When comic sales began to slip in the late 1960's comics publishers opted to look for new ideas. Both DC and Marvel revived the "horror" genre, with books like House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows. With success in those genres, DC opted to go with somewhat more bizarre hero characters.
DC had already experimented with bizarre looking heroes like Metamorpho (the Element Man) and Ultra (the Multi Alien). Deadman was another attempt to take a new approach to the superhero genre.
DC's long running science fiction anthology title Strange Adventures was one of those titles slipping in sales. DC replaced editor Jack Schiff on the book with editor Jack Miller, and Miller was told to do something new with the book to try to boost sales. Miller took the book out of the science fiction genre and decided to introduce a starring character to the book, who would appear each issue. Writer Arnold Drake with the help of artist Carmine Infantino, created Deadman.
Deadman was a circus acrobat named Boston Brand. Boston was a cynical arialist who worked for the Hills Circus. His gimmick was that he dressed up in a red jumpsuit and called himself "Deadman", wearing a white mask and makeup. Brand was the star of the struggling circus. He admitted that the customers who came to see his act were secretly wishing they would see him miss, and catch his death. Brand was very loyal to the owner of the circus, and to "Tiny", the circus strongman. However, he didn't get along with just about every other member of the circus.
Before his act, one of Boston's other friends at Hills Circus, a Hindu mystic, told Boston that Rama Kushna, the mystic's god, had a special destiny for Boston Brand. Brand didn't believe this and went to do his act. In the middle of his act, while Brand was swinging on a trapeze above the crowd, a shot rang out. Brand was struck in the chest and fell to his death.
The police where clueless as to who killed Brand. Witnesses said they saw a man with a hook on his right hand shoot Brand. There were no clues to the murderer's identity.
Boston Brand, however, remained on earth..as a ghost. Locked into the "costume" he wore when he died (white face, red jumpsuit with the letter D on it), Brand was confronted by the spirit of Rama Kushna. Rama told him that he was being given a special "gift". The opportunity to hunt down his killer and avenge his death. However, "Deadman" was invisible to mortals..he couldn't be seen, heard, or even touch objects. Boston as first found his "mission" pointless..how could be bring his killer to justice if he couldn't touch him. However, after his funeral..which Boston's ghost attended..Tiny lingered. Boston attempted to touch Tiny and found himself drawn inside the giant of a man. Boston discovered his "power"..that he could enter human bodies and take them over. Boston could move from body to body, and after he left the person had no memory of what happened.
Boston first used this ability to thwart a drug ring being run inside Hill's Circus. He lingered, for a couple of issues, at the Circus.
Deadman premiered in Strange Adventures #205. In issue 206 Editor Jack Miller took over the writing and artist Neal Adams took over the art.
Boston eventually moved from the circus setting and set out to find his killer, dubbed "The Hook". He found one "deadend" after another. In an issue of DC's Batman team up book "The Brave and the Bold" Deadman actually recruited Batman to help find the Hook. Boston has possessed various people close to Batman, including Alfred the Butler, to convince Batman that "Deadman" was a real ghost. Batman became the first person to learn the existance of Deadman. Despite Batman's great detective skills, he failed to find the Hook.
Back in Strange Adventures the mystery began to unravel. Boston, it turned out, had a twin brother called Cleveland Brand. Cleveland, frustrated that the police hadn't found his brother's killer, came up with a plan to smoke the murderer out. Cleveland assumed Boston's role as "Deadman" at Hills Circus. The idea was to convince the Hook that he failed to kill Boston Brand. The scheme worked...and the Hook resurfaced. Boston was able to track the Hook...and the answers were rather surprising.
The reason why the police were never able to solve the case was because they were depending on it being someone having a grudge against Boston Brand. This was far from the case. The Hook, as it turned out, wanted to join an international group called the League of Assassins. As a test, he was ordered to kill someone. Hook decided to kill Boston Brand after seeing him on a circus poster. He was entirely at random.
However, when the leader of the LOA, called the Sensi, discovered Hook's "failure" he punished Hook by killing him. Boston's mission then shifted from finding Hook to ending the League of Assassins.
Unfortunately, after this DC opted to end the Deadman series in Strange Adventures due to low sales. Strange Adventures became a reprint book, reprinting Adam Strange and other stories. The two part story begun in Strange Adventures was concluded in Brave and the Bold, incorporating Batman into it. AFter that, Deadman became a frequent guest star in various DC Comics.
There were a couple of attempts to revive the character in his own book, all of which have ended in failure.
