HEADLESS HORSEMAN

Real Name: Abraham Van Brunt

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Ideaverse) human, (late 18th century)

Occupation: Town rowdy

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Daredevil, Katrina Van Tassel

Enemies: Deadpool (Wade Wilson of Earth-12101), Ichabod Crane

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Brom Bones, Ghost Rider, Green Goblin

Base of Operations: Sleepy Hollow, New York, Ideaverse

First Appearance: (historical) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820);
   (Marvel, Ideaverse version) Deadpool: Killustrated#2 (April 2013)

Powers/Abilities: Brom Bones was a burly man with strength well above average, and some skill at brawling and other forms of fighting. His greatest skill however lay in his exceptional horsemanship, and he was noted as being extremely dexterous on horseback.

Height: 6' (see comments)
Weight: 180 lbs. (by estimation - see comments)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown (see comments) 

  

History:
(Deadpool: Killustrated#2 (fb) - BTS) - In the Ideaverse, a realm where characters from tales of fiction lived out their stories, Brom Bones of Sleepy Hollow disguised himself as the spectral Headless Horseman intending to ambush and terrify schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, Brom's love rival for the attentions of heiress Katrina Van Tassel. Donning a cape with a harness inside so that it his head would be hidden within, and carrying a pumpkin carved with a grinning face and lit from within by burning candles, he mounted a steed whose hooves had been covered in phosphorescence so they appeared on fire and rode towards the stretch of rode he expected to find Crane on. 

(Deadpool: Killustrated#2) - Unfortunately for Brom, instead of Crane he instead tried to ride down Deadpool of Reality-12101, an insane assassin then traversing the Ideaverse intent on eliminating all the archetypal characters from literary classics who he believed had inspired the superheroes and supervillains he more usually faced, in the belief that excising these originals from existence would simultaneously eradicate all their literary descendants. As Bram rode at Deadpool, forcing the interloper to leap to one side, he appeared to the assassin as Ghost Rider, another rider with a fiery head and fiery steed. As he turned to make another pass at his target, yet to realize it wasn't Crane, his appearance reset to being that of the Headless Horseman, whom Deadpool immediately recognized as being from one of his favorite campfire stories. Laughing maniacally, Brom threw his pumpkin into Deadpool's face, knocking the mercenary down momentarily. Still trying to appear terrifying, Brom reared his horse up and continued to laugh, causing Deadpool to suddenly view the Horseman as the Green Goblin, another laughing maniac who threw pumpkins at his foes. Before Brom's horse could drop back to all fours Deadpool whipped out his katana and sliced its underbelly open. As the horse fell backwards, fatally wounded, Brom was thrown off, and saw to his horror that Deadpool was advancing menacingly with his blade at the ready. Brom pleaded for mercy as Deadpool ripped open the cloak to reveal the rowdy hidden beneath the disguise, hastily introducing himself, explaining he had mistaken the assassin for someone else and insisting he had only been "joshing." Brom finished by stating that he hadn't expected to run into a real monster, to which Deadpool menacingly "reassured" him that he wasn't a monster but a genie, then granted Brom's "wish" to be the Headless Horseman by decapitating the unfortunate man, then placing burning candles in the slain Brom's mouth and eye sockets.

 

Comments: Created by Washington Irving;
   adapted by Cullen Bunn, Matteo Lolli and Sean Parsons.

   The physical description of Brom in the original story states that he is burly, of "Herculean frame," "broad-shouldered and double-jointed," with "short curly black hair, and a bluff but not unpleasant countenance." In Deadpool: Killustrated we only ever see him either seated on horseback or lying on the ground, so even though he appears alongside Deadpool, his height we know, we lack a decent reference image to figure out Brom's exact height. As such, his height above is largely a guess based purely on him being considered much larger than the average man of his era. It's noteworthy that the one physical descriptor we get told very explicitly, that he has black hair, isn't followed through in the comic, where his hair is brown.

 

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Headless Horseman has no known connections to:

Daredevil

  

Daredevil was Brom Bones' favorite horse, and presumably the one that was playing the role of the Headless Horseman's steed in his ploy to terrorize Ichabod Crane. Unfortunately for the equine, Deadpool delivered it a lethal wound with his katana, slicing it open along its entire underside so that its intestines spilled out.

 

Comments: In the original short story it's not confirmed Daredevil played the part of the Horseman's steed, but it seems likely as he was named as Brom's favorite horse. The name isn't mentioned in Deadpool: Killustrated, but since it's meant to be a realm where all the characters come from the fictional tales we know, the horse we see is presumably the same one in the original Washington Irving tale.

 

--Deadpool: Killustrated#2

 

images: (without ads)
Deadpool: Killustrated#2, p13, pan1 (main image)
Deadpool: Killustrated#2, p15, pan2 (Bram Bones headshot)
Deadpool: Killustrated#2, p15, pan5 (Bram Bones, dead)
Deadpool: Killustrated#2, p13, pan2 (Daredevil)
Deadpool: Killustrated#2. p14, pan3 (Daredevil is fatally wounded)

Appearances:
Deadpool: Killustrated#2 (April 2013) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Matteo Lolli (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Jordan D. White (editor)

First Posted: 10/31/2022
Last updated: 10/31/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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