Manhunter (Kate Spencer)

Manhunter
Artwork for the cover of Manhunter (vol. 3) #4 (2005). Art by Jae Lee
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Manhunter (vol. 3) #1 (October 2004)
Created by	Marc Andreyko Jesus Saiz
In-story information
Alter ego	Katherine Spencer
Team affiliations	FBI DEO Birds of Prey Justice Society of America
Abilities	Wears a suit that is keyed into her unique bioelectrical signature, granting her increased strength, agility, and endurance. Carries a powerful staff once used by a previous Manhunter, Mark Shaw.

Manhunter (Kate Spencer) is a fictional character, a superheroine appearing in DC Comics. She is the eighth DC Comics character depicted using the name Manhunter, and the first female to do so. The character first appears in Manhunter (vol. 3) #1 (October 2004) and was promoted by DC Comics as relevant to the popular Identity Crisis limited series.

Despite critical success, the first series repeatedly had trouble gaining larger readership. DC Comics announced in May 2006 that the series would be canceled and that issue #25 would be the last. Dan DiDio, DC's executive editor, soon followed with another announcement, that fan outcry convinced him to extend the series for five additional issues in order to improve sales. The new five-issue story arc dealt with a ramification of the Infinite Crisis, again tying the series into a popular event. DiDio also said that the storyline would lead into another big event in the DC Universe. The series came back with issue #31 in 2007, but was cancelled with issue #38 in 2008.

Manhunter had a 10-page co-feature in Batman: Streets of Gotham which began in June 2009, and ended in issue #13, and was replaced with a Two-Face co-feature. A planned collection of the back-up series was cancelled by DC.

In addition to her solo features, writer Gail Simone made Manhunter into one of the lead characters in her Birds of Prey series as part of a controversial revamp in issue #100, where Kate was brought in to serve as a replacement for Black Canary. Manhunter remained with the team until the book's cancellation with issue #127 in 2009, and was not part of the subsequent 2010 relaunch. Writer Marc Guggenheim announced that in 2011, Manhunter would begin appearing in his Justice Society of America series.