History YMMV / SandManMysteryTheatre

* HesJustHiding: [[spoiler:There's room to interpret that Cassandra Cutler didn't actually die at the end of "The Scorpion." While she does indeed get shot and falls down, the last image is of her with one eye open as Terry steps over her to leave. Since there's no direct confirmation of her death, one would believe she was PlayingPossum until Terry left the room.]]

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The series has never been fully collected into trade format, and the few collections that have been published are currently out of print.
** Creator/DCComics has tried to change this by releasing new oversized collected editions. However, due to supposedly poor sales, as of August 2017, only the first 24 issues have been collected into 2 volumes with no signs of any more getting released.

* HollywoodPudgy: Dian.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Nick Fillipi pressures Patricia Honeywell into giving him a blow job so he'll "Try to persuade" the station not to have her kicked off "The Coming Of Night." [[spoiler: He's the Crone's next victim, but given it's entirely likely Nick was never going to argue on Patricia's behalf, it makes him very much an AssholeVictim.]]

* NightmareFuel:
** Many of the prophetic dreams Wesley [[spoiler: and later Dian]] have are literal examples of this.
*** During "The Crone," [[spoiler: Dian]] has a dream about an old woman who begins jamming torn paper into her mouth until her stomach grotesquely bulges. It ends with said woman strapped to a bed as a doctor slices her open and pulls an entrails-covered book out of her stomach.
** "The Phantom Of The Fair" arc is one of the most brutal stories in the entire series, given the killer dresses in a leather gimp suit and preys on unsuspecting gay men whom he brutally tortures before castrating and killing. Wesley later discovers he keeps their severed penises ''preserved in jars''. One of the victims is [[spoiler: Wesley's good college friend, Robert Ling, and this breaks Wesley into a sobbing mess in Dian's arms.]] The killer also has some severe DaddyIssues, hearing his father's voice coming from his mask when he's not wearing it. [[spoiler: The last issue blatantly implies Gerald Zimmerman (the Phantom) was either in an incestuous relationship with his cousin when he was younger, or his cousin raped him. When his father found out he beat Gerald, but would then dress up in that very same gimp suit and would ''make'' Gerald have sex with his cousin ''while he watched.'']]
** Wesley's breakdown in "The Goblin" due to a head injury, which leaves him walking around asleep yet wide awake and in constant Sandman mode. [[spoiler: When Dian is able to get through to him, it's implied half of what happened was due to Wesley's guilt over Dian aborting their unborn child.]]

* TheWoobie: Emily Ramsey from ''The Brute'' is a sweet, gentle little girl whose father, "Rocket" Ramsey is doing his best to make a living as an honest boxer. The two dearly love one another and Emily even says to her, Rocket Ramsey is always number one. Sadly, she has a bronchial condition that requires expensive medicine (to the point she rations it), and her father's honesty and refusal to get mixed up in illegal black market fighting results in the mob after them, forcing them to abandon their home. They take refuge with a seemingly kindly tramp named Wilbur Schenk who proceeds to rape Emily when her father is out working, driving her into near catatonia and traumatizing her. Then to top it all off, her father is killed at the end with almost everyone else in the storyline. Wesley at least manages to rescue the poor kid and get her to Dian, with promises to see her healed and treated, and sets up a substantial trust fund to provide for her completely.

** Creator/DCComics has tried to change this by releasing new oversized collected editions. However, due to supposedly poor sales, as of August 2017, only the first 24 issues have been collected with no signs of any more getting released.

-->'''Klein''': There are some men in [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Germany]] who would agree with you.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The entire Goldman family from "The Tarantula". Celia Goldman is a rather creepy, manipulative woman who controls her gangster father Albert, a powerful mob boss that treats her as a "can do nothing wrong" golden child and is fronting her various illegal business ventures. It's later revealed that [[ParentalIncest Albert is carrying on an incestuous relationship with her, and has been molesting her since childhood]]. However, [[spoiler: we find out that Celia is a full-on sociopath who from a young age realized how she could manipulate her father's pedophile urges to get him to do whatever she wanted and willingly slept with him as opposed to being forced against her will to do so. Turning her father into her love slave, she turns father against mother and father against son, so that he provided her and her alone financial support and have him terrorize and emotionally abuse her brother and her mother. They are forced to live under Celia's evil domination of the family until they find out from a woman that Albert had been keeping as a mistress on the side that she has convinced her father to change his will to leave everything to her. They then snap, kidnapping the mistress and torture her/murder a string of random wealthy socialites to provide cover to try and murder their monster daughter. While Celia and her mother and brother are depicted sympathetically enough that they probably weren't intended as HateSink, all behave unspeakably and harm countless innocents in their war against each other.]]

