“I can’t get over this guy. He creates 100 villains at a sitting and then kills off half of them. Any one of these villains I can make a million off of.” These are often quoted as the words of Stan Lee, speaking – very unsurprisingly – about Jack Kirby. What these words show – aside from what was at the forefront of Lee’s mind most of the time – is the indisputable fact that Jack Kirby was an ideas man. Throughout his long career, he created dozens of characters and is one of the major forces behind the creation of Marvel’s universe. But – like all other great writers and artists whose creative talents have no end – some of Kirby’s inventions have been lost in time. Compared to the monolithic towers of popularity enjoyed by Spiderman, Doctor Strange, or the New Gods, we have smaller pillars submerged and hidden, with the likes of Atlas, Destroyer Duck, and even voluminous works such as Black Magic long forgotten. Perhaps another of these would be Manhunter. Quite a common name for a character, Manhunter was created in 1941 by Kirby for a strip in Adventure Comics briefly. It’s one of the few DC Kirby works that has never been fully reprinted, and after 1944, Manhunter ceased publication. But then, Manhunter made a shocking return in the 1970s. Not only was this lost hero back from purgatory, but he was to star alongside with DC’s greatest superhero – Batman himself.
The Manhunter Saga was written by DC editor Archie Goodwin, with Walt Simonson present as the artist. Published in back-up stories in Detective Comics 437-443 from January to November 1974, the Manhunter stories were later compiled in 1999’s Manhunter: The Special Edition, which also featured an epilogue. DC have very recently reprinted the saga, but I’ve read it in the wonderful Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin compilation hardcover.
Before we dive in to see how Goodwin and Simonson have altered and updated Manhunter for a new era, what were Jack Kirby’s original Manhunter stories like? Although I cannot claim to have read them, the very concept sounds very familiar. Kirby, along with Joe Simon, wrote a hero whose role was to hunt down criminals in Empire City. This Manhunter did what was said on the tin, but believe it or not, it was actually the third comic book hero called Manhunter. The first had been created in an earlier issue of Adventure Comics, a plain detective by the name of Paul Kirk. Then, just a month before Kirby and Simon came along with their Manhunter, Rick Nelson, rival Quality Comics crowned their Manhunter as Donald – or Dan – Richards. Three characters with the same name and basically the same premise might just be confusing, and it’s made even more complicated when Kirby and Simon rename Rick Nelson’s Manhunter to be… Paul Kirk! They really don’t make it simple. With a pretty simple, if somewhat charming and exciting, concept, it’s not a shocker that none of the Manhunters went very far. It was to be thirty years later when Paul Kirk, now the one and only Manhunter, was to star in a tale of his own.
In the early-1970s, Archie Goodwin had been chosen as the lead-writer on Detective Comics, one of the main two titles starring Batman. Alongside penning the Dark Knight stories, Goodwin was allowed to write a series of back-up strips during his brief run. Goodwin wrote the Batman title in Detective Comics from 437 to 442, with the Manhunter tales supplied in the back. This doesn’t mean that the Batman stories are connected to the Manhunter plot, but Detective Comics 443 is when the path of the two heroes converge, and they finally meet. On a quick note, Goodwin’s Batman stories are good fun, and they stand out memorable in a decade wholly lacking in excitement for the Dark Knight, excluding the works of O’Neil and Adams at the start of the decade, and the adventures of Englehart and Rogers at the end. They aren’t anything great, but they certainly make for better reading than the tiresome and dated plots of David V. Reed.
