Things were looking grim at DC Comics in 1967 — at least in terms of cover features.
This house ad pairs the Spectre and Deadman, the omnipotent ghost and the trapped ghost.
Both DC superheroes had the same brutally simple origin: they were murdered.
“Deadman must have one of the most compelling origin stories in superhero comics,” remarked Woodrow Phoenix concerning Strange Adventures 205 (Oct. 1967). “Boston Brand, a hard-drinking, tough-talking guy with one or two friends and quite a few enemies, is the star acrobat in a small circus.
“(A)t the peak of his triple somersault he is shot by an assassin with a rifle, hiding in the crowd beneath! He crashes to the ground but somehow, he doesn’t die. Or more accurately his body dies, but his consciousness doesn’t. The skull-like white mask and blood-red costume he wore in his act are now his permanent identity.”
Circus tights had been associated with superhero comics since the debut of Superman, noted comics historian Don Markstein.
“(A) supernatural entity called Rama Kushna took interest in his plight, and kept his spirit alive so he could find and punish his killer,” Markstein observed. “(H)e gained the ability to act in the material world by ‘possessing’ human bodies (whose owners were left with no memories of the possession after he released them).”
“The story… was written by Arnold Drake (Stanley & His Monster, Doom Patrol) and drawn by Carmine Infantino (The Flash, Elongated Man),” Markstein said.
“Infantino provided plots for writer Jack Miller to script, and Neal Adams began his first run on a superhero title, turning in some beautifully rendered, photo-crisp and inventively laid-out work that established him as a major talent for the next decade,” Phoenix noted.
Of course, the Spectre, too, was trapped in his way — burdened with a cosmic mission, able to remember human warmth, but unable to feel it ever again. He could seemingly accomplish anything in the universe except escaping his own situation.
Ellis Rose wrote:
ReplyDeleteDan Hagen, you capture the two different spiritual destinies of these two characters perfectly! Thank you!
I do not suscribe to the popular premise that The Spectre is all-powerful and tantamount to God himself. And you have accurately described why. He is still restricted by his mortal origin as Corrigan and lacks the omniscience to be anything more than that.
You may not have intended this post to provide me with the explanation that always evaded me in discussions. But, that is what you have done. And I thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteBob Doncaster wrote:
Deadman became one of my favorite DC characters with that classic run in Strange Adventures. When the series ended I'd pick up any book he guest starred in.
Salvatore Marlow wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe Deadman origin is compelling, but it is far from new to comics. An acrobat is killed, he is avenged. The story is as old as Robin the boy Wonder. Yes granted, Deadman’s story becomes all supernatural with his abilities to possess some member of a crime story, but I recall a few Golden Ager who could do this. I’m not saying Deadman was unoriginal, far from it, the gathering of talent that produced it created something new and original.
Bob Hughes wrote:
ReplyDeleteAt the time, Deadman (Strange Adventures) was about the only comic I was reading.
Robert S. Childers wrote:
ReplyDeleteDeadman is definitely one of the more interesting concepts for a character, but in practice he seems to be a character that's become more popular with comics creators than with the fans at large (at least to the extent that those fans are willing to buy his adventures). I admit that for a long time I thought that the white "corpse face" was a function of his being dead rather than part of his acrobat costume (originally make-up, though in Alan Brennert's "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" he pulled it off like a rubber mask). Kelly Jones did a run on Deadman in Action Comics Weekly in the late 80's, and in retrospect, while visually interesting I think it was inappropriate to the character;, not necessarily in terms of Jones's style as in his staging; it's hard to imagine a guy like Boston Brand doing quite as much baroque posing as Jones had him engage in.
In some ways, being a completely invisible character who can never appear as himself works against the superhero concept, the satisfactions of which often depend on showy display. "Stand back, I'll handle this!"
ReplyDeleteDick Mikes wrote:
ReplyDeleteThere had been requests for a team up between the two characters, given their similar origins and being drawn by Adams. The short sighted editorial response was that it wouldn’t work because the approaches for the two characters were significantly different. That was a serious mistake.
Robert S. Childers wrote:
ReplyDeleteDan Hagen: Also, he can't interact with anyone except Rama Kushna, and she was always pretty one note in telling him to accept his condition. I expect it galled Deadman if he ever saw Jericho from the New Teen Titans, who had essentially the same powers as Deadman but was alive.
Charles W. Fouquette wrote:
ReplyDeleteI was a big fan of Deadman from his first appearance. Neal Adams took over the art and history was made. His artwork was like nothing I had ever seen before. So cinematic and photo realistic, awesome!. Sometimes kismet puts you in the right place at the right time. I was there for Deadman.