* CompleteMonster: "[[PsychoForHire The Face]]" is a MasterOfDisguise who glories in his work, with a massive body count. Hired to assassinate a Tong mob boss who knows the Face's employer has Asian ancestry in the racist UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era, the Face begins murdering Tong members and leaving their heads around, hoping to provoke a MobWar, even killing a 15-year-old prostitute who is the sister of one member. In his spare time, the Face also rapes and abuses prostitutes, mocking them for their lack of recourse and often "tearing them up" below to leave them unable to work. The Face returns to kill others, plaguing the Sandman constantly. [[ComicBook/{{Starman}} In the modern era]], the Face accepts a job to bankrupt a wealthy man for an investor to profit, attempting to crash a blimp into Opal City to devastate it and kill countless people.

* TheWoobie: Emily Ramsey from ''The Brute'' is a sweet, gentle little girl whose father, "Rocket" Ramsey is doing his best to make a living as an honest boxer. The two dearly love one another and Emily even says to her, Rocket Ramsey is always number one. Sadly, she has a bronchial condition that requires expensive medicine (to the point she rations it), and her father's honesty and refusal to get mixed up in illegal black market fighting results in the mob after them, forcing them to abandon their home. They take refuge with a seemingly kindly tramp named Wilbur Schenk who proceeds to rape Emily when her father is out working, driving her into near catatonia and traumatizing her. Then to top it all off, her father is killed at the end with almost everyone else in the storyline. Wesley at least manages to rescue the poor kid and get her to Dian, with promises to see her healed and treated, and sets up a substantial trust fund to provide for her completely.
** UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The entire Goldman family from "The Tarantula". Celia Goldman is a rather creepy, manipulative woman who controls her gangster father Albert, a powerful mob boss that treats her as a "can do nothing wrong" golden child and is fronting her various illegal business ventures. It's later revealed that [[ParentalIncest Albert is carrying on an incestuous relationship with her, and has been molesting her since childhood]]. However, [[spoiler: we find out that Celia is a full-on sociopath who from a young age realized how she could manipulate her father's pedophile urges to get him to do whatever she wanted and willingly slept with him as opposed to being forced against her will to do so. Turning her father into her love slave, she turns father against mother and father against son, so that he provided her and her alone financial support and have him terrorize and emotionally abuse her brother and her mother. They are forced to live under Celia's evil domination of the family until they find out from a woman that Albert had been keeping as a mistress on the side that she has convinced her father to change his will to leave everything to her. They then snap, kidnapping the mistress and torture her/murder a string of random wealthy socialites to provide cover to try and murder their monster daughter. The Celia and her mother and brother have sympathetic issues, all behave unspeakably and harm countless innocents in their war against each other.]]

