Manhunter (comics)

Manhunter
Secret Origins #22 featuring the first three Manhunters.
Publication information
Publisher	(All) DC Comics (Richards) Originally Quality Comics
First appearance	(Richards) Police Comics #8 (March 1942) (Kirk) Adventure Comics #73 (April 1942) (Shaw) 1st Issue Special #5 (Clone) Secret Society of Super Villains #1 (Lawler) Manhunter (vol. 2), #0 (DePaul) The Power Company: Manhunter #1
Created by	(Kirk, Shaw) Jack Kirby (Lawler) Steven Grant (writer) Vince Giarrano (penciler)
In-story information
Alter ego	- Dan Richards - Paul Kirk - Mark Shaw - Clone of Paul Kirk - Chase Lawler - Kirk DePaul - Kate Spencer
Team affiliations	(Richards) Freedom Fighters (Richards, Kirk) All-Star Squadron (Shaw) Suicide Squad (DePaul) Power Company
Notable aliases	(Shaw) Privateer Star-Tsar
Abilities	varies, see below

Manhunter
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	(All) Monthly
Format	(All) Standard U.S., 4 color. At the time of publication: Ongoing
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	vol. 1: July 1988 - April 1990 vol. 2: October 1994 - November 1995 vol. 3: October 2004 - January 2009
Number of issues	vol. 1: 24 vol. 2: 13 (numbered 0-12) vol. 3: 38
Main character(s)	vol. 1: Mark Shaw vol. 2: Chase Lawler vol. 3: Kate Spencer

Manhunter is the name given to several different DC Comics superheroes/antiheroes, as well as the Manhunters, an entire race of androids created by the Guardians of the Universe as a forerunner to the Green Lantern Corps. None of these are to be confused with the better-known DC Comics superhero called the Martian Manhunter, who is sometimes addressed as "Manhunter".

The original Manhunter's first appearance was in the Quality Comics title Police Comics #8 (cover-date March 1942) and his solo stories ended in issue #101 (Aug. 1950). The Quality Comics characters were purchased by DC Comics when Quality went out of business in 1956. Dan Richards would eventually be featured in Young All-Stars and All-Star Squadron. His origin was retold in Secret Origins vol. 2, #22 (Jan. 1988).

Donald "Dan" Richards attended the police academy with his girlfriend's brother, Jim, who was at the top of the class, while Dan was at the very bottom. After Jim was framed for a crime he didn't commit, Dan took up the identity of Manhunter to track down the actual killer. He caught the perpetrator and cleared Jim's name. Afterwards, he continued to operate as Manhunter. His sidekick was a dog named Thor, who was later retconned to be a robotic sentry operating under the auspices of the Manhunter cult. Dan's granddaughter, Marcie Cooper, became the third Harlequin after he convinced her to join the Manhunters.

Dan Richards was later killed by Mark Shaw, who had fallen back into his Dumas persona.

The first of DC's Manhunters was a non-costumed independent investigator, Paul Kirk, who helped police solve crimes during the early 1940s. Though the series was titled "Paul Kirk, Manhunter", Kirk didn't use the Manhunter name as an alias. He appeared in Adventure Comics #58-72 (Jan. 1941 - March 1942).

Beginning with Adventure Comics #73, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby established a new Manhunter, Rick Nelson, big game hunter turned crimefighter. Though he was obviously a different character than the first DC Manhunter, the name Rick Nelson was quickly changed to Paul Kirk in Adventure Comics #74 by an unknown editor. The Simon/Kirby team left the feature after #80, November 1942, although Kirby wrote a few more scripts. The Paul Kirk Manhunter appeared in Adventure Comics until #92 in june 1944, when wartime paper shortages caused DC to drop page counts and thus his strip. This version of the character reappeared as reprint in back-up stories of New Gods (v1), a series also penciled by Kirby.