10 Comic Book Characters Who Are Better Off Dead

Boston Brand was a gifted and popular trapeze artist who wore the shocking ghastly corpse-like make-up of the Deadman and a bright red costume. In the middle of his act, Boston was murdered by a mysterious assailant known only as The Hook, due to the hook in place of his right hand. Brand died, and on his way to the afterlife he was stopped by the Hindu Goddess Rama Kushna and offered the chance to find his killer and balance the scales of justice.

Now as a true Deadman, Boston is given the ability to possess the bodies of the living and move and communicate through them. When not in possession of a body, only beings with great mystical power can see and hear Deadman. In The Brave and The Bold #79, Brand worked with Batman to find the man that killed him and discovered it was an initiation to get into a society of contract killers.

It was through Batman that Deadman also discovered the existence of Nanda Parbat, a mystical city that changed the vilest and most evil men on the planet into good and sane people within its walls. It also made Boston corporeal and able to be touched. Brand has worked with many of the planet’s mystic heroes, including joining a contingency that went to restart the fires of Hell.