* TheWoobie:
** Catherine Van Der Meer, Dian's friend whose kidnapping and torture is what sparks the first arc, ''The Tarantula''. [[spoiler: Roger and Miriam Goldman target Catherine knowing she's sleeping with Albert, Roger's father and Miriam's husband, and believe she knows what Albert's planning to do with his money. Catherine spends days strung up by her wrists in a dank cellar, routinely beaten and brutalized by Roger to make her talk. It reaches a point where Catherine wishes they ''would'' kill her to make it end, but by then mother and son decide to make Catherine watch as they kill ''other'' women as punishment for not cooperating. Thank God she's rescued at the end, but she doesn't show up for another five arcs.]]
** Celia Goldman appears at first to be a rather creepy, manipulative woman who controls her father Albert by [[ParentalIncest having sex with him]]. However, [[spoiler: Albert had been sexually abusing Celia since she was a little girl, and when she got older she tried to turn the tables as a matter of survival. At one point her brother Roger sees Celia embracing their father, and for a moment she looks at Roger with what's either a cry for help or disgust at herself for what she's become. Roger just goes into the next room. It gets worse for her when it turns out Roger and their mother Miriam are in fact the Tarantula, and when they learn Celia's getting all their dad's money the two kidnap her next. Miriam chains up Celia and starts beating the shit out of her, calling her a vile little witch and wanting nothing but to see her dead. Celia's father spent years using her for sex, while her brother and mother loathe her guts, did nothing to help her, and are mad she's getting Albert's money. This woman's life is a goddamn ''nightmare''.]]
** Emily Ramsey from ''The Brute'' is a sweet, gentle little girl whose father, "Rocket" Ramsey is doing his best to make a living as an honest boxer. The two dearly love one another and Emily even says to her, Rocket Ramsey is always number one. Sadly, she has a bronchial condition that requires expensive medicine (to the point she rations it), and her father's honesty and refusal to get mixed up in illegal black market fighting results in the mob after them, forcing them to abandon their home. They take refuge with a seemingly kindly tramp named Wilbur Schenk who proceeds to rape Emily when her father is out working, driving her into near catatonia and traumatizing her. Then to top it all off, her father is killed at the end with almost everyone else in the storyline. Wesley at least manages to rescue the poor kid and get her to Dian, with promises to see her healed and treated, and sets up a substantial trust fund to provide for her completely.

* Emily Ramsey from ''The Brute'' is a sweet, gentle little girl whose father, "Rocket" Ramsey is doing his best to make a living as an honest boxer. The two dearly love one another and Emily even says to her, Rocket Ramsey is always number one. Sadly, she has a bronchial condition that requires expensive medicine (to the point she rations it), and her father's honesty and refusal to get mixed up in illegal black market fighting results in the mob after them, forcing them to abandon their home. They take refuge with a seemingly kindly tramp named Wilbur Schenk who proceeds to rape Emily when her father is out working, driving her into near catatonia and traumatizing her. Then to top it all off, her father is killed at the end with almost everyone else in the storyline. Wesley at least manages to rescue the poor kid and get her to Dian, with promises to see her healed and treated, and sets up a substantial trust fund to provide for her completely.

** Celia Goldman appears at first to be a rather creepy, manipulative woman who controls her father Albert by [[ParentalIncest having sex with him]]. However, [[spoiler: Albert had been sexually abusing Celia since she was a little girl, and when she got older she tried to turn the tables as a matter of survival. At one point her brother Roger sees Celia embracing their father, and for a moment she looks at Roger with what's either a cry for help or disgust at herself for what she's become. Roger just goes into the next room. It gets worse for her when it turns out Roger and their mother Miriam are in fact the Tarantula, and when they learn Celia's getting all their dad's money the two kidnap her next. Miriam chains up Celia and starts beating the shit out of her, calling her a vile little witch and wanting nothing but to see her dead. Celia's father spent years using her for sex, while her brother and mother loathe her guts, did nothing to help her, and are mad she's getting Albert's money. This woman's life is a goddamn ''nightmare''.]]

* DudeNotFunny: Burke's tasteless remark about gay men being targeted by the Phantom of the Fair goes straight from his usual bigoted attitude towards unforgivably disgusting. It's another reason why "The Phantom Of The Fair" is one of the hardest stories to read, especially for queer readers.

