Name: Deadman
Universe: Earth-1
Alter Ego: Boston Brand
Occupation: Former Circus Aerialist, now Wandering Spirit
Marital Status: Single
Group Affiliation: None
Base of Operations: Mobile
Known Relatives: Cleveland Brand (twin brother), Lita Brand (niece)
Height: 6 ft.
Weight: 201 lbs.
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
First Appearance: Strange Adventures #205

History:
Trapeze artist extraordinaire and part-owner of the small Hills Bros. Circus, Boston Brand performed nightly as Deadman, a garishly garbed and ghastly disguised figure who played on his audience's most morbid instincts. One evening, Brand was murdered by a rifleman who had a steel hook for a right hand.

Yet, despite the death of his body, Brand's spirit lived on, a gift from the Eastern deity Rama Kushna for the many kindnesses Brand had performed during his life. Brand's spirit would continue to live, Rama Kushna told him, until Brand found the man who had murdered him and brought the killer to justice.

Thus began one of the most bizarre manhunts in history, a quest that led Brand's spirit around the world and ultimately to the hidden lair of the League of Assassins, where Brand learned he had been slain as part of an initiation test for a man who wanted to join the League. Brand's slayer was then slain in turn by the dreaded leader of the League, the Sensei.

Denied personal vengeance by the Sensei's act, Brand's spirit confronted Rama Kushna and struck a new bargain: he would be allowed to remain on Earth as a balancing agent between the forces of good and evil until such time as he felt a balance had finally been struck and his soul was satisfied. That time has not yet come and the spirit of Boston Brand continues to walk the Earth, a Deadman dedicated to the cause of justice.

Powers:
In life, Boston Brand was an Olympic-level athlete and, as a former boxer, a superb hand-to-hand combatant. Now, as Deadman, a disembodied spirit, Brand has been granted by Rama Kushna the power to temporarily inhabit living bodies, taking complete control of that body's actions while the body's consciousness is put to sleep, unaware of its actions while under Deadman's possession.

Though he is invisible and intangible as Deadman, Brand's spirit can still be seen and heard by those of an equally supernatural nature, such as the Spectre or the Phantom Stranger.