Detective Comics 437-442 contain six stories between them, each consisting of about eight pages. The Manhunter Saga begins not predictably with an origin story, but an investigation. In Nepal, Interpol’s Christine St. Clair questions a hooded man in the backstreets about the mysterious Manhunter. This hooded destitute tells the story of Manhunter arriving in Katmandu to destroy the criminal group named The Cult of Thieves. Although Christine St. Clair believes that this Manhunter is Paul Kirk, seemingly an ordinary man, Manhunter has superhuman strength and abilities as he destroyed the criminal underclass of Katmandu. Goodwin’s introductory tale to Manhunter is exactly what you’d hope for. The star of the show is shown only in the shadows and as a character of mystery, and this first part ends flawlessly when St. Clair leaves the scene, only for the old man to take off his robes to reveal himself as Manhunter. It’s a good start because Goodwin is careful about revealing facts so early, but it also establishes St. Clair as a key figure. Overall, this introduction is something of a prelude as it entices the reader.
Next, we go to Zurich, the home of Interpol. We’re shown more about the life and work of St. Clair as she reports yet another Manhunter-sighting to Interpol’s boss Damon Nostrand. This sighting of Manhunter surviving in a fight against a fierce lion leads to much more information, specifically on Paul Kirk. Goodwin links Kirby’s Manhunter tales into his own run, as it’s shown that Paul Kirk – written to be a gamesman – was killed in 1946. This is explored later, but I do like how Goodwin meshes his own fresh style of plotting with the classic world of Kirby. It’s shown pretty early on in the run that Manhunter is Paul Kirk, but there is still that gaping sense of mystery and cloudiness. The point of this second part is to show how quickly Manhunter can mysteriously move across the globe and take out the criminal classes, but it ends with yet another flawless conclusion. Just as St. Clair is given the green-light to continue her search for Manhunter, Nostrand burns all the evidence files on Manhunter. What is this means right now is a mystery, but it contributes to what makes these first two inserts in the Manhunter tales so great. Goodwin’s dramatic style of storytelling works shockingly well with a conservative approach to plotting – little is revealed early on, yet that feeling of suspense is strong.
Sadly, all that mystery must come to an end quite sharply. In Marrakech, St. Clair discovers an injured Manhunter in the back streets. All the beans are spilled – Paul Kirk was once a hunter who ended up fighting crime, but when war struck in the 1940s, he was sent to fight.
Upon returning home, he saw hunting animals as pointless. Then, he was killed by an elephant in 1946. That does come a bit out of left field, but I suppose it does set the scene for his death – and then resurrection. Kirk woke up 25 years later in 1971, finding himself a genetic test-subject under the control of the Council, a secretive organisation of nine people who believe that the world is going to hell, and they are the ones to prevent it. In effect, they made Paul Kirk into a superhuman. We’re quickly introduced to a cast of characters – some of whom are memorable, some of whom are not – that are key to this cult. The better personalities would be Asano Nitobe, Manhunter’s personal trainer, and Doctor Mykros, the cultist leader. To cut a long story short, Manhunter rebels against the Council since they are too powerful and dictatorial. This results in the Council creating endless clones of Manhunter so they can achieve their task. Why they didn’t just do this in the first place is way beyond me – keeping the original Paul Kirk as a template was a good idea, but surely mass-cloning him from the start would have made things easier. Nonetheless, Manhunter escaped from the Council to wage war against them. Now, all of this – ignoring perhaps the tiresome idea of cloning, which has bogged down comic books for too long – is great stuff, but Goodwin releases too much of it too early. The best plots dribble out slowly from the writer’s pen. A tale of this scale needed to be paced very well, but nearly all the mystery is killed early on. Now we know explicitly what the threat is, and how Manhunter came to be. Goodwin could have revealed the cloning aspect later in the story or left some of it for later. It feels as if readers are bogged down by too much information, and that does a huge disservice to the quality of the plotting. Aside from the cloning, a story idea surrounding a mysterious cult may seem unoriginal, but Goodwin’s way with words and creativity in storytelling depicts this cult with attractive alienness. Goodwin has created a strange world, but sadly too much of the mystery is already gone.
Throughout chapters three and four, Manhunter and St. Clair are hunted by Nostrand, who is revealed to be working for both Interpol and the Council. Manhunter makes easy work of him, but as a result of that, Manhunter and St. Clair are now wanted as criminals. While much is written about Manhunter and his astonishing abilities, St. Clair is treated like an unessential sidekick throughout much of the run. Goodwin does his best to expand on her background and personality, but not with too much success. By the end, she is a supplementary feature compared to the star character.
