An Original And Good Take On The 'Violent Vigilante Superhero' Style Of Book

books:


	• Manhunter Vol. 1: Street Justice (DC Comics) Marc Andreyko DC Comics, 2005 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Kate is great!

Forget Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The real shining star at DC Comics is Manhunter, the coolest heroine since...well, EVER. What I love most about Kate is that she isn't the squeaky clean, self righteous, supermodel in spandex that we see so often in comic books. She makes mistakes that can get her killed. She can be quite ethically challenged. And while she's just as likely as Batman to follow a nasty villain into the sewers, she'd rather shoot him in the face than lock him up in Arkham Asylum.

Normally I don't go for DC Comics, because the characters usually feel so cardboardy. After reading the first few issues, you'll be amazed that DC didn't release this under the Vertigo imprint because it is much edgier than any other superhero book they have on the shelf. Marc Andreyko not only does a great job with Kate, but he's peppered the book with an excellent supporting cast, particularly Dylan Battles, the former henchman-for-hire who manages her weapons and technology. I love a book that puts characters ahead of mindless super-battles!

I've only been following this series for a few months, and I can't wait until the third trade paperback comes out this summer so I can catch up on the issues I haven't read yet.

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Not your typical superheroine

Being a reader of comics for over 30 years, I've become jaded when I hear of a new book with a female lead. Years of bad stories and idiotic t&a art made me question whether or not to even bother with this. This book breaks the mold. Marc Andreyko writes a mature, human, and smart lead in Kate Spencer. Exceptional art by Javier Pina only adds to the goodness that is this collection. Well worth the money.

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An Original And Good Take On The 'Violent Vigilante Superhero' Style Of Book

Kate Spencer is a California prosecutor who, after losing another case against a killer metahuman, takes it upon herself to beginning meting out her own brand of lethal street justice. Arming and outfitting herself with various paraphenelia from the evidence store rooms (obtained from various villains) she takes on the identity of Manhunter (a popular moniker for DC characters, as someone in the book points out) and begins her vigilante career. That's "Manhunter" on the surface, sounding like an attempt to give the DC Universe its own Punisher-type character, or even like an attempt to amp up the aggressiveness-level of DC's own Green Arrow from his 80s/early 90s modus operandi. But rather than try to just copy the success of Punisher or Green Arrow, or other violent, on-the-edge, vigilante characters, there's some different factors at play here to give the "Manhunter" title its own identity.

There's considerable doubt about Kate's motivations. A hostile, cynical person to begin with, it's quite effective the way that, after her first kill, she's not only surprised by her total lack of remorse and by the strange satisfaction she feels, but the way she goes about things next. We see her going through the justice department (not to be confused with the Justice League) files looking for potential next targets, in an almost leisurely browse. One is left with the feeling that it's possible that she may not be entirely driven by a need for revenge and defending the innocent, but may be starting already to edge toward the path of using revenge and justice as her excuse, with killing itself being the real motivation.

Equally plausible is another scenario: Kate is socially dysfunctional, has a tenuous-at-best rellationship with her young son, an openly warring one with her ex-husband and is not the most personable or friendly towards much of anyone. There's a possibility that her whole career as a prosecutor has been an attempt to - what's the best way to phrase this? - to be a part of a society that she wants to be more integrated with, and to contribute, partly as a substitute for what she feels are lackings in her outward life. In this scenario, we have an outwardly hostile, mean-hearted character who's very different on the inside. And now that she has the mask and the identity, she's going much further than she ever has before. In this scenario, she's driven by noble motivations, but doesn't seem to realize how she's already dangerously close to losing control. She even seems to be developing a strange fixation on her first kill.

Those are two very different takes, but the opening issues of the "Manhunter" series are raising a lot of questions. There's the usual, subjective question of 'are her methods justified?' because it's clear from Issue 1 that Kate's not just setting out to take these characters down and sometimes being left with no choice but to kill - killing is the objective, and apparantly not just against certain extreme cases but as a general modus operandi in her new crimefighting career. We're left wondering just how far she's going to go in this, we're left wondering about her true motivation, we're left wondering if the path she's taken is going to take her a Lot further than she actually wants to go, we're left wondering a lot. And that's good. There are a lot of different ways they can go with this. Another aspect of the whole 'split possibilities' thing is that the new Manhunter finds herself - to her own surprise - dreaming about being accepted into the DCU's hero community, and at the same time increasingly afraid that they're going to be hunting her down because of her very bloody methods.

Kate Spencer isn't as immediately likable as DCU heroines as Zatanna or Wonder Woman, but she is interesting, and starts growing on one before too long. The thing is, whether she emerges as a champion or journeys all the way not just to, but crosses, the line between good and bad, it's going to be a very interesting ride, and leave us with a good addition to the DCU's cast of characters.

This collection reprints Numbers 1 - 5 of the Manhunter series, with No. 5 tying into DC's grand "Identity Crisis" crossover.

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A strong debut for DC's great new female hero.

This collection contains the first five issues of Marc Andreyko's "Manhunter" series (if it was a Marvel title, it would have acquired the prefix "The Uncancellable" for having escaped the axe twice in its thirty-issue history). There have been six previous DC universe heroes to have used the Manhunter title, all male, but Kate Spencer is rather unlike her predecessors, not least because sehe's female. Kate is an LA prosecutor who has seen one too many villains get off and go on a killing spree, and so she dons various items fromt he district's impound and becomes a vigilante out for blood (but unlike Marvel's Punisher, she is rational and not a psychopath in her use of lethal force; she gives the system time to work before she kills). Kate's willingness to kill villains makes her something of a rarity in the DC universe, and Andreyko plays with that; in this story, she dodges the Justice League of America, fearful that her fellow heroes will arrest her for her actions, and has dreams where Batman (apparently well-known for his sanctimonious behaviour even amongst the DC populous) condemns her. However, she never compromises her beliefs.

Andreyko does not neglect to give Kate a personal life, and a strong supporting cast. First and foremost is Dylan Battles, a former villain's lackey who Kate blackmails into becoming her tech support in the war on crime; Dylan, a rather stereotypical loser nerd, is hilarious. Elsewhere there is her ex-husband, a novelist, and her young son, who she tries to do right by in spite of her busy life. Many writers don't bother giving their characters personal lives anymore, favouring a "we live in our costumes" approach, but Andreyko understands how to mix the personal and the superheroic, and does so excellently. This collection is highly recommended.

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Smart and witty

This is one of the better comic book stories featuring female characters. Why? Because most comic creators know that sex sells, and dress up their femme fatales in accordingly skimpy getups (one of the worst offenders is DC's Power Girl.) In this environment, MANHUNTER stands out as a comic that doesn't rely on the character's chest to drive sales. Instead, the Manhunter character draws us in by being human, and kicking butt without becoming a "girl power!" cliche.

Kate Spencer lives works as a DA in a city without "capes", or superheroes. As Superman patrols metropolis and Batman swings through Gotham, Los Angeles remains dirty, unclean, but still full of "metahumans" (super-villians, basically.) When one of these fiends wriggles out of the legal system, Kate decides enough is enough and dons a costume of her own.

What's remarkable about MANHUNTER is how it balances fight scenes and genuine drama--each chapter contains enough of both to keep the story going. MANHUNTER also gets a thumbs-up for explaining why most of the "real" cities in the DC Universe don't have superheroes protecting them.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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