Manhunter (Paul Kirk) is a superhero and later anti-hero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He was the first published character referred to as Manhunter within the DC Universe. Originally a plainclothes amateur detective character, Kirk was called "manhunter" only in the title of his stories, a slang term for someone who tracks down fugitives and criminals.
Another version of Paul Kirk is then introduced and officially adopts "Manhunter" as an alias in 1942. The character's stories ended in 1944. Paul Kirk was then revived in 1973 in a globe-trotting conspiracy thriller storyline told through a series of back-up stories published in Detective Comics #437-443. Reintroducing Kirk as a more ruthless and now lethal hero working against a villainous group called the Council, the story gave him a new costume, new weapons, and a superhuman healing ability. Though the 1973 story became a critical success with readers, Kirk dies at the end of it and was not resurrected by DC Comics. Instead, the Manhunter name has passed on to other heroes (one being a clone of Paul Kirk calling himself Kirk DePaul).
In the 1970s, DC Comics introduced an army of corrupt robots called Manhunters whose design resembled Kirk's original 1940s costume. The 1987 comic Secret Origins (vol. 2) #22 revealed Kirk had been encouraged to become a vigilante by manipulative Manhunter robots masquerading as altruistic humans. The robots then gave Kirk a costume based on their own design.
Publication history Golden Age Paul Kirk was originally depicted as a non-costumed independent investigator, who helped police solve crimes during the early 1940s. Though the series was titled "Paul Kirk, Manhunter", Kirk did not use the Manhunter name as an alias. He appeared in Adventure Comics #58–72 (Jan. 1941 – March 1942).Manhunter (1942) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. from the original on February 12, 2016.Adventure Comics #72 at the Grand Comics Database.
Beginning with Adventure Comics #73, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby established a new Manhunter, Rick Nelson, a big game hunter who returns to his home in Empire City and concludes the most challenging game to hunt is people, specifically criminals. After the death of a friend at the hands of a super-villain, he becomes a crimefighter dressed in a red costume with a blue mask. One month earlier, the publisher Quality Comics had introduced its own costumed hero called Manhunter in Police Comics #8 (March 1942). This Manhunter was named Donald "Dan" Richards.
Though he was obviously a different character than the first DC Manhunter, the name Rick Nelson was changed to Paul Kirk in Adventure Comics #74 by an unknown editor. Rick Nelson's history as a game hunter and tracker were now considered part of Paul Kirk's back story. 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 cancel his strip.
Dan Richards and Paul Kirk never meet in their original Golden Age stories because they were published by different companies. After Richards was acquired by DC Comics, they are depicted as contemporaries who each adopt the alias Manhunter almost simultaneously while being unaware of the other person using the name until months later. The series All-Star Squadron shows them meeting soon after the United States enters World War II. The two argue over who is allowed to continue using the Manhunter name, then resolve the dilemma by joining different teams, seemingly ensuring the two will rarely if ever cross paths during their adventures. Dan Richards becomes a member of the Freedom Fighters, while Paul Kirk remains active as a member of the All-Star Squadron.All-Star Squadron #31
1970s revival In 1973, decades after his original run of stories ended, Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson brought back Paul Kirk in his Manhunter role in Detective Comics #437.McAvennie, Michael "1970s" in Dolan, p. 157: "Together with exciting new artist Walt Simonson, [Archie] Goodwin executed seven flawless tales that chronicled Paul Kirk's hunt for the world's deadliest game...Manhunter's award-winning revival earned undying acclaim for its talented storytellers". Simonson noted:
The 1970s Paul Kirk/Manhunter stories appeared primarily as 8-page backups in Batman's Detective Comics, at the time going through an incarnation as a "100-Page Super Spectacular" featuring mostly reprints of non-Batman stories. Only with the last episode of the series did Manhunter move to the front of the book, in a full-length team-up with Batman.Manhunter (1973) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. from the original on February 12, 2016. The stories were all written by Goodwin, and were the breakout work for future fan favorite artist Simonson. Simonson later said that the distinctively dense layouts and breakdowns for many of the early Manhunter stories were done by Goodwin. Goodwin's work on Manhunter, in which he both updated an obscure Golden Age hero, and, in the series' last episode, took the daring approach of killing him off (one of the few comic book deaths that has actually "taken" and not been reversed or retconned away in the decades since it occurred) is very well regarded by both fans and other comics professionals, winning a number of Shazam Awards. Goodwin himself has cited the series as one of the three "best things I've done in comics". When the team was approached in the early 1990s to create a new story with the Paul Kirk character, Goodwin and Simonson together wrote a two-page plot, but Simonson, busy with a monthly series, failed to produce the layouts for Goodwin to script. Years later, after Goodwin's death, Walt Simonson acted on his wife Louise's suggestion that the story be completed without dialogue as a "silent" story.Simonson, Walter. "Afterword", Manhunter: The Special Edition trade paperback 1999. Page 104.
In his 1970s revival, Kirk primarily uses three weapons: a modified Bolo Mauser, a Katar (कटार), and two shuriken "throwing stars" carried as part of his costume, on the chest. Simonson said of his costume design: "I did a bunch of preliminary designs and I think Archie thought my first costume was a little complex, but then I did a bunch of variations. They were just simpler and not as good, so we went with the original design. The only difference was originally I’d given him nine throwing stars. Archie wanted to include martial arts in the strip and I came across something that said nine was a mystical number in some of the martial arts cultures. But somewhere along the way, I