Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 10:53 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/dc/1206/ManhunterCv26.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/dc/1206/ManhunterCv26t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="Manhunter #26"></a>Reviewer: Kerry Birmingham, birmy@juno.com
Story Title: "Unleashed, Part One: The Lady in Question"
The People vs. Diana Prince... and Diana Prince vs. Kate Spencer.
Writer: Marc Andreyko
Penciller: Javier Pina
Inker: Robin Riggs
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Jason Wright
Assoc. Editor: Rachel Gluckstern
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover by: Art Adams & Alex Sinclair
Variant Cover by: Phil Jimenez & Jose Villarrubia
Published by: DC Comics (http://www.dccomics.com/)
Typically, when it comes to series that are underappreciated, under-read, and generally under-the-radar, I’m right on the ball. “Read Sleeper!” I cried, to no avail. “Read Priest’s Black Panther!” I pleaded, after it was far too late to save it. And– going way back– “Read Joe Kelly’s Deadpool!” Whether this means my tastes are ahead of the curve or far, far behind it is up for debate, but usually, if its fanbase is cultishly small and irritatingly vocal, I’m there.
When Manhunter came out, I somehow failed to notice, as did, apparently, the overwhelming majority of comic readers. Its recent cancellation sparked some talk on the book and its fans crawled out of their holes to fulfill their quota of vocal outrage. It was granted a reprieve, and the book got more attention than it probably did at launch.
Manhunter #26 represents the first issue of that new lease on life. It’s not the first series to be spared cancellation, and the many that have come before tend to be overshadowed by their constant struggle to get people to read the damn thing (Spider-Girl, anyone?). So now that Manhunter is allowed to keep on keepin’ on with a new story arc, providing a convenient jumping-on point for those of us always willing to give an underdog book a chance, how does it stack up?
S’okay.
In the DC equivalent of having Wolverine or Spider-Man randomly show up to goose interest in a book, one of DC’s Big Three shows up to enlist the aid of Kate Spencer, lawyer by day, supervillain bounty hunter by night. Kate’s faced with another strong-willed woman: Wonder Woman, still dealing with legal fallout from the... incident... with Maxwell Lord that precipitated much of Infinite Crisis. Get two personalities with strong opinions in the same room, however, and sparks are sure to fly, leading to some interesting fisticuffs between Manhunter and Wonder Woman.
For the most part, this issue is accessible to new readers, with Kate’s basic mission and attitude laid out unobtrusively through Marc Andreyko’s dialogue. Cut-away scenes in Los Angeles and the Himalayas are obviously continuing plotlines and will likely be lost on new readers without some sort of easily digested guide to the series (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=40786), but the basics of Kate and why she does what she does is conveyed well. The framing sequence of the fight between Wonder Woman and Manhunter isn’t quite as unpredictable as Andreyko seems to think it is, but Andreyko’s strength here is a clear understanding of the characters involved. Kate is, without question, a complicated person, and Andreyko conveys the contradictions of Kate’s personality with the assurance of a writer who knows his character; his Wonder Woman is, likewise, full of the grace and nobility that a lot of her writers spend a lot of time telling us she is rather than showing that to us. It’s this intrinsic knowledge of Kate’s character that has, I think, endeared her to the book’s fans. It’s somewhat refreshing to see a superheroine without the immediate neuroses male writers tend to give them, to say nothing of the fact Kate isn’t sexualized like the Catwomans and She-Hulks before her (or at least not nearly as much as Art Adams’s cover might suggest). Throw in a link to the Golden Age via Kate’s (almost as complicated) parentage and there’s no reason at all the character couldn’t take the Manhunter “legacy” and become a vital part of the DC Universe.
All that being said, I think much of the problem here is simply with the initiation of this new storyline. The Maxwell Lord incident was a particularly ugly bit of business rendered more or less moot by Infinite Crisis, and it really should have been dropped thereafter, rather then given the moral weight similarly given to Superman when forced to kill. There’s even dialogue meant to gloss over the amount of time that has passed since Lord’s death and Wonder Woman’s virtual exoneration, which indicates that even the rest of the DCU has moved on and the pending trial is pretty much an issue only insofar as Andreyko needed a narrative reason to have Wonder Woman guest star. While their interaction is entertaining and it’s definitely an intriguing dynamic, the whole story is wrapped in a fight scene meant to surprise that doesn’t, and the unfamiliar teases that break up the action are more interesting than the main plot itself.
Javier Pina’s artwork is fine, just not particularly distinctive. It feels a bit generic, a cookie-cutter superhero style Pina has yet to refine into something of his own. I’m not familiar with Pina’s art outside of this issue, but his art style seems malleable, almost a little too interchangeable; they ought to snag him for some issues of 52, where artistic homogeneity helps keep the disparate issues together.
Manhunter is worth reading, certainly, but I’m not sure this is the series’s finest introduction to the character. Kate Spencer’s worth keeping an eye on, as there are far too few characters like her in any superhero universe, but if this renewed lease on life for the title is meant to draw curious onlookers and game reviewers, this doesn’t feel like the story that’s going to hook in new readership (of course, having what appears to be the Ted Kord Blue Beetle on the cover of your next issue won’t hurt the curious). For now, Manhunter remains an underdog, and it’s worth rooting for, even if the current story doesn’t seem to quite live up to the strength of its characters.
