Strange Adventures #215
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStrange Adventures #215 is the pivotal payoff issue of Neal Adams's run on Deadman: it resolves the murder mystery that launched the character while simultaneously planting the seeds of one of DC's most durable villain organizations. The issue introduces the Sensei — a martial-arts criminal mastermind who would later be woven into the entire League of Assassins mythology, retconned across decades of Batman continuity, and eventually revealed to be Ra's al Ghul's own father. Crucially, it also gives readers their first encounter with the Society of Assassins, the precursor body that Detective Comics #405 (1970) would formalize as the League of Assassins, tying this single Deadman chapter directly to one of the most consequential institutions in the DC Universe. The discovery that Boston Brand's murder was nothing more than an assassin's graduation exercise — and that the Sensei kills the Hook himself when that exercise is deemed a failure — reframes the entire Deadman premise as something far darker and more philosophically troubling than a simple revenge quest.
In "A New Lease on Death," Deadman tracks down the Hook, only to discover his vengeance is just the beginning. After the confrontation ends in the killer’s demise, Deadman journeys to Nanda Parbat, seeking an audience with the mysterious Rama Kushna to plead for the right to stay on Earth and keep fighting evil.
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By the time issue #215 went to press, Neal Adams had taken sole creative command of the Deadman feature, writing and drawing the stories himself — editor Dick Giordano later confirmed that Adams 'either wrote or re-wrote nearly all the scripts as well as drawing them.' Adams had assumed art duties on the strip from Strange Adventures #206 onward, succeeding co-creator Carmine Infantino, and took over scripting with #212; issue #215 therefore represents the full flowering of his singular authorship. Giordano, who had joined DC in April 1968 after Carmine Infantino's push to bring artist-editors into the company, edited the book and also became Adams's regular inker — a partnership that would go on to define the look of DC's early 1970s Batman revival. Letterer Gaspar Saladino rounded out the production team, and the issue carried a standard Silver Age 12-cent cover price across its 36 full-color pages.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Sensei, the martial-arts criminal mastermind created by Neal Adams, who would become a recurring adversary of both Deadman and Batman across decades of DC continuity.
- First appearance of the Society of Assassins, the predecessor organization that was later renamed and formalized as the League of Assassins in Detective Comics #405 (November 1970).
- First full appearance of the Hook (Roy Martin), the assassin who murdered Boston Brand and thereby created Deadman — his role and fate are resolved in this very issue when the Sensei kills him for being deemed a failure.
- The issue reveals the stunning story recontextualization that Boston Brand's murder was merely an initiation exercise to certify the Hook's 'graduation' into the Society of Assassins, not a targeted assassination.
- Deadman discovers for the first time that he cannot possess the Sensei's body — a plot detail that establishes the villain's uncanny supernatural resistance and deepens the mystery around him.
- Written, penciled, inked, and covered entirely by Neal Adams, under the editorship of Dick Giordano; lettered by Gaspar Saladino.
- The issue carried a back-up reprint story titled 'The Incredible Mutated Man!' alongside the lead Deadman feature, a common Silver Age format practice.
- The Sensei was later retconned in Batman #671 (2008) to be Ra's al Ghul's father, making this issue an indirect origin point for one of the most significant family relationships in the Batman mythos.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Eclipso #11 (1970), Eclipso #20 (1972), Serietidningen #2/1985 (1985), Deadman #6 (1985), The Deadman Collection #[nn] (2002), Deadman #2 (2012), Deadman Omnibus #[nn] (2021)
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