The last two shorter chapters before the climax convey Manhunter’s fight against the Council. Firstly, Manhunter and St. Clair go to Istanbul. At a mysterious church, Manhunter and St. Clair break in to witness a meeting of the council. There, Mykros as leader warns the Council of Manhunter’s struggle against them. Manhunter reveals himself to vast number of Council members and a fight between Manhunter and the clones ensues. Just to make it clear, Manhunter’s costume is red, while all of his clones are in blue. In the end, Manhunter takes care of his clones, but Mykros escapes. Goodwin writes this part very well not through boring fight scenes, but actually with comedy. Throughout the main point-of-view is not Manhunter, nor St. Clair, but a bemused family of American tourists. They, with their very curious child, get lost in the church and somehow don't notice any of the action going on around them. Their child does notice the drama at the end, and he even contributes to Manhunter’s cause by dropping a toy gun on a clone’s head from above and concussing him. But in the end, the family leave and their child tell them of his unbelievable tales. It’s a lovely and creative way of presenting events and adds a layer of memorability to what could have been a pretty ordinary episode.
The final episode in Manhunter’s own Detective Comics adventures takes place in Japan. Here, Manhunter comes face-to-face with his trainer Nitobe. Brainwashed by the Council, Manhunter faces his old master and tries to convince him to join the good side. This is the fairly pedestrian side of the story. Meanwhile, St. Clair heads home to America with countless files on the Council, only for Goodwin to add some personal drama as her father is a member of the evil cult. This is added obviously to broaden St. Clair’s world and to make her more than a sidekick. In all fairness, this does succeed as St. Clair comes to tears when she realises her father is an enemy, and her clear disapproval of his actions leads to her father’s death as he fails to carry out his duties. In the end, St. Clair arrives back to Japan just in time as she helps Nitobe overcome the Council’s brainwashing. With Nitobe now on the side of Manhunter and St. Clair, they have a new and skilled ally in their war against the Council.
So that does it for the back-up strips. It’s surprising that Goodwin manages to cram in as much as possible. I suppose they could have been paced better in some places, but they are unarguably page-turners. Even the fight scenes – occasions in comic books where writers go on autopilot and let the artist do the work – are told with creativity, with Goodwin adding interesting captions to develop the plot. Overall, it sets the stage for Detective Comics 443.
This is where Batman and Manhunter come face-to-face, with the latter’s storyline meeting with the world of the Dark Knight. In Gotham City, a good detective is killed for investigating the Council. Then, the leader of Congola is killed in Wayne Manor by a mysterious assassin. With a good hook and introduction, Goodwin sends Batman to weapons expert in Africa called Kolu. This same Kolu is working with Manhunter, and it’s this is how Batman meets him. The Dark Knight confronts the killer from Gotham City seconds before Manhunter arrives to execute him.
