DEAD CERT
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extratemporal (Earth-5555 circa 8162 AD) human/horse
Occupation: Crimeboss
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Short Fuse;
formerly Death's Head (Freelance Peacekeeping Agent)
Enemies: Death's Head (FPA), Plaguedog, Undertaker
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Racetracks, outskirts of Los Angeles Resettlement, Earth-5555 circa 8162 AD
First Appearance: (In shadows) Death's Head I#4 (March, 1989); (fully seen) Death's Head I#6 (May, 1989)
Powers/Abilities: No known superhuman powers, but his equine physique more than likely provided him with above baseline strength and speed. Skilled in business dealings, he eventually rose to become one of the biggest crime bosses of the Los Angeles Resettlement, rivaled only by the Undertaker.
History:
(Death's Head I#4 - BTS) - In 8162, the horse-man Dead Cert was one the biggest crime bosses of the Los Angeles Resettlement, constantly fighting the Undertaker for dominance. Proud of his equine origins he located his base of operations on the local horse race tracks.
(Death's Head I#4) - Dead Cert hired Death's Head to eliminate his rival's pet Plaguedog. When Death's Head's sidekick Spratt put down Plaguedog and Death's Head collected the bounty, the Undertaker was so incensed, he hired the mercenary Big Shot to kill Death's Head.
(Death's Head I#6) - Dead Cert continued his campaign against the Undertaker, planning to discredit him in the underworld. After learning Undertaker had hired Big Shot to kill Death's Head, he decided to beat his rival to the punch and contracted the assassin Short Fuse to take out Death's Head.
(Death's Head I#7) - Short Fuse returned to Dead Cert after his first assassination attempt failed. Dead Cert didn't seem too upset, assuring Short Fuse it would be all right, as long as he tried again before Big Shot managed to kill the mechanoid bounty hunter.
Comments: Created by Simon Furman, Lee Sullivan, Richard Starkings.
The rivalry between Dead Cert and Undertaker was never truly resolved. Death's Head disappeared from the Los Angeles Resettlement in Death's Head I#7 for some time-travel issues before being absorbed into the Minion. Leaving Dead Cert and the Undertaker to believe he was truly dead.
The Los Angeles Resettlement was made up of mostly, lets say 80% of humans, around 15% was humanoid aliens (prostitutes and mostly people in bars) and around 5% of aliens without humanoid build. Since this was the future Earth where people had the possibility to buy a spacecraft if they had the money it could definitely be put under consideration that Dead Cert was a humanoid alien of some kind. He could also be a mutant or someone transformed into a horse by other means its well possible.
Or a mutated horse with human intellect......a late descendant of the High Evolutionary's New Men maybe?
--Markus Raymond
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Dead Cert has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Death's Head I#7, p8, pan2 (main image)
Death's Head I#6, p22, pan5 (face)
Appearances:
Death's Head I#4 (March, 1989) - Simon Furman(writer), Bryan Hitch(pencils), Dave Hine(inks), Richard Starkings(editor)
Death's Head I#6 (May, 1989) - Simon Furman(writer), Liam Sharp(pencils), Paul Marshall(inks), Richard Starkings(editor)
Death's Head I#7 (June, 1989) - Simon Furman(writer), Bryan Hitch(pencils), Jeff Anderson(inks), Steve White(editor)
Last updated: 08/25/13
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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