A lot happens in the first four issues of DC’s Manhunter. Prosecutor Kate Spencer fails to convict the murderous Copperhead, then launches her vigilante career by tracking and killing him using super-villain gadgetry stolen from an evidence locker. She leaves that same gadgetry lying around to be found by her young son, who winds up in the hospital. Clearly at fault for her son’s condition, she still finds time to spar bitterly with her ex-husband. After an unsuccessful battle with the Shadow Thief, Kate blackmails a protected witness into providing tech support for her costumed activities.
And she’s the protagonist.
This title really shouldn’t work for me, given my usual tastes in super-hero comics. It’s got an unsympathetic central figure with a deeply suspect moral framework. The material is dark and violent. But writer Marc Andreyko has posed a number of intriguing questions about his central character, and he’s created a fictional corner of the DC Universe that’s well worth exploring.
It helps that Andreyko is starting from scratch with the character. He’s developing his own sandbox while making it work in the larger DC context. Even Kate is aware that she’s breaking conventional cape rules, demonstrated in a memorable dream sequence. She knows she’s crossing the line, so why does she?
Readers don’t know the answer to that yet. The title so far has been more concerned with establishing Kate’s circumstances than exploring what drives her. But the ambiguity is tantalizing rather than frustrating. Her actions are so brutal and her choices are so contradictory – she’s an officer of the courts and a successful one at that – that the reader can’t help but wonder how all this started. Part of the fun of the title is waiting for those answers.
Kate is a novice in a very violent game, and her inexperience shows. It’s a smart choice and more believable than if she was a ruthlessly efficient killing machine right out of the gate. And while it doesn’t exactly soften her, her fledgling status does humanize her a bit. It also drives her to consider her tactics, which can be fascinating to watch. The addition of the blackmailed ex-con to the cast is particularly promising. Dylan Battles is a tech-savvy scumbag who avoided jail by ratting out his super-villain bosses. Now he has a new employer who’s a different flavor of ruthless, making for an interesting dynamic.
Art by Jesús Saiz complements Andreyko’s efforts nicely. His pencils have a shadowy realism that suits the story of an apparently normal woman stepping into some very dark places. He also handles the super-heroic material well, with memorable fight sequences and nice renderings of figures like Copperhead and Shadow Thief. Comedy is in his repertoire as well; the pages showing Dylan’s ignominious career as a henchman are hilarious.
For all these strengths, the book still doesn’t seem to be finding an audience, which is too bad. The stories seem to be brushing up against the mainstream DC Universe, which is a smart move. (The Justice League is set to guest-star in the fifth issue, and there are references to events in Identity Crisis. Those references are a lot easier to swallow in a title like this than in more conventional super-hero fare.) I do wish DC had thought to slate a crossover with Birds of Prey, which is exploring similar subject matter in its current story arc. It might have given Manhunter the boost it needs.
Still, if you’re looking for an intriguing exploration of vigilantism in context of and contrast to a larger super-hero community, you should really give Manhunter a try. It’s an engrossing read with loads of potential.