WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Injustice: Year Zero #5, by Tom Taylor, Roge Antonio, Rain Beredo, and Wes Abbott, on sale now.
Injustice: Year Zero has Joker going on a rampage in the world of 2013's Injustice: Gods Among Us video game as he aims to take out the Justice Society of America. Using the amulet of Apophis, he's become a Lord of Chaos with mind control powers. Now, he's using those powers to target the JSA, the Golden Age superheroes that the Justice League looks up to, Joker wants to break them to send a message, especially to Batman.
And in Injustice: Year Zero #6, the upgraded Clown Prince of Crime makes a huge statement by taking out one of DC's greatest detectives: Wesley Dodds, the original Sandman.
Created in the '30s by Gardner Fox and Bert Christman, the noirish, mask-wearing Sandman became a cult figure in DC lore who solved street-level crimes. He operated using gas guns that could make criminals tell the truth or put them to sleep. He's one of the detectives Batman admires, and he also had prophetic visions, helping evolve the character.
Sadly, he'd end up killing himself to avoid being tortured by Mordru and as of Dark Nights: Death Metal, he's entombed at the Valhalla Cemetery. But in the Injustice Universe, this brilliant mind is alive and well, until Joker takes over Green Lantern/Alan Scott's body.
The clown infiltrates the JSA headquarters in New York, bypassing facial and vocal recognition and accessing the computers to get the addresses of other members. However, he's met by Sandman who wonders why Hourman isn't on duty as rostered. But instead of getting answers, Sandman falls for a trap. Alan tells him it's not safe inside and they go outside for some air, and he reveals that the group's been infiltrated. When Sandman asks how, the Joker-possessed Green Lantern simply generates a knife construct and stab him.
While Sandman is a veteran hero, this is a rookie mistkae, because he should have picked up on the red flags and the absence of Hourman. He just doesn't feel like a detective, although it could be that he's just too trusting. He plays the ultimate price but there's still a joke to be had. Joker unmasks him to reveal he has no clue who this person is, nor does he know who's this Alan that Wesley's calling out to with his last breath. Joker decides to fly away to dump the body, but both men fall from the sky and splatter on the ground, when Alan's power ring runs out of juice. Even though both of these heroes were some of DC's first costumed vigilantes, they both met an equally indignant end.