ICYMI! Wesley Dodds: Sandman #5: War is Big Business

Fear as a motivator can’t be beat. Driving even the best of us to think the ends justify the means. And it’s fear of what’s to come that has taken Sandman from vigilante hero to savior radical. With the events of the last issue taking The Fog off the chess board issue five opens with him as the worst fare a taxi cab can get and Dodds being questioned by the New York police, again. Dian reminds the detectives of her father District Attorney Belmont and the questions come to an end. Wesley then orders Humphries to attend to Mr. Vanderlyle’s needs at the hospital and home. With the war at home settled, seemly, Sandman skulks about Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. He easily and methodically gases soldiers as he happens upon them, now employing a gas more anesthetic and less hallucinogen in nature after experiencing firsthand how his concoctions can traumatize. Sandman puts down a soldier comically reading a comic strip of a certain bat-themed hero until his gun runs out of juice in front of one of the more portly servicemen who sounds the alarm. The entire fort is now alerted, commandos, somehow with zero dialogue to inform them, gear up with gas masks and guns and very quickly surround Sandman. Cornered Sandman fills the room with gas and in classic pulp hero fashion escapes to a ledge on the outside of a building only to come crashing back in a moment later. Rossmo delivers two nonstop pages of action with a layout that captures the pandemoniums fight. Panels of all sizes and angles at various degrees depict the back and forth of Sandman and the soldiers, gas versus bullets. Free-floating frames focus on Sandman subduing the different attackers skillfully.

Abruptly and almost out of nowhere the book cuts to Colonel Malcolm Breckinridge in the dark as Sandman’s ominous disembodied voice stalks the military man. In the pitch-black office, the panels take the shape of the BAM BAM BAM of the colonel shooting wildly into nothingness trying to get at Sandman. Out of bullets, Breckinridge fails to intimidate his foe and both he and Sandman are gone in a trail of green smoke before the soldiers arrive. Now in a deserted warehouse in nothing but his undies Breckinridge is awakened with a bucket of cold water to the sight of Sandman looking down on him and bats hovering in the rafters. A half-splash page of the colonel’s face filled with the deep lines of wrinkles and scars reminiscent of Marv from Sin City commence the interrogation.

From the start, Breckinridge meekly gives in to Sandman’s demand for answers and spills his guts. Venditti uses this interaction well to not only pull all the pieces of the story together but to also comment on the industry of war. The only reason the colonel saw Dodds in the first place was to see if he could find an easier way to get his hands on Dodds’s research journal which he undoubtedly believed would have far more lethal formulas to exploit. Breckinridge used his disgraced former subordinate Igor Kluge to steal the formulas. He then dismissed Kluge’s death as another soldier doing his duty for their country. The colonel then gloats that Dodds’ journal is in the right hands and that it is only a matter of time before the US joins the war in Europe where chemical weapons based on Dodds’ research will kill soldiers all across the world. Finally, he absolves himself of guilt in the name of American patriotism because victory is all that matters. Sandman cleverly records the colonel’s confession and leaves it and a defeated Breckinridge in the warehouse for the police to arrest. Back at the penthouse, Humphries becomes the latest victim of the real mastermind of all this chaos, Vanderlyle. Venditti’s observation on the insanity of unchecked patriotism immediately raises the profile of this mini-series. It also shows the depth of character of Wesley Dodds, whose core concern is the well-being of his fellow man by having him react with mercy even if fear is his incentive. Plascencia’s colors stay muted and understated for most of the issue except for when in Rossmo’s well-crafted action scenes. Rossmo’s clean line pencils continue to offer expressive faces and ample amounts of smoke when a fight breaks out. And Napolitano’s letters wrap around scenes to add an extra pop that every comic should have.