Sanderson Hawkins is a Mouthy Little Bitch

In the JSA, Sanderson Hawkins has the reputation of being a quiet, responsible, sort of fellow. A little bland, naturally, but a nice, polite, proper guy.

But, every so often, when he was still Sandy the Golden Boy, he actually showed signs of being *gasp* a mouthy little bitch!

Of course, he's a sidekick. It's in the job description, but it's fun none the less, because while all sidekicks are mouthy, Sandy tended to be a little more acerbic, shall we say, than, for example, Dick Grayson was during the same time period.

So anyway, here's my tribute to Sanderson Hawkins's inner smartass.
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Sometimes, little Sandy can be a little snide. As is evidenced in this scene when Sandy and Wes visit their bumbling detective friend:



See, he calls him "Watson" because he's a detective. *nod*

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Now, one role of the sidekick in 1940s comics was to give the hero a sounding board so we can all appreciate how smart they are. The Sandman stories are really no different, but sometimes it seems like Sandy finds his own role just a little annoying:



What really makes the Sandy-Wes relationship much more interesting than the Batman and Robin relationship of the same time period is that every so often you get the distinct impression that as much as Sandy adores Wes, he also thinks he can be completely full of shit.

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Like in this one. He's not actually *saying* anything smartass. But the expression pretty much says it all:



And what it says is "You are so full of shit, man, and if I weren't a creepy stepford child, I'd actually tell you that. But I'm snickering on the inside. And what possesses a grown man to wear burgundy? I still can't believe you go out in yellow and purple spandex."

(I know that later comic book writers try to blame the yellow and purple on Dian for sewing it, or Sandy for suggesting it to look more like other heroes. But I maintain that if they did, it was all subtle revenge against Wes for something. Because *they* actually know how to dress.)

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Of course, while Sandy does get to be a bit sharper tongued than his panty-and-elf-boots wearing counterpart, he still gets to say the fun battle wisecracks as well, like here:



I am amused by the contrast between Sandy's intellectual critique of his ammunition while the criminal maligns the poor English language with bastardizations like "moiderin'".

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No one quite belittles people like Sandy, though I think he's still upset about the being sucker punched by a little person and left on a railroad track thing...



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Even being a god (and having previously beat the crap out of him) won't spare you from little Sandy's sharp tongue.



(Though, on an unrelated note, Sandy looks vaguely like a girl in that panel. I think it's the fit of the night-shirt. Heh, you know he's probably had to do the crossdressing thing too. Sidekick rite of passage...

He's clearly a Summer.)

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Of course, now that he's an adult, he's mostly grown out of the smartass stage.

Except maybe when being chained to a rock by a sick fuck:



Or when Black Adam is trying to be intimidating:



Don't let that genteel disguise fool you, the inner smartass isn't dead, it's just buried, ready to strike at the right provocation.

...that is of course once they finally BRING HIM BACK. (*glares petulantly at DC*)

Hmph.

(These panels were taken from Adventure Comics 491, 492, 495 and 499, JSA 20 and JSA 21)