ICYMI! Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #3 Nega-Sandman

Issue three is a who done it from the jump. We find Sandman at one of the four Manhattan coroner’s offices skulking around for clues on who or why the dead “Yeeg” (gotta love that 40’s slang) Igor Kluge was framed for arson. The unsurprisingly, surprised coroner walks in on a waiting Sandman. Thankfully the pair have a working relationship and the coroner proceeds to explain to the Sandman the roasted dead man on the slab was dead waaay before any fire entered the situation, further exonerating the would-be arson posthumously. Sandman returns the favor by identifying the corpse as Igor Kluge for the coroner’s office and passing on the message to his loved ones that Kluge died an innocent reformed man. As the coroner turns to thank Sandman for the positive ID our hero has already disappeared like so many of his fellow crime fighters. Venditti opening the issue at a morgue is a clever idea not only because of the clinical breakdown of the story thus far, where Sandman’s investigative hunch and digging around are proven right, but the finality of the city morgue cements everything the reader knows about the story up till now into facts.

Additionally, the almost chumming way Sandman and the coroner interact shows that some of the city’s denizens recognize Sandman as their hero. Rossmo keeps the pencils in general clean and straightforward for this handful of opening pages for obvious reasons like the sterile environment of the morgue. But also takes advantage of this by doubling down on his rendition of a totally burnt body and all of its dried, flaky, red-skinned horror. Plus he pulls off some solid face work with the coroner. Plascenica’s colors take the image of a burnt corpse and turn it into a truly disgusting husk of a man by giving the fried red tissue a slight purple hue to play up the fact that fire also causes bruising and blistering to the human body. The coloring continues to impress in the next batch of scenes where Wesley Dodds is asleep over the little info he has on who burned down his home. He’s awakened by Dian his girlfriend and father’s business associate Mr. Vanderlyle. It’s Dian who spots a clue in the police files and Dian is also the pop of color in the penthouse scene with her pink and yellow outfit. Back at the remains of his mansion Sandman scrounges for clues and ponders if “it’s the immutable nature of humanity that we create the means of our demise?”

The action bursts into the story with a double splash page of Sandman and evil Sandman. The next seven pages of fighting have a little of everything for readers, showcasing Rossmo’s versatility. At first, it’s gas gun vs gas gun followed by Sandman flipping his opponent and through some odd dialogue we are forced to conclude the evil mastermind’s sobriquet is “The Fog.” Giving his adversary the chance to surrender and return the gases before it’s too late is yet another example of Venditti’s characterization of his Wesley Dodds as a merciful hero. The Fog responds with three shots from his pistol which Sandman is able to dodge and evade. Sandman gets the upper hand when he jumps overhead and knocks the gun out of The Fog’s hands which he then pulls apart in a seemingly one fluid motion.

Now standing head to head the battle becomes a fistfight where The Fog quickly lands a kidney punch that allows him to put Sandman into a choke hold and remove his mask revealing a startled Wesley Dodds. Like any classic villain, The Fog starts monologuing about his plans and the war to come, permitting Wesley the chance to jam a gas canister into his opponent’s masked eye. Out from under the villain’s hold, Wesley runs off as The Fog pulls his mask off, and no his face is not fully revealed. With, if possible, more gas surrounding the combatants The Fog runs off like an exposed phantom of the opera leaving Wesley to inhale tons of gas. The book closes with Rossmo shrewdly using smaller diagonal panels to show the effects the gas has on Wesley’s mouth, eyes, and lungs and then a larger image of his full body collapsed from the poisoning at the bottom of the page. Rossmo delivers fun, dynamic, and well-paced art with page after page of great action. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out Napolitano’s stupendous lettering, from the gnarly fonts of both character’s speech to the bloody typeface of the issue title. But it is his brilliant positioning of the larger onomatopoeia which he incorporates into the pencils that makes for an eye-popping comic cover to cover.