Thankfully, Goodwin doesn’t write a typical ‘hero fights hero’ event in the story, but there is tension between the two of them. Manhunter sees murder as essential in his fight, while Batman abhors it. At first, Batman turns down Manhunter’s invitation to aid in his fight against the Council. Even with the death of a detective and a world leader on his own home turf, Batman refuses, citing his anti-murder stance. So – without Batman – Manhunter, along with St. Clair, Nitobe, and Kolu, head off to take on the Council. This is what the whole story has been building towards, and Goodwin begins the action flawlessly. Within seconds of leaving their plane, Kolu is killed by the Council. This a moment of pure shock, and although he isn’t a character, we’re particularly aware of, it cements the power of the enemy. It’s at this moment when Batman suddenly appears and says he has changed his mind. The reasoning is very cloudy. In fact, it’s worse than that. There appears to be no reason. Nonetheless, there is only six pages left in the story and Goodwin writes a very speedy ending. Manhunter does confront Mykros, who has created a special helmet to combine the powers of the Council’s scientific minds. Now, it might be vague in some areas, but we are all aware of the Council’s goal. It is to prevent humanity from destroying itself. But what are its means of ascent? Even after Manhunter’s betrayal, Mykros’s big plan is to resurrect Paul Kirk again. It was Einstein who said that the definition of insanity was trying same approach over and over again and still expecting a different result. Therefore, the Council fail to excite and do disappoint at the end of the day. As for the ending of the issue itself, Kolu makes an annoying surprise return to help Manhunter, but when it comes down to it, Manhunter sacrifices himself to defeat Mykros. They both go up in flames as the Council’s base is wiped out, with Batman, St. Clair, Kolu, and Nitobe the only survivors. It’s an ideal end to a character like Manhunter. His story ends with a solid confrontation, even if it is ended all-too quickly. Detective Comics 443 is by no means bad, but it could have benefited from more pages. Really, this story deserved to be double length, as the final product isn’t given a great deal of time to breathe or develop. But on balance, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t a good ending – and for 25 years, this was the ending…
With the release of the saga’s Special Edition in 1999, Goodwin and Simonson returned to pen a twenty-page final chapter of the tale. It contains not a single word of dialogue and is a grand example of how visual storytelling – when it’s done correctly – can really work better than a story caked in words. Set in Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon watches from below the tall building as gunfire can be heard. On the skyscrapers, agents of the Council fight against Manhunter, seemingly back from the dead in his red costume. After a long chase and battle which involves the Dark Knight, the agents unmask themselves to be none other than Nitobe and St. Clair. They have killed Manhunter, and not for the first time. This is one of the many clones who managed to escape destruction at the end of Detective Comics 443. Nitobe and St. Clair cross off the last Manhunter on their list, before vanishing into the sky via helicopter. Batman witnesses this with Gordon. They don’t speak a word. What’s so good about this epilogue is the fact that Goodwin writes a very basic story. It would be disappointingly tiresome and pointless for Goodwin to write yet another Manhunter tale when the story ended perfectly well in 1974. Here, Goodwin establish much of a new plot – he just pens a mysterious story providing very brief glimpses into the aftermath of what happened before. A predictable writer would expand on this with much more detail, but that simply isn’t required. The big mystery is over – let any other mysteries remain secret.
Of course, part of why the very final chapter in The Manhunter Saga works brilliantly is down to the artist. Giving much more creative control to an artist can produce varying results, but Walt Simonson’s style of storytelling meshes effectively with Goodwin’s creative touch. This is true throughout the entire run. The two creators establish a very mysterious and shadowy Manhunter, and Simonson’s unique page layouts and storytelling contribute to why this saga has become something of a fan favourite. The finishes are not the cleanest you’ll find in comics, but that gritty style of art works well on a title like this one. It can look downright ugly at times, and perhaps an inker like Dick Giordano could have improved on Simonson’s own inks, which aren’t terrible even on a bad day. Simonson’s art is slicker in the 1999 story, and I certainly think that the wider pallet of colours benefits his visuals. The good aspect of that story is that the art looks more modern, but nothing like the terribly bland art of today, or the dated kind which was very visible in the late-1990s. Overall, Manhunter is very much Simonson’s project as well as Goodwin’s. Their two styles complement each other very well.
VERDICT
Overall, there much to be said about The Manhunter Saga. Archie Goodwin takes a basic if endearing concept from Jack Kirby’s playbook and updates it for the 1970s. With a reimagined concept and a plot with much drama, Goodwin collaborates with Simonson’s gritty way with the brush to create a fan favourite. It’s very digestible and short, but it’s got a great deal of substance. Structurally, it has a solid beginning, middle, and ending. But despite its brevity, even today DC realise that Manhunter is a classic. It was reprinted in 2021 as a deluxe edition. Long may it be remembered and reread.
Next Week: Spawn: Questions (Spawn (vol 1) 1-7). Written and drawn by Todd MacFarlane.
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