Flint Marko (William Baker) ||| SANDMAN (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
originalbeachboy) wrote2015-06-28 09:19 pm
originalbeachboy) wrote2015-06-28 09:19 pm
Info;
Name: William Baker, but commonly known under the alias William "Flint" Marko and the codename Sandman.
History: In depth here.
Personality:
Sandman has always been plagued by a search for identity, which has come packaged with a battle between arrogance and insecurity. Rarely acting completely naturally, he tends to assign himself a role and enter into it with extreme enthusiasm and confidence, but when forced to question that role, he starts to suffer from anxiety and begins to doubt himself. At his core a sensitive and emotional man, he has created complicated and contrasted personae around himself in an attempt to protect himself. Thus he almost always presents himself as a rough, masculine type. The typical man's man of the 60's style, a cigar-chomping, beer-swilling, eager to battle tough guy with a preoccupation with sports and women. He is often aggressive as default and considers violence as a valid option to solve most problems.
Certainly, a great deal of that, his enjoyment of the simple things in life, in particular, is truly a part of him. However, he possesses a very loving heart that he has trouble finding people to share with. Those he truly cares for, such as his mother, (unofficially) adopted daughter and ex-love Marcy, will be (or were in the case of Marcy) protected from his rougher side. When it comes to people who find themselves in that category he shows genuine shame for his criminal activities, and supposedly his mother is still unaware he's a criminal. He has difficulty shaking the idea of buying love, showering his loved ones in gifts and spoiling them as best he can. He can sometimes seem quite starved for affection himself- willing to go to extreme lengths to impress women and treating his daughter like a literal princess, complete with providing an island kingdom and castle. He is deeply affected by being rejected or betrayed by these people, driving him to become wilder and colder, more violent, at least for a while. To a lesser extent, he is similarly loyal and protective of his friends, often willing to self-sacrifice for their benefit even if he quarrels with them incessantly- he even arranges teamwork building and workout sessions with his villainous teammates. He is also always seeking his father's approval, a low life criminal who abandoned his family, yet whom Sandman finds deeply intimidating.
Though few would consider Sandman smart, he is not exactly an idiot. He possesses creativity and cunning that set him apart from the average criminal even before his transformation, being highly successful as an everyday felon until he became overly emotional. A talent for reading situations and going with the flow has served him well, but he is hindered by his tendency to get overconfident when things start to go his way. His imaginative approach to things has been useful in his career as both hero and villain, as he still develops new uses for his flexible powers after all this time. But as with his powers themselves, adaptability comes with instability. When his confidence is shaken, he tends to reinvent himself, and each reinvention leads to further self-questioning. That said, the reason he gave up on heroism was actually due to mental manipulation that reverted him to his older persona of Flint over William. Nevertheless, his ability to retain a solid self-perception is a natural issue of his. Sandman is unaware this mind control was successful as it made him believe he had been pretending to be good from the start and therefore would think the machine did not affect him, but as time has gone on, he has had moments of clarity on the subject. But no more than saying Wizard helped him 'clear his head.'
He can never make up his mind for sure if he is good or bad, perhaps because he likes to think of it in simple terms despite living a life where the greyness of morality was apparent from a young age, having to steal and cheat to survive. Having internalised criminal behaviour as a child, he often falls back to that when he ceases to look at himself. The real problem lies in that when he wishes to do good he tries to force himself to be perfect. When he wishes to be bad, he makes himself a card-carrying villain. Inability to find balance and self-understanding is one of the most prominent causes of his worries.
Though certainly not all of them. Flint is something of a plutomaniac due to his childhood of poverty and a revelation at a young age that money was ultimately required for everything good in life. The majority of his schemes, especially when working alone, revolve around obtaining a great deal of cash as quickly as possible (even when that is not the best plan). This interferes with his attempts to reform, as he still has a fierce obsession with making money, one of the reasons he became a mercenary when he went straight.
Typically he attempts to avoid excessive force and does not often kill but makes exceptions every now and then. Usually, he attempts some sort of bizarre method to get his foes out of his way for a long time (such as affixing anti-gravity discs or freezing them with cryo-rays or just plain chasing them off). Most often, when he is extremely emotional over a particularly sore event, he shows more homicidal tendencies. Although he attempts revenge when an opportunity presents itself, or a matter is particularly personal, he doesn't usually actively pursue it. Most frequently, he prefers to seek a big score that will let him retire, but there have been occasions he's schemed specifically for vengeance. Even when he doesn't mean them, he will often be found to make murderous threats all the same. He's even been known to put enemies in easily escapable scenarios and give them hints as to ensure they'd merely hindered and not killed. But Flint has killed, both purposefully and unintentionally, which does not cause him to lose much sleep- though ironically, he did more damage in that regard before he became Sandman. He does, however, have what is often described as a killer instinct and a brutal approach to combat- when his subconscious is unleashed (as occasionally happens thanks to his powers), the results are sometimes callously murderous.
