People working at DC Comics sure love Manhunter. They gave us J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, but also the evil Manhunters—predecessors to the Green Lantern who took a bad turn. And then, there is Manhunter, the crime fighter. Well, there is more than one.
The Golden Age Manhunters
The original “Paul Kirk, Manhunter” created by Jack Kirby in Adventure Comics #58 (1941) didn’t use the name Manhunter, he was just a civilian investigator with no secret identity or costume. This Golden Age detective quickly passed the title to a new Manhunter, a former big-game hunter named Rick Nelson who became a proper superhero in Adventure Comics #73—a version created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The character who tracked down criminals in Empire City in his red costume (with a blue mask) also had to fight the concurrence as Quality Comics just launched his own hero called Manhunter (aka Dan Richards) in the pages of Police Comics #8 (1942).
Already, Manhunter was a popular name for a hero, but that was not the case for Rick Nelson who was renamed Paul Kirk after a few issues—he kept the big game hunter backstory. Also, when Quality Comics was bought by National Comics Publications (previous name of DC Comics), the two heroes kept the fight on, without even knowing they now existed in the same universe. During World War II, they joined teams to fight with, but not the same. Paul Kirk was a member of the All-Star Squadron while Dan Richards joined the Freedom Fighters.
The Backup Manhunter From the 1970s
In 1973, a new generation of readers was introduced to Paul Kirk. Coming from the creative team of Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson, Manhunter was at this time a back-up story for Detective Comics. The award-winning story became quite an influential classic for its visual storytelling. Even if the idea was to only use the name, the writer decided to connect this Paul Kirk to the original one but also to kill him off.
Mark Shaw of the Manhunters
In 1975, DC Comics published another Manhunter story, but without Paul Kirk. 1st Issue Special #5, Jack Kirby was back with a new take on the character. This time, it was an elderly hero passing his red and blue costume to a younger crimefighter named Mark Shaw. Working as a public defender, Shaw was not happy with the way the criminal system was functioning. His uncle introduced him to the Manhunters (the androids created by the Guardians of Oa before the Green Lanterns) who now presented themselves as a sect of criminal hunters. Of course, Shaw didn’t know that, he just took the costume, and the name, and went on fighting crime. Then, he discovered the truth and turned on the Manhunters. His career didn’t stop here as he rebranded and became a hero called The Privateer … but also a villain known as The Star-Tsar. Once again, things didn’t end well for Shaw. Nevertheless, he came back with the Suicide Squad, and his story continued with a lot of twists and turns, but not as Manhunter. The name went to Chase Lawler.
Chase Lawler, the Wild Huntsman
Created by Steven Grant and Vincent Giarrano in Manhunter Vol 2 #0 (1994), Chase Lawler was a musician in Star City who was desperate to save his ex-girlfriend. This led him to a sorcerer who helped him summon the Wild Huntsman, a dangerous force that permitted him to become a Manhunter. All of this was not necessarily what it seemed to be, as we discovered later, especially when a mad Mark Shaw came back to reclaim the name. In the end, Lawler was another Manhunter who didn’t survive his fight for justice.
Kirk DePaul, the Last of the Manhunter Clones
The Council who was responsible for bringing back Paul Kirk in the 1970s also had clones of him. The last one was Kirk DePaul, introduced by Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett in JLA #61 (2002). He was a partner in the Power Company, a superhero-for-hire firm. Once the Power Company series was canceled, DePaul only resurfaced to be killed. By that time, another Manhunter was already in action.
Kate Spencer, Manhunter
Introduced in Manhunter (vol. 3) #1 (2004) by Marc Andreyko and Jesus Saiz, Kate Spencer started like Mark Shaw as a lawyer, but she was a prosecutor (and the granddaughter of Phantom Lady and Iron Munro). Seeing how super criminals evaded the justice system, she stole impounded technology and used it to hunt down and execute the last supervillain who went free and killed again. After that, she kept on fighting until she moved to Seattle with her son. After accepting as a client Oliver Queen who had been framed for murder, her life changed. Once the case was resolved, Kate started working for Queen Industries and became once more Manhunter. She even got recruited by Batman himself to help investigate the criminal organization called Leviathan. For now, she’s still the only Manhunter in the DC Comics Universe.