This article contains spoilers forLanterns season 1 episode 2.
We’re only two episodes in, and Lanterns has already had a lot more comic book weirdness than some detractors had guessed from the trailers. But when John Stewart asks Hal Jordan about Manhunters, Lanterns gets really weird. Most fans of Green Lantern comics know Manhunters as the killer androids created by the Guardians of the Universe before the Green Lantern Corps, unfeeling and brutal enforcers of justice who have become one of the Lanterns’ most bitter enemies.
But behind the scenes, the Manhunters are some of the most convoluted characters in DC Comics history, the result of multiple retcons and revisions. So while John and Hal know Manhunters as killer robots, other DC Comics fans may think the Lanterns are talking about something else… and they may be correct.
The Secret Origin of the Manhunters
Here is the official DC lore about Manhunters: Eons ago, the citizens of the planet Maltus achieved perfect utopia and immortality, and devoted themselves to scientific research. However, one of their number, a scientist named Krona, went too far and found a way to witness the dawn of creation. Doing so introduced evil into the universe, filling the Maltusans with regret. As penance, a group of Maltusans became the Guardians of the Universe, and searched for a way to enforce justice and protect the innocent.
One of their early experiments in this project was the creation of the Manhunters, androids infused with the same emerald energy that would later power the Green Lantern Corps. Initially, the Manhunters did their job well. But they grew dissatisfied with what they perceived as weakness in their masters and eventually rebelled, pursuing their idea of justice without remorse. When the Manhunters killed nearly everyone in Space Sector 666, the Guardians sent the androids into exile, spread across many planets, including Earth.
The Manhunters disguised themselves as citizens on these planets and, on Earth, established a cult. The Manhunter Cult, led by a mustachioed man called the Grandmaster, would recruit humans of exceptional skill and send them on dangerous missions. The most famous example is Mark Shaw, who became an ally of Batman and the Justice League before leading the crime organization Leviathan. The Manhunters also prepared for the next step of human evolution by placing sleeper agents in the lives of prominent superheroes, replacing people like Commissioner James Gordon and Superman‘s childhood pal Pete Ross with robot imposters in the much-reviled 1988 DC crossover Millennium.
Despite their defeat in Millennium, the Manhunters regularly show up to hassle Green Lanterns, making them one of the franchise’s most reliable villains. But they didn’t start that way.
The Many Messy Manhunters
The android Manhunters described above debuted in 1977’s Justice League of America #140-141, by Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin. However, characters called Manhunter had existed in the DC Universe for decades by that point, going all the way back to 1941’s Adventure Comics #58. The story “Manhunt on the Sun Limited,” written and penciled by Ed Moore, introduces Paul Kirk, Manhunter, a plain-clothes detective who goes on dangerous assignments.
Paul Kirk starred in several stories in Adventure Comics. But a year later, DC (then called National Comics) wanted to reinvent the character as a superhero. And so in 1942’s Adventure Comics #73, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon (the creators of Captain America), introduce Rick Nelson, a big game hunter who decides to hunt criminals under the code name “Manhunter.” The character reappears in Adventure Comics #74 the very next month, back in the same red and blue costume he wore in the previous issue. But now, Kirby and Simon called the character Paul Kirk, effectively erasing the Rick Nelson identity altogether.
So already, we have two, potentially three, DC characters called Manhunter. To make matters worse, 1942’s Police Comics #8 introduces a new hero called Manhunter, police officer Dan Richards, who fights crime with his trusty dog. Police Comics was a rival to National. But in 1956, DC purchased Quality’s characters and integrated them into their universe, which means that DC suddenly had four potential Manhunters
Despite the mess of Manhunters, none of them got much attention beyond the 1940s. And by the time 1955’s Detective Comics #225 introduced J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, the company wisely avoided giving Shaw or Kirk or Richards much attention. But when Jack Kirby returned to DC Comics after co-creating the Marvel Universe in the 1960s, he pitched a new Manhunter series. This series introduced Mark Shaw, a member of the Manhunter Cult led by the Grandmaster. The first issue of this series appeared in 1975’s 1st Issue Special, an anthology series meant to drum up interest for potential ongoings, but it never caught on. Thus, Shaw and his Manhunters were largely forgotten… that is, until Englehart brought them back and reimagined them as robot Green Lantern villains for Justice League of America #140.
While the two Justice League stories were strong, they weren’t exactly groundbreaking. But Englehart kept the idea around when he became the writer ofGreen Lantern and made the new Manhunters the center of the company-wide crossover he was writing, Millennium. From that point on, Manhunters became synonymous with the robot villains, easily overshadowing any other DC Manhunter, with the exception of J’onn J’onzz.
No One Escapes the Manhunters
So what became of the previous Manhunters? Retcons have explained that Paul Kirk and Mark Shaw have been influenced in some way by the android Manhunters. Only Dan Richards remained unaffiliated, and even he eventually gets killed by Shaw, who has since become a full villain. The Manhunter identity was most recently used by Kate Spencer, a federal prosecutor who took on the identity to catch criminals who beat the system. She has nothing to do with androids or the Manhunter Cult, but she does have some connection to the Green Lantern Corps, as she wears a decommissioned uniform of the Darkstars, a rival set of space cops created by a group of Maltusans who became the Controllers.
And what of poor J’onn J’onzz? Can he be the Martian Manhunter without having to worry about robots? Apparently not, as the 2003 Justice League storyline “Trial By Fire” (JLA #84-90 reveals that when the Guardians were designing the Manhunters, they took inspiration from Martian police, the same police force that J’onn J’onzz would eventually join, thus linking Martian Manhunter to the Manhunters
Hey, what’s one more retcon when it comes to the messy world of DC Comics and the Manhunters?
Lanterns airs new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
