Many comic book characters develop scientific wonders but never seek to profit from their amazing inventions. The premiere issue of a new series starring DC’s first Sandman, Wesley Dodds, addresses this point. While some heroes do not market their technology out of altruism, Dodds has a different issue with selling his science.
Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #1 by Robert Venditti, Riley Rossmo, and Ivan Plascencia finds Dodds meeting with the US War Department. He tries to sell the same miraculous gas he uses as Sandman to one Colonel Breckinridge. Unfortunately, the Colonel has little enthusiasm for Dodds’ vision of “humane warfare” or the idea of pacifying invading armies.
Beyond his personal beliefs that war is unavoidable and should be lethal, Colonel Breckinridge claims Dodds’ ideas are logistically impossible. While Dodds’ gas might knock out enemy soldiers, there would still be the problem of transporting and detaining them as prisoners of war. Even if the Colonel shared Dodds’ vision of ending war, “maiming and killing is simpler (and) cheaper.” In the case of Wesley Dodds, the problem is not his willingness to sell his science but finding a ready buyer.
Sandman’s ethics keep him from financial success
The irony is that Wesley Dodds developed several gases that would fit Colonel Breckinridge’s needs while perfecting the Sandman gas. Dodds recalls his “failures” with his butler and how he created several lethal formulas that could cause paralysis or heart failure.
It hurt the tender-hearted Dodds to test such formulas on rats. The thought of using such things on humans was impossible, even if it did leave him struggling to make his name as a chemist. While Dodds was independently wealthy and had no need for profit, this untold tale explains why he never sold his Sandman gas.
Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #1 is now available.