RATING:
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No need to hunt down this title! BUY at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=21787)
Story Title: "Unleashed, Part One: The Lady in Question"
The People vs. Diana Prince... and Diana Prince vs. Kate Spencer.
Writer: Marc Andreyko
Penciller: Javier Pina
Inker: Robin Riggs
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Jason Wright
Assoc. Editor: Rachel Gluckstern
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover by: Art Adams & Alex Sinclair
Variant Cover by: Phil Jimenez & Jose Villarrubia
Published by: DC Comics (http://www.dccomics.com/)
Typically, when it comes to series that are underappreciated, under-read, and generally under-the-radar, I’m right on the ball. “Read Sleeper!” I cried, to no avail. “Read Priest’s Black Panther!” I pleaded, after it was far too late to save it. And– going way back– “Read Joe Kelly’s Deadpool!” Whether this means my tastes are ahead of the curve or far, far behind it is up for debate, but usually, if its fanbase is cultishly small and irritatingly vocal, I’m there.
When Manhunter came out, I somehow failed to notice, as did, apparently, the overwhelming majority of comic readers. Its recent cancellation sparked some talk on the book and its fans crawled out of their holes to fulfill their quota of vocal outrage. It was granted a reprieve, and the book got more attention than it probably did at launch.
Manhunter #26 represents the first issue of that new lease on life. It’s not the first series to be spared cancellation, and the many that have come before tend to be overshadowed by their constant struggle to get people to read the damn thing (Spider-Girl, anyone?). So now that Manhunter is allowed to keep on keepin’ on with a new story arc, providing a convenient jumping-on point for those of us always willing to give an underdog book a chance, how does it stack up?
S’okay.
In the DC equivalent of having Wolverine or Spider-Man randomly show up to goose interest in a book, one of DC’s Big Three shows up to enlist the aid of Kate Spencer, lawyer by day, supervillain bounty hunter by night. Kate’s faced with another strong-willed woman: Wonder Woman, still dealing with legal fallout from the... incident... with Maxwell Lord that precipitated much of Infinite Crisis. Get two personalities with strong opinions in the same room, however, and sparks are sure to fly, leading to some interesting fisticuffs between Manhunter and Wonder Woman.
For the most part, this issue is accessible to new readers, with Kate’s basic mission and attitude laid out unobtrusively through Marc Andreyko’s dialogue. Cut-away scenes in Los Angeles and the Himalayas are obviously continuing plotlines and will likely be lost on new readers without some sort of easily digested guide to the series (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=40786), but the basics of Kate and why she does what she does is conveyed well. The framing sequence of the fight between Wonder Woman and Manhunter isn’t quite as unpredictable as Andreyko seems to think it is, but Andreyko’s strength here is a clear understanding of the characters involved. Kate is, without question, a complicated person, and Andreyko conveys the contradictions of Kate’s personality with the assurance of a writer who knows his character; his Wonder Woman is, likewise, full of the grace and nobility that a lot of her writers spend a lot of time telling us she is rather than showing that to us. It’s this intrinsic knowledge of Kate’s character that has, I think, endeared her to the book’s fans. It’s somewhat refreshing to see a superheroine without the immediate neuroses male writers tend to give them, to say nothing of the fact Kate isn’t sexualized like the Catwomans and She-Hulks before her (or at least not nearly as much as Art Adams’s cover might suggest). Throw in a link to the Golden Age via Kate’s (almost as complicated) parentage and there’s no reason at all the character couldn’t take the Manhunter “legacy” and become a vital part of the DC Universe.
All that being said, I think much of the problem here is simply with the initiation of this new storyline. The Maxwell Lord incident was a particularly ugly bit of business rendered more or less moot by Infinite Crisis, and it really should have been dropped thereafter, rather then given the moral weight similarly given to Superman when forced to kill. There’s even dialogue meant to gloss over the amount of time that has passed since Lord’s death and Wonder Woman’s virtual exoneration, which indicates that even the rest of the DCU has moved on and the pending trial is pretty much an issue only insofar as Andreyko needed a narrative reason to have Wonder Woman guest star. While their interaction is entertaining and it’s definitely an intriguing dynamic, the whole story is wrapped in a fight scene meant to surprise that doesn’t, and the unfamiliar teases that break up the action are more interesting than the main plot itself.
Javier Pina’s artwork is fine, just not particularly distinctive. It feels a bit generic, a cookie-cutter superhero style Pina has yet to refine into something of his own. I’m not familiar with Pina’s art outside of this issue, but his art style seems malleable, almost a little too interchangeable; they ought to snag him for some issues of 52, where artistic homogeneity helps keep the disparate issues together.
Manhunter is worth reading, certainly, but I’m not sure this is the series’s finest introduction to the character. Kate Spencer’s worth keeping an eye on, as there are far too few characters like her in any superhero universe, but if this renewed lease on life for the title is meant to draw curious onlookers and game reviewers, this doesn’t feel like the story that’s going to hook in new readership (of course, having what appears to be the Ted Kord Blue Beetle on the cover of your next issue won’t hurt the curious). For now, Manhunter remains an underdog, and it’s worth rooting for, even if the current story doesn’t seem to quite live up to the strength of its characters.
RATING:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcnone.jpg
No need to hunt down this title! BUY at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=21787)