History SelfDemonstrating / Deadman

* DeathbyOriginStory: Me, natch. Otherwise I wouldn't be "Deadman".

* ChristmasEpisode: One Christmas I got [[https://observationdeck.kinja.com/what-is-supergirls-greatest-moment-1792247750 real depressed]] over being TheGreatestStoryNeverTold for the most part. Then some [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} blonde woman]] who apparently [[{{Unperson}} was wiped from existence]] assured me that it doesn't even matter if people know you're helping if you make a difference.

* ChristmasEpisode: One Christmas I got real depressed over being TheGreatestStoryNeverTold for the most part. Then some [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} blonde woman]] who apparently [[{{Unperson}} was wiped from existence]] assured me that it doesn't even matter if people know you're helping if you make a difference.

* ChristmasEpisode: One Christmas I got real depressed over being TheGreatestStoryNeverTold for the most part. Then some [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} blonde woman]] who apparently [[{{Unperson}} was wiped from existance]] assured me that it doesn't even matter if people know you're helping if you make a difference.

* BecomingTheMask: LiteralExample. I don't naturally look like a ghost, it's my circus outfit that I died in. I didn't learn for a long time that I could actually take the mask off.

I first appeared in ''Strange Adventures'' #205 (October, 1967). Initially I was written by Arnold Drake (Ya heard of him? He used to pal around with the Comicbook/DoomPatrol) and drawn by Carmine Infantino, although they got replaced by Jack Miller and Neal Adams - him you've definitely heard of, he's a friend of Comicbook/{{Batman}}'s - after my first appearance, and I got to be depicted by an artist who would redefine the medium's visual style as radically as I tried to with the trapeze act.

* TheCameo: I may not be ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'' famous, but enough writers are fans of mine enough to throw me in a story even if they don't give me anything to do.

->''Famous last words. Mine were "[[CrossesTheLineTwice You know, from up here it almost looks like that guy with a hook is holding a rifle...]]"''

Oh well, at least I also got to star on TV in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' and co-star in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. A super-deformed version of me starred in a couple of shorts made by the guy who made ''{{Chowder}}'', where for some reason I have a raven for a pet. It's kinda adorable actually.

* KilledOffForReal: [[InjusticeGodsAmongUs In one universe.]]
* LegacyCharacter: In [[InjusticeGodsAmongUs the world where Superman goes crazy,]] [[spoiler: I get bumped off and choose Nightwing as my replacement.]]

* RebelliousSpirit: If I don't agree with Rama, I won't follow her orders. Sometimes it works out well. [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot Sometimes it doesn't.]]

So I came back from my meeting with Rama, and found a bunch of smugglers who were using the circus as a front for smuggling drugs (the first [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code]]-approved story to have narcotics mentioned, years before StanLee butted heads with the CCA with his ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story). Being dead, that stuff technically wasn't my business anymore, but it seems my conscience was still alive as ever and I had to step in as I traded in my acrobat calling for the SuperHero one. So, while I was looking around for my killer, I kept getting sidetracked by the other baddies I had to stop as well. Eventually I happened upon the man who had killed me. However it turned out he had only killed me as part of an initiation ritual into [[ComicBook/RasAlGhul Ra's al Ghul]]'s League of Assassins who then killed him to keep him quiet, following me so far? But it then turned out that this group all had a hook for a hand and that the person I thought killed me had his hook on his left hand rather than the right.

* TheWorfEffect: There's always some reason I can't just possess the BigBad. Rama Kushna forbid my job is easy once in a while.

* AllPowerfulBystander: Part of a group with the Phantom Stranger and the Spectre in CrisisOnInfiniteEarths.

However then something people call the ComicBook/BlackestNight appeared and suddenly everyone was coming back to life, sorta. This included my own body. Turns out everyone had been possessed by black rings and were made to serve some master of death. At the end of it a bunch of [[GreenLantern rainbow coloured ringslingers]] managed to defeat this guy, but not before some white rings went and resurrected a [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} bunch]] of [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter other]] heroes properly. Somehow this included me. They were calling it the BrightestDay, a whole new start. Me, I had the last white ring on my finger, and no idea what I was supposed to do apart from [[DropTheHammer destroy my own grave]]. Turned out, the ring had its own ideas, and ended up dragging me around the universe, setting things up so it could take down this master of death's final attack. In the little time I ''wasn't'' doing that, I [[Funny/BrightestDay ate some cheeseburgers]]. Hell, I even got myself a girlfriend. But once entity-thing was done with that - wham, dead again, and [[StatusQuoIsGod still no rest]] for yours truly.

* BackFromTheDead: Thanks to that Entity during BrightestDay, but afterwards I was dead again.

However then something people call the BlackestNight appeared and suddenly everyone was coming back to life, sorta. This included my own body. Turns out everyone had been possessed by black rings and were made to serve some master of death. At the end of it a bunch of [[GreenLantern rainbow coloured ringslingers]] managed to defeat this guy, but not before some white rings went and resurrected a [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} bunch]] of [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter other]] heroes properly. Somehow this included me. They were calling it the BrightestDay, a whole new start. Me, I had the last white ring on my finger, and no idea what I was supposed to do apart from [[DropTheHammer destroy my own grave]]. Turned out, the ring had its own ideas, and ended up dragging me around the universe, setting things up so it could take down this master of death's final attack. In the little time I ''wasn't'' doing that, I [[Funny/BrightestDay ate some cheeseburgers]]. Hell, I even got myself a girlfriend. But once entity-thing was done with that - wham, dead again, and [[StatusQuoIsGod still no rest]] for yours truly.

I first appeared in ''Strange Adventures'' #205 (October, 1967). Initially I was written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Carmine Infantino, although they got replaced by Jack Miller and Creator/NealAdams after my first appearance, and I got to be depicted by an artist who would redefine the medium's visual style as radically as I tried to with the trapeze act.

However then something people call the BlackestNight appeared and suddenly everyone was coming back to life, sorta. This included my own body. Turns out everyone had been possessed by black rings and were made to serve some master of death. At the end of it a bunch of [[GreenLantern rainbow coloured ringslingers]] managed to defeat this guy, but not before some white rings went and resurrected a [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} bunch]] of [[MartianManhunter other]] heroes properly. Somehow this included me. They were calling it the BrightestDay, a whole new start. Me, I had the last white ring on my finger, and no idea what I was supposed to do apart from [[DropTheHammer destroy my own grave]]. Turned out, the ring had its own ideas, and ended up dragging me around the universe, setting things up so it could take down this master of death's final attack. In the little time I ''wasn't'' doing that, I [[Funny/BrightestDay ate some cheeseburgers]]. Hell, I even got myself a girlfriend. But once entity-thing was done with that - wham, dead again, and [[StatusQuoIsGod still no rest]] for yours truly.

* DependingOnTheArtist: Most versions of me look like I did in costume when I was alive, but some guys like to show me looking more like a rotting corpse, or even [[KingdomCome a skeleton.]]

* DeathbyOriginStory: Me, natch.

* {{Psychopomp}}: Sometimes.

Oh well, at least I also got to star on TV in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' and co-star in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. A super-deformed version of me starred in a couple of shorts made by the guy who made ''{{Chowder}}'', where for some reason I have a raven for a pet.

* MrExposition: In ''Comic/KingdomCome'', I basically get Norm [=McCay=] up to speed on what's going on from a metaphysical sense. I even give him some advice about his dour guide The Spectre.

* [[Psychopomp]]: Sometimes.