In the late 80s to early 90s, DC Comics had a small (24 issue) series called Manhunter. It was during my collecting days, when any out-of-the-ordinary comic caught my eye as having potential to be worth something someday. I happened to see #24 on the rack at a local gas/convenience store, and it had the big words saying 'Last Issue' and 'Manhunter...No More!' I had to have it...a #24 and the last of a series...that should score some coin down the road. Since they were canceling the series, I did NOT expect to find a comic with a touchy-feely tale of fallen heroes plot, while actually having a good story. And why and how did it come to this?! Issue #24 was part 6 in a 6-part story arc called 'Saints and Sinners'...or maybe it was like an epilogue to S&S...either way, I had the rest in about a month of digging. A few more months, I had about half of the 24 issues. Awesome reads! Well written stories about a lawyer turned superhero, trying to do good, protect his family, and stay one step ahead of his professional assassin arch-nemesis...a LOT of samurai elements, japanese words and customs, some links to the Green Lanterns...NICE!
I recently "got my hands" on all 24 issues. During that process, I also did some research on the main character, Mark Shaw (the Manhunter), and why there were at least 2 Manhunter series after that in which Mark Shaw was NOT Manhunter. Oh my...everything I liked about that 24 issue series...
Shaw was taken in by a government agency, and since his dna or blood or what-not matched certain profiles, they injected him with Manhunter (the original robot aliens who preceded the Green Lanterns) nanites and he gained all this justicey Manhunter abilities. The memories of his time spent in Japan, his previous Manhunter stints...all implanted memories. His arch-nemesis? The assassin, Dumas? Who Shaw killed in issue 23? Shaw's government-planted split personality. If they needed a job done that was not justicey enough for Manhunter, they switched the program to turn on Dumas, and the same guy did the job...damn. They also rigged it that way so Shaw would never be able to track down and stop/kill his arch-nemesis, so he always had to fear for his family...nice motivation to stay in the hero biz! Seriously...wtf? I thought Marvel Comics had a friggin trademark on rewriting the old characters to make sense of why they don't use them anymore! I keep rereading the wiki on Manhunter, trying to see where I read wrong, but it just makes my head hurt. I should start a thread for comics that used to be inspiring, then turned to crap. We could list a book/title, mention it's high points, then hit it with when it "jumped the shark," and finally list all of its current drawbacks that make it (and/or it's sister/brother series) completely unreadable crap.