** Celia Goldman appears at first to be a rather creepy, manipulative woman who controls her father Albert by [[ParentalIncest having sex with him]]. However, [[spoiler: Albert had been sexually abusing Celia since she was a little girl, and when she got older she tried to turn the tables as a matter of survival. At one point her brother Roger sees Celia embracing their father, and for a moment she looks at Roger with what's either a cry for help or disgust at herself for what she's become. Roger just goes into the next room. It gets worse for her when it turns out Roger and their mother Miriam are in fact the Tarantula, and when they learn Celia's getting all their dad's money the two kidnap her next. Miriam chains up Celia and starts beating the shit out of her, calling her a vile little witch and wanting nothing but to see her dead. Celia's father spent years using her for sex, while her brother and mother loathe her guts, did nothing to help her, and are mad she's getting Albert's money. This woman's life is a goddamn ''nightmare''.]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:
** Maria Reisling suffered extreme physical abuse at the hands of her mother, who snapped after she spent years for Maria's father Arthur to return for them. Maria was locked inside of a small closet under the stairs for ''three years'' with only her brother giving her food and cleaning her. All those years Maria cried and battered herself against the door trying to escape, which left her permanently deformed and suffering from severe brain damage. [[spoiler: When her father finally did return, he started using Maria to kill people for him as the Brute because her mind is so badly fractured she genuinely doesn't know better.]]
** Madeline Giles had the misfortune of being late to a fraternity party known as "Hell Night," and arrived to find all the men in attendance totally drunk. Once she arrived, they ganged up on her, tied her to a bed, and took turns raping her. ''There were nearly thirty of them, and they all had a turn with her''. [[spoiler: Years later, Madeline becomes the Vamp and has her sorority sisters help her track down and murder every guy who raped her, by draining their blood which they were gonna use to consecrate their new home.]]

* CompleteMonster:
** The Tarantula, or should we say, [[spoiler: Roger and Miriam Goldman, a couple of loathsome sadists who torture Dian's friend Catherine to find out what Albert Goldman's doing with his money. They also kill a number of women to get Catherine to talk, but their real target had always been Celia Goldman. Celia, Roger's sister and Miriam's daughter, spent most of her life being sexually abused by Albert before she was old enough to switch roles, but neither Roger or Miriam seem to care at all about what Celia's suffered and are angry she's getting Albert's fortune. The two of them then kidnap and plan to murder Celia alongside Catherine, seeing this as their "Plan for redemption."]]
** Arthur Reisling of ''The Brute'' organizes underground fights where opponents brutalize each other with spiked gloves, is abusive to his adult son, systematically destroyed Rocket Ramsey's life, tries to [[spoiler: ''rape'' Dian]], and his neglect and abandonment of his daughter [[spoiler: turned her into the titular Brute, whom he uses to murder anyone who gets in his way.]]

** Wesley's breakdown in "The Goblin" due to a head injury, which leaves him walking around asleep yet wide awake and in constant Sandman mode. [[spoiler: When Dian is able to get through to him, it's implied half of what happened was due to Wesley's guilt over Dian aborting their unborn child.]]

** Creator/DCComics has tried to change this by releasing new oversized collected editions. However, due to supposedly poor sales, as of August 2017, only the first 24 issues have been collected with no signs of any more getting released.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Wes and Dian are undeniably one of the cutest couples in comics history. Then you recall that the two of them never actually get married. They stayed together for decades even though they weren't bound by a marriage license, proving just how strong their love really was.

** Franchise/DCComics has tried to change this by releasing new oversized collected editions. However, due to supposedly poor sales, as of August 2017, only the first 24 issues have been collected with no signs of any more getting released.

** DCComics has tried to change this by releasing new oversized collected editions. However, due to supposedly poor sales, as of August 2017, only the first 24 issues have been collected with no signs of any more getting released.

* HollywoodPudgy: Dian.

* HollywoodPudgy: Dian.
* UnwantedAssistance: Hourman was originally hired by a woman to talk some sense into her husband, who was spending all his hanging out with low-level mafia goombas. Each one of Hourman's attempts at trying to talk some sense into the guy and providing a way out of the criminal life end disastrously (for his wife, at least, who is on the receiving end of her husband's anger) because the guy is too stupid and too proud to actually listen.

* StopHelpingMe: Hourman was originally hired by a woman to talk some sense into her husband, who was spending all his hanging out with low-level mafia goombas. Each one of Hourman's attempts at trying to talk some sense into the guy and providing a way out of the criminal life end disastrously (for his wife, at least, who is on the receiving end of her husband's anger) because the guy is too stupid and too proud to actually listen.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Wes and Dian are undeniably one of the cutest couples in comics history. Then you recall that the two of them never actually get married. Which means they stayed with one another for decades, up until their eventual deaths.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Wes and Dian are undeniably one of the cutest couples in comics history. Then you recall that the two of them never actually get married. Which means they stayed with one another for decades, up until their eventual deaths.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming (Wes and Dian are undeniably one of the cutest couples in comics history.)