The Carl Sands version of Shadow Thief first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #36 (July 1961) and was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Joe Kubert.

[1] The Carl Hammer version of Shadow Thief first appeared in Vigilante #14 (February 1985) and was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Trevor Von Eeden.

In return for saving the creature's life, Sands was given a device known as a Dimensiometer and a pair of ebony gloves that allows him to hold objects while in shadow form.

[4] While growing up in Japan, American Carl Sands learns ninjutsu techniques and becomes a rather undistinguished industrial saboteur, accepting unremarkable sums to hinder and eliminate his clients' rivals.

Sometime after losing the belt to the Phantom Stranger, the Thanagarian criminal Byth Rok hires Sands to steal Hawkman and Hawkwoman's ship.

The demon gave Sands a more powerful shadow suit which is tinged with magic and has vastly augmented abilities to enact greater criminal schemes.

[5] Taking his newfound power out for a spin which he would spread chaos, all while enacting revenge that brings him into conflict with The Flash and Captain Marvel.

[10][11] Prison only temporarily stops him as he uses the shadows created by the interior of his mouth to escape by blinding and muffling Doctor Light when she comes to interrogate him.

He is ultimately defeated by Light, and is rendered powerless after Firestorm uses his powers to seal his mouth, thus preventing him from conjuring shadows from within his body.

During Brightest Day, the cosmic entity known as the Starheart begins taking control of metahumans who possess magical or elemental abilities.

The Prime-Earth version of Carl Sands appears as a low-level threat to Hawkman who utilizes the Shadow Vest that enables him to shift through solid objects.

[21] During the Forever Evil storyline, it is revealed that this version of Shadow Thief is a former agent of Mossad named Aviva Metula.

Now his suit, as was he, had been granted magical abilities which enabled him to convert objects and people into unsubstantiated shadowy material (a process which was inconceivably painful to living things), while transporting himself through shadows as well.

Now no longer needing the shadow suit to utilize his powers, Sands can literally draw upon the absence of light that is situated all around him, enabling the manifestation of depleted photons to form constructs ranging from weapons to planetoids, creating portals to and from different locations (possibly even across dimensions) and even turn his opponents' shadows into living duplicates of themselves all with the same abilities.

The Shadow Skin armor provides Aviva Metula with intangibility, teleportation, flight, and limited shapeshifting, enabling her to turn her arms into weapons.

The Carl Sands incarnation of Shadow Thief appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.