In the world of comic books there are a lot of well known superheroes and then there are the lesser known heroes, we all have our favorite superheroes and mines is definitely this guy. Reading Kingdom Come written by Mark Waid and drawn by Alex Ross is where I first discovered the character of Deadman, his design was little different than his modern look and honestly speaking in a visual sense I didn’t care for the character but his personality was right up my ally.
One thing I noticed about him is that he had a very silly tone about him; he was a ghost with a sense of humor and didn’t seem to mind being dead. Boston was only in the book briefly but I wanted to know more and DC didn’t really have any trades on the character or anything, so I did a wiki on him, but that was not nearly enough. Lucky for me the character was appearing more and more in comics and cartoons, I also went out and bought the DC Universe handbook that basically told details on each character in the DC universe and I read the section on Deadman.
What struck me the most was his back story, turns out like me Boston was a thriller seeker; he was an Olympic level athlete well-trained in acrobatics. Boston was a bit of an hot head, he didn’t care about anything but himself and being number one in the business of the circus, but learning to care for others was not a lesson he would learn in life but in death. When he least expects it he is shot and killed by an unknown aslant who he would eventually find the identity of and off to being a ghost he went, from there on Boston really did become a different person by living through other people.
One of Boston’s powers as a ghost allows him to posses any sentient being and once he’s done the person retains no memory of the possession, but what’s interesting is that Boston remembers everything about the people he takes possession of, in fact when he first takes control of the person he instantly sees the individuals life history prior to his possession of them. To me that is a very intriguing dynamic, you have a ghost that is stuck between the living world and what lies beyond, and it’s both a gift in a curse.
The gift being that for moments Deadman can be who he wants to be, the curse being that he will never truly live again, that is assuming DC doesn’t do anything drastic down the line that will alter him as a character. While reading the DC handbook on Deadman I found that he likes to take control of Batman, he likes Batman’s body because it’s a very trained and athletic body much like his own when he was among the living. Thinking about it, it has to be cool to be this guy; I mean he doesn’t have to pay bills, no need to worry about doing much of anything that the living has do in a daily basis.
But he is the Dearly Departed Detective; usually he’s seen hanging around The Spectre, Phantom Stranger or guys like that. During the Blackest Night and Brightest Day storyline he had a great character arch, he was given the white lantern ring and for a moment he was able to actually live again, but that was short lived it taught him an important lesson about life and how you have to live it to the fullest.
Boston was able to make up for what he missed out on during his “lively hood” he visited his sick relative and helped him feel needed and cared for and also found a little love, he learning the most important lesson about himself, which is that he has another superpower making people feel alive no matter how much they feel dead inside. Well I could go on and on about this character he’s incredibility festinating to me, but I will bid you all a farewell that was the character of Deadman /Boston Brand and why I like him and as he would say “When you crossover to the other side look me up.” If you want to know more about this character check out his wiki page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadman
