Maybe you know of Deadman.
He’s the famous high-flying trapeze aerialist, Boston Brand, shot dead but brought back to the earthly realm as a ghost by the powerful Hindu deity, Rama Kushna, to solve his own murder and help balance the scales of good and evil in the universe.
It’s quite the charge.
But so were his electric appearances in the pages of the Strange Adventures comic book series in the late 1960s. Created by legendary writer Arnold Drake and artist Carmine Infantino, Deadman was never a tier-one superhero. Instead, the heroic ghost became a sort of cult classic character, able to linger in the pop culture zeitgeist over the ensuing decades and find himself in numerous published titles to the glee of fans.
Deadman had his own well-received four-issue miniseries in 1986 along with a starring role in the Action Comics Weeklyanthology series later that decade. In the early 1990s, he was redesigned as a spectral skeleton in a number of gothic-inspired horror comic book tales.
In this millennium, he’s been a regular member of the popular Justice League Dark group of heroes, showing the character’s versatility in story craft. Restless in the afterlife, Deadman is always restless on the page. He’s as much at home in the mystery and horror genres as he is in the straight-up superhero stories.
And he’s always up for some reinvention. Which brings us to today’s release of The Deadman #1.
The Deadman #1
Written by: W. Maxwell Prince
Illustrated by: Martin Morazzo
Published by: DC Comics
Written and illustrated by the fan and critical favourite team of W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo, who have given us the horror-flavoured anthology series Ice Cream Man, The Deadman is a six-issue miniseries that gives readers a fresh, DC Comics Next Level take on the adventuring apparition.
Here, Deadman is the custodian of all souls, upholding the Laws of Spiritual Math (a sort of calculation that allows Deadman to understand the history, yearning, joy and pain of any human entity he passes through) and protecting humanity. Starting his strange adventure at the Outer Gotham Rural Hospital and armed with the Guidebook to Soul Custodianship (a sort of encyclopedia of experiences that any dead/undead manifestation would want in order to understand the afterlife), Deadman is thrust into a new mystery full of paranormal activity and more than just a dollop of horror. Departing souls are trapped in dangerous loops and only the undead hero can uncover the reason for the disruption and bring a return to peace and balance before the entire world is engulfed in chaos.
The comic book is a terror-tinged fresh take on the beloved character, but it wisely doesn’t stray far from the hero’s origins and the things that make him such a long-lasting and enticing read.
Inhabit whatever form you need and haunt your local comic book shop today, picking up The Deadman #1 in the process.
Being dead will never have felt more alive!
You can catch a sneak peak of the first issue of The Deadman in the comic book’s riveting trailer found directly below.
