with the Hulk, Sandman wore a diamond-patterned green costume with a purple headpiece. This has not been seen again.

Sandman eventually discovers that — starting with his hand — his body is slowly transforming into glass, although he is able to reverse the effect. Afterwards, he decides to resume his struggle with his original adversary, Spider-Man, and allies himself with Hydro-Man to do battle with their mutual enemy. The two briefly merge into an unintelligent and largely ineffective mud monster, but split apart. Afterwards, Marko becomes deeply depressed, and the Thing of the Fantastic Four supports him, and encourages him to use his power in the name of good. Sandman then makes sporadic appearances in various Spider-Man comics, assisting his former enemy. The first such appearance has him coming to the rescue of Spider-Man and Silver Sable, who are outnumbered and surrounded by the Sinister Syndicate. Silver Sable is impressed by Sandman's performance and recruits him as a freelance operative. Sandman also appears as part of the Outlaws, a group of reformed Spider-Man enemies such as Prowler, Rocket Racer, Puma, and Will o' the Wisp, who would turn up from time to time to help Spider-Man.

Flint briefly joins the Avengers as a reserve member. Later, he becomes a full-time mercenary in the employ of Silver Sable, as a member of her Wild Pack, serving alongside heroes such as Paladin and Battlestar.

He eventually reverts to his villainous ways, claiming to have faked his heroic career, although it is revealed that the Wizard used his mind-controlling "Id Machine" to force him to act as a villain.

Sandman then rejoins a new incarnation of the Sinister Six, which is working with one of Spider-Man's deadliest enemies, Venom. Venom reveals that he had joined the team to make sure no one else kills Spider-Man, and turns on the remaining five. Dealing with Marko, Venom rips off and swallows a chunk of sand, which apparently destabilizes Sandman's body structure. His body slowly begins to crumble away. He blames Spider-Man, but ultimately asks him to deliver a message to his mother. He also expresses remorse that he could not pull off the task of becoming an official superhero. The Sandman then crumbles to pieces and seems to die, washing away down a sewer and ending up as part of Jones Beach, New York.

Sandman's body and mind scatter with the grains of sand. The major part of his mind merges with the beach and begins swallowing people in an attempt to piece himself back together. Spider-Man tries to free the captured people from Sandman's beach consciousness, which is his evil mindset, and succeeds when Marko explodes from too many clashing mindsets. Soon the sand of the beach begins to spread to different areas around New York, and all of the different aspects of Sandman's shattered mind form individual beings: Marko's good side, evil side, feminine side and childlike side. Spider-Man locates all of the different versions of Sandman and attempts to convince them to return to one being. Sandman's evil side merges with his child and feminine sides, but Sandman's good side doesn't want to allow evil to become a part of him again. The new Sandman responds by abandoning his good side completely, which eventually crumbles into lifeless sand and blows away. While the new Sandman is not the sadistic monstrosity that his purely evil side was, he is a criminal and seems to lack any desire to become a hero or do good.

Sandman is one of the villains recruited to recover the Identity Disc, but is seemingly killed due to mutinous behaviour. At the series' end, Sandman is revealed to be alive and working along with the Vulture to manipulate the other villains.

According to Spider-Man: Chapter One by John Byrne, Marko is related to the Osborn family. This has not been referred to by other writers, mostly because the series' complete failure rendered it non-canon.

Recently in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man storyline "Sandblasted", Sandman has approached Spider-Man asking for help in clearing the name of his father, who has been imprisoned for murdering a bum. Baker admits that his father is a petty criminal, but insists he would never go so far as to kill anybody. Baker also mentions that the victim bears an uncanny resemblance to a picture of Peter Parker's Uncle Ben. Sandman accompanies Spider-Man until they find the true killer, who turns out to be Chameleon 2211. Chameleon 2211 killed the Uncle Ben that Hobgoblin 2211 brought from an alternate universe (in issue #8 of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) and was posing as him after that. Thanks to Spider-Man, Floyd Baker is switched with Chameleon 2211 and saved, and for the time being, Sandman expresses his thanks to our hero.

Morals
Morally, Sandman is a complex character. Throughout his criminal career, he possessed an affinity for his ailing mother. He reformed and joined the superhero group the Avengers and the Wild Pack of Silver Sable. He has since returned to a life of crime but resists the extreme methods and actions of typical supervillains, rarely killing anyone.

The Sandman almost always uses the alias Flint Marko, but his actual name is William Baker. This name change was so that his mother would never discover his true identity.

Powers and abilities
The Sandman has the ability to transform into a malleable sand-like substance which can be hardened, dispersed, or shaped according to his will. Even if his body is blown apart he is capable of reforming it. His shirt and pants are both a part of his mass sand-like body. They are colored to appear as if he were wearing actual clothes. He rarely wears shoes, most of the time he makes it appear as if he has long pants, so no shoes can be visible. Though at times he makes it appear as if he were wearing large boots.

He is mainly seen transforming his arms and hands into a sand mace or a sledgehammer to battle Spider-Man and his other enemies.

He can merge with natural sand if it is in his direct vicinity like a beach or desert, thus he can manipulate normal sand like his normal body, add it to his physical size and strength, or use it to reform himself.

Sandman has mental and physical control over every particle of sand in his body.

His body seems to take the physical and chemical qualities of sand, as once he was mixed with cement ingredients and was turned into solid cement. He remained alive like this but in a coma-like state, and returned to normal later.

He possesses superhuman strength several times in excess of Spider-Man's, making him roughly equal to the Thing.

He once wore a uniform devised by the Wizard, which enabled him to mix chemicals into his body for various effects, but he has long since discontinued its use. This uniform, like his usual clothing, turned to sand and back when he did.

If exposed to extreme heat, Sandman will turn to glass, but if shattered, he can control his glass shard form.  Also he is invulnerable to most physical attack and most firearms fly right through him. Also he is vulnerable to large amounts of water and ice. He has once 'disintegrated' when the Supervillain Venom bit off a piece of him, separating it from the main part of his mass and thus causing him to lose control over the rest of his body; after a prolonged period of disintegration, he appeared to die, but washed up on a beach, wherein he re-formed himself using the sand he had found there.

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