Art by Shawn McManus
By Ronald Byrd
Birth name: Alvin Robert Caleb Mann
Base of operations: New York City
First Appearance: Sandman #32
Outed: Sandman #32
Born in Kansas, Alvin Mann recognizes his sexuality [as an adult she shares with her friend Barbie a dream about making out with Weirdzo Lila] and transgendered identity as a teenager. Fleeing the wrath of a fundamentalist family, Alvin moves to New York and re-creates himself as Wanda; frightened of surgery Wanda never undergoes a sex-change operation, but she does grow her hair long, undergoes electrolysis, and take hormones. Wanda’s appearance and dress are so convincing that some believe her to have been born a woman.
When her best friend, a woman named Barbie, is drawn into the mystic dream world of her childhood by an entity called the Cuckoo, others in the apartment building they share, including Wanda, are victimized by nightmares of their own (see bracketed comments below). Seeking vengeance, one of the tenants, the centuries-old sorceress Thessaly, conducts a lunar ritual that allows her and two other tenants, the lesbian couple Hazel and Foxglove, to enter Barbie’s dream and rescue her. Because of the nature of the spell, Wanda, who still retains a penis, cannot accompany them (as the disembodied face of the Cuckoo’s agent, George, explains to her: “It’s chromosomes as much as uh anything”), and she remains behind to guard Barbie’s physical body.
Art by Bryan Talbot
Barbie and the others return to the real world safely, but not before Wanda and a derelict named Maisie Hill are killed when a mystic storm, created as a side-effect of Thessaly’s spell, destroys the apartment building. When Wanda’s body is returnedto Kansas, her family has her buried in a suit, with hair cut like a man’s, under a tombstone with her birth name, effectively erasing the new identity she created for herself; after the funeral, however, Barbie leaves a Hyperman comic book featuring the Weirdzos (i.e. Bizarros from “Superman”) with whom Wanda identified on her coffin and writes the name “Wanda” in lipstick [in Wanda's favorite shade] on the tombstone to commemorate the name and identity that her friend wanted. Later, in a dream, Barbie sees a beautiful, more feminine Wanda happy in the company of the entity Death.
Earlier events of Wanda’s life are recounted in two stories—”Escape Artist” by Caitlin R. Kiernan and “An Extra Smidgen of Eternity” by Robert Rodi—in the prose anthology “The Sandman: Book of Dreams,” edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer.
[There is a revealing dream involving Wanda in issue #33. Wanda dreams of being in a department store and a female salesclerk offering her all the dresses she would like. Google eyed boys from her high school class pop up and disappear, to be replaced by Weirdzo Lila #1 who addresses her as "Alvin." Wanda states, "My name isn't Alvin. It's Wanda. I'm a woman." Lila exclaims her approval and insists on telling Weirdzo #1. The dream becomes nightmarish when weirdzo #1 insists "Us must operate immediately to make you imperfect." Wanda is stripped of her identity, shown naked as a biological male, shouting her fear of surgery while being strapped to a gurney against her will as Weirdzo holds a jaggedy saw in his hands. The dream ends with Weirdzo saying, "So what you am? A man or woman? Whatever you am, we make it better."]
[Maisie shows Wanda compassion and understanding after rescuing her. She recounts her grandson Billy who "was a cute little thing. He'd sashay around sweet as anythin'. He was savin' up fer the operation" and "just because someone's different don't make 'em bad." Gaiman touches on violence toward to trans-people when Maisie says Billy was found in a motel with his head crushed in.]
Created by Neil Gaiman. © by ® DC/ Vertigo Comics. Used without permission.
Tags: lesbian, Neil Gaiman, transgendered, Vertigo
The Corinthian is also gay, said Gaiman. Which is kind of obvious since he only takes the eyes of boys. As my favorite character of SANDMAN I think he deserves a page. There are other gay characters in the series but they’re pretty minor, like the lesbian in the cafe in “The Passenger”.
Hi, Meronichan,
Thanks for mentioning Corinthian. The character is on my list to research and write up. I think I have the relevant comics. He also appeared in The Dreaming, correct? Or have I confused Cluracan with him? With your passion for Corinthian, would you consider writing a bio about him? If so, feel free to get in touch with me at glajoe at gayleague dot com.
Joe