Adventure Comics #52 (July 1940)
"Wanted! Dead or Alive!"
Author: Gardner Fox
Artist: Creig Flessel
"The police and the underworld hate The Sandman! They have tried to capture him - to learn his identity - set traps for him - always without success! - With Dian Belmont, daughter of the District Attorney as his beautiful aide. - He makes his daring battles against criminals!"
Synopsis: As Dian Belmont entertains Wesley Dodds at her home, a burglar steals a pair of gloves from her room while leaving behind the calling card of a golden apple.
"Gloves! Now why should he steal a pair of gloves? There's something funny about this!"
Unfortunately, Dodds can't ask the crook himself as he runs away from the house observed by the pair.
"He's getting away! I wish I had a gun!"
I love that line so much - the hero realizing that things would be so much simpler for him if he could just shoot the bad guy in the back and call it a night.
![](http://dccomicsartists.com/goldage/Sandman-adv52.jpg)
![](http://dccomicsartists.com/goldage/Sandman-adv52.jpg)
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This isn't to say that the crime fighters don't have a lead. Recognizing the apple as one owned by Claudia Morgan - "or one like it" - Dian pays a visit to her friend as The Sandman makes his own entrance through the home's basement window.
Although on the surface, grateful to Dian for returning a "family heirloom", once Belmont leaves, Morgan becomes irate, her outburst overheard by The Sandman.
"The fool! That irresponsible fool!"
Locking the apple in her safe, our hero investigates to find "a score of those amber apples!"
Leaving things as he found them, The Sandman takes his leave, puzzled over the matter.
"Why were Dian's gloves taken? - What about the amber apples?"
Driving through the streets, Dodds takes interest in a newsboy's cries of a recent gold robbery and purchases a paper.
"MORSON WAREHOUSE ROBBED OF GOLD SHIPMENT!!! WOMAN'S GLOVE FOUND ALSO AMBER APPLES!"
Returning to Dian, the pair realize the bad situation she's in.
"It was your glove they left there on purpose! To accuse you of the crime!"
With identifying cleaner marks on the gloves able to connect Belmont to the glove, it becomes imperative to The Sandman to steal it back - something he accomplishes during a visit to the police station with his trusty gas gun.
"A new experience - cracking a safe to the accompaniment of police officers' snores!"
Unfortunately, while the glove left at the warehouse has been recovered, Dodds and Belmont still have to contend with the fact that the second glove still resides with Claudia Morgan. Sneaking once more onto her property, The Sandman overhears Morgan berate the gang member who has gathered along with his confederates in her living room.
"You fool! I told you not to leave an amber apple at The Belmont girl's home. Now she knows I had one - and she might suspect me of belonging to The Amber Apple Gang!"
When the hood moves into the next room to retrieve the gang's loot, he is gassed by our hero who tosses the bag out of the window intending to retrieve it later. With this accomplished, The Sandman boldly charges into the room and takes down Morgan's gang as the ringmistress herself makes her escape with the gold she's discovered outside her home.
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/M0nGfwtgLwFCcXzzU2S4ufTdVRp0KAlveX23EgSm7UBYoqH9SlnNJt3hctpcaD_P0AGHEJuWlvjf=s0?rhlupa=MTcxLjIyOS4yMjIuNDY=&rnvuka=TW96aWxsYS81LjAgKFdpbmRvd3MgTlQgMy43OyBXT1c2NCkgQXBwbGVXZWJLaXQvMjA4Ljk2IChLSFRNTCwgbGlrZSBHZWNrbykgQ2hyb21lLzE0LjAuMzM1OS4zNiBTYWZhcmkvMzQ3LjQw)
Giving chase with Dian at the wheel, The Sandman gasses Morgan as she races off on foot before she can recognize Belmont riding along with the vigilante. Claudia is returned home, The Sandman phones the police, and Wesley Dodds and Dian close things out with a drive in the moonlight.
Thoughts:
"He's getting away! I wish I had a gun!"
Not often do you hear a superhero chastise himself for neglecting to keep a gun handy so he can just shoot a fleeing burglar in the back so he could skip the whole donning of fighting togs and leaving his house aspect his job.
Had that moment not taken place in this story, I suspect that it would have been Dian's exchange with Wesley at the top of this story which stood out the most to me,
Wesley Dodds: How long do you think I can get away with posing as The Sandman? If anyone ever suspected that Wesley Dodds, playboy socialite, am the same person.
Dian Belmont: Don't worry. You're safe, Wes.
Awkward exposition aside, I like that Dodds gets to play the worry-wart rather than Dian. It's a sensible concern - I mean, how many times has The Sandman been shot in only his first year on the job? - but eh, "boo hoo hoo, Mr. I Wish I Had a Gun to Hold Up My Spine With".
Unfortunately, those two moments aside, I can't find much in this yarn which we haven't seen before. Sandman leisurely gassing his way in and out of Police HQ; Sandman effortlessly cracking a safe; Dian chauffeuring him from plot point to plot point (though I do appreciate this entry at least acknowledging that this isn't something she should be seen doing for a change); boring henchmen committing boring thefts - the whole amber apple calling card seems specifically designed to counter any protests about this gang being like all the rest we've grown too accustomed to seeing in these pages - "Hey, this gang incorporates apples into their thefts - they're nothing like any of the other crooks you've seen here". Certainly, Claudia Morgan seems a force to reckon with what with her fiery temper but she doesn't have anything to back it up with.
So - rinse, wash, repeat, it is for this installment with the caveat that there are a couple of details which keep it somewhat memorable.
oh, and while
Adventure Comics #52 marks a string of issues where The Sandman will be bumped from the cover,
"Wanted! Dead or Alive!" does at least restore our hero as the lead feature on this occasion at least.
Up Next:
All-Star Comics #1.