Whilst he often lacks the eloquence and educational context to properly put forward what he means to say, Sandman is rather philosophical and frequently contemplates big questions, usually pertaining to human nature. Well aware of his lack of knowledge and faculty in academic pursuits, he expresses respect for big brains, hence his allegiance to super-geniuses over the years. He is also a big art lover, and people are often surprised by his knowledge of it.
Abilities:
Exposure to radiation permanently altered Sandman's body. Though the precise mechanics have been played with over the 55-ish years he's appeared, the most consistent take in recent years is that his mind exists in a single grain of sand, which can control any amount of sand in its proximity, en masse or down to individual grains. Writers flip-flop on if he is always made of sand or transforms back and forth, but I usually favour the transforming interpretation. Either way, he has 'died' multiple times, including the destruction of the "Queen Bee Grain" and his consciousness has reformed. Recent comics have had the revelation that he's completely immortal, to the point of surviving the destruction of the universe.
The short breakdown is that thanks to this, he can make himself soft, hard, slip through tiny cracks, change his shape in any way he desires, grow to great heights and possesses great physical strength (typically depicted as on par with his rival roughneck, The Thing of the Fantastic Four). While practically immune to conventional harm, as most attacks either pass through or bounce off him, blasts of water cause him to lose cohesion and being wet makes it harder for him to maintain cohesion, sufficient heat can turn him to glass, and powerful wind (such as a jet engine) can scatter him. When he is in human form he is as vulnerable as anyone else to harm and is often incapacitated by surprise attacks. He's especially vulnerable to drugs and gasses which prevent him from concentrating and thus using his powers.
Notes:
Like Norman and Harry Osborn, Sandman is the unfortunate victim of Steve Ditko's simple 1960s art trying to depict wavy hair. Sometimes when the style is simulated in a more modern style it looks a bit like cornrows or black and red stripes, but more accurately it's wavy and slicked back. When it's not slicked back it's pretty wild. Such a style can be achieved in real life, famously by James Cagney who Sandman imitates in a few other ways.
The similarity between Sandman and the Osborns hair is enough that in one continuity an explanation was given.
History: In depth here.
Personality:
Sandman has always been plagued by a search for identity, which has come packaged with a battle between arrogance and insecurity. Rarely acting completely naturally, he tends to assign himself a role and enter into it with extreme enthusiasm and confidence, but when forced to question that role, he starts to suffer from anxiety and begins to doubt himself. At his core a sensitive and emotional man, he has created complicated and contrasted personae around himself in an attempt to protect himself. Thus he almost always presents himself as a rough, masculine type. The typical man's man of the 60's style, a cigar-chomping, beer-swilling, eager to battle tough guy with a preoccupation with sports and women. He is often aggressive as default and considers violence as a valid option to solve most problems.
Certainly, a great deal of that, his enjoyment of the simple things in life, in particular, is truly a part of him. However, he possesses a very loving heart that he has trouble finding people to share with. Those he truly cares for, such as his mother, (unofficially) adopted daughter and ex-love Marcy, will be (or were in the case of Marcy) protected from his rougher side. When it comes to people who find themselves in that category he shows genuine shame for his criminal activities, and supposedly his mother is still unaware he's a criminal. He has difficulty shaking the idea of buying love, showering his loved ones in gifts and spoiling them as best he can. He can sometimes seem quite starved for affection himself- willing to go to extreme lengths to impress women and treating his daughter like a literal princess, complete with providing an island kingdom and castle. He is deeply affected by being rejected or betrayed by these people, driving him to become wilder and colder, more violent, at least for a while. To a lesser extent, he is similarly loyal and protective of his friends, often willing to self-sacrifice for their benefit even if he quarrels with them incessantly- he even arranges teamwork building and workout sessions with his villainous teammates. He is also always seeking his father's approval, a low life criminal who abandoned his family, yet whom Sandman finds deeply intimidating.
