Sandman (From Sam Raimi's Spider Man 3)
Thomas Haden Church portrays Flint Marko / Sandman in two live-action Marvel films. This version is portrayed as a tragic and sympathetic criminal who is desperate to raise money for his critically ill daughter, Penny, and becomes the Sandman after an accident involving an experimental particle accelerator that bonded him with sand at the molecular level, giving him sand-based shapeshifting abilities. Furthermore, he played a part in Spider-Man's origin story, being accidentally responsible for the death of the latter's uncle Ben Parker.
Marko first appears in the 2007 Sony film Spider-Man 3. After breaking out of prison, he visits his family, but his upset ex-wife Emma forces him to leave. While on the run from police, he stumbles upon a particle physics test that transforms him into the Sandman. Using his newly-acquired powers, Marko attacks an armored car and is confronted by Spider-Man, but manages to escape. After Spider-Man obtains his black suit, which increases his aggressiveness, and learns that Marko was Ben's killer, he fights and seemingly kills him in the sewers. By the film's climax, Marko reconstitutes himself and encounters Venom, who persuades him to join forces to kill Spider-Man. They kidnap Mary Jane Watson and lure Spider-Man to a construction site, where they nearly succeed until Harry Osborn intervenes and defeats Marko. Following the battle, Marko, now aware of Spider-Man's identity, approaches him to apologize and confesses the truth about his uncle's murder: following a robbery, Marko tried to steal Ben's car while holding the man at gunpoint, but his partner, Dennis Carradine, startled him, causing Marko to pull the trigger accidentally. Shocked by what happened, Marko later turned himself in. After learning about Marko's troubled history and what he had been through, Spider-Man forgives him and allows Marko to leave peacefully.
Church reprises his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). After ending up in another universe, he helps its version of Spider-Man defeat an Electro from a separate universe before being teleported to and imprisoned in the Sanctum Sanctorum alongside other alternate universe-displaced supervillains. As his abilities become unstable and he withers away, Marko receives a chance at a cure from Spider-Man, but is convinced by the Green Goblin to fight back instead. Marko later assists Electro and the Lizard in fighting Spider-Man until his version of Spider-Man cures him of his powers, reverting Marko to his human state before Doctor Strange returns him and the other displaced individuals to their respective universes.
A member of the Elementals inspired by the Sandman appeared in the live-action MCU film Spider-Man: Far From Home. Identified as the Earth Elemental, it had power over rocks and sand. It attacked Mexico, during which it encountered Nick Fury and Maria Hill before Mysterio defeated it off-screen. Peter Parker later discovers the Elementals were illusions created by Mysterio and his fellow ex-Stark Industries employees as part of his plot to obtain Tony Stark's technology and fraudulently establish himself as a superhero.
Powers
- Body Conversion - Sand: The Sandman possesses the superhuman ability to convert his body into sand by mental command. The sand functions identically to, as well as appears to be, normal flesh. However, he can convert all or parts of his body into animated sand at will. His brain has attained subliminal awareness of all granulated particles of his body. Through conscious effort, he can affect the degree of molecular cohesion between the numerous adjoining surfaces of his particles and thus cause locomotion of discrete volumes, down to the individual grains.
Weaknesses
- Water:
- Extreme Heat:
Gallery