Though few would consider Sandman smart, he is not exactly an idiot. He possesses creativity and cunning that set him apart from the average criminal even before his transformation, being highly successful as an everyday felon until he became overly emotional. A talent for reading situations and going with the flow has served him well, but he is hindered by his tendency to get overconfident when things start to go his way. His imaginative approach to things has been useful in his career as both hero and villain, as he still develops new uses for his flexible powers after all this time. But as with his powers themselves, adaptability comes with instability. When his confidence is shaken, he tends to reinvent himself, and each reinvention leads to further self-questioning. That said, the reason he gave up on heroism was actually due to mental manipulation that reverted him to his older persona of Flint over William. Nevertheless, his ability to retain a solid self-perception is a natural issue of his. Sandman is unaware this mind control was successful as it made him believe he had been pretending to be good from the start and therefore would think the machine did not affect him, but as time has gone on, he has had moments of clarity on the subject. But no more than saying Wizard helped him 'clear his head.'
He can never make up his mind for sure if he is good or bad, perhaps because he likes to think of it in simple terms despite living a life where the greyness of morality was apparent from a young age, having to steal and cheat to survive. Having internalised criminal behaviour as a child, he often falls back to that when he ceases to look at himself. The real problem lies in that when he wishes to do good he tries to force himself to be perfect. When he wishes to be bad, he makes himself a card-carrying villain. Inability to find balance and self-understanding is one of the most prominent causes of his worries.
Though certainly not all of them. Flint is something of a plutomaniac due to his childhood of poverty and a revelation at a young age that money was ultimately required for everything good in life. The majority of his schemes, especially when working alone, revolve around obtaining a great deal of cash as quickly as possible (even when that is not the best plan). This interferes with his attempts to reform, as he still has a fierce obsession with making money, one of the reasons he became a mercenary when he went straight.
Typically he attempts to avoid excessive force and does not often kill but makes exceptions every now and then. Usually, he attempts some sort of bizarre method to get his foes out of his way for a long time (such as affixing anti-gravity discs or freezing them with cryo-rays or just plain chasing them off). Most often, when he is extremely emotional over a particularly sore event, he shows more homicidal tendencies. Although he attempts revenge when an opportunity presents itself, or a matter is particularly personal, he doesn't usually actively pursue it. Most frequently, he prefers to seek a big score that will let him retire, but there have been occasions he's schemed specifically for vengeance. Even when he doesn't mean them, he will often be found to make murderous threats all the same. He's even been known to put enemies in easily escapable scenarios and give them hints as to ensure they'd merely hindered and not killed. But Flint has killed, both purposefully and unintentionally, which does not cause him to lose much sleep- though ironically, he did more damage in that regard before he became Sandman. He does, however, have what is often described as a killer instinct and a brutal approach to combat- when his subconscious is unleashed (as occasionally happens thanks to his powers), the results are sometimes callously murderous.
Whilst he often lacks the eloquence and educational context to properly put forward what he means to say, Sandman is rather philosophical and frequently contemplates big questions, usually pertaining to human nature. Well aware of his lack of knowledge and faculty in academic pursuits, he expresses respect for big brains, hence his allegiance to super-geniuses over the years. He is also a big art lover, and people are often surprised by his knowledge of it.
Abilities:
Exposure to radiation permanently altered Sandman's body. Though the precise mechanics have been played with over the 55-ish years he's appeared, the most consistent take in recent years is that his mind exists in a single grain of sand, which can control any amount of sand in its proximity, en masse or down to individual grains. Writers flip-flop on if he is always made of sand or transforms back and forth, but I usually favour the transforming interpretation. Either way, he has 'died' multiple times, including the destruction of the "Queen Bee Grain" and his consciousness has reformed. Recent comics have had the revelation that he's completely immortal, to the point of surviving the destruction of the universe.
The short breakdown is that thanks to this, he can make himself soft, hard, slip through tiny cracks, change his shape in any way he desires, grow to great heights and possesses great physical strength (typically depicted as on par with his rival roughneck, The Thing of the Fantastic Four). While practically immune to conventional harm, as most attacks either pass through or bounce off him, blasts of water cause him to lose cohesion and being wet makes it harder for him to maintain cohesion, sufficient heat can turn him to glass, and powerful wind (such as a jet engine) can scatter him. When he is in human form he is as vulnerable as anyone else to harm and is often incapacitated by surprise attacks. He's especially vulnerable to drugs and gasses which prevent him from concentrating and thus using his powers.
Notes:
Like Norman and Harry Osborn, Sandman is the unfortunate victim of Steve Ditko's simple 1960s art trying to depict wavy hair. Sometimes when the style is simulated in a more modern style it looks a bit like cornrows or black and red stripes, but more accurately it's wavy and slicked back. When it's not slicked back it's pretty wild. Such a style can be achieved in real life, famously by James Cagney who Sandman imitates in a few other ways.
The similarity between Sandman and the Osborns hair is enough that in one continuity an explanation was given.
ooc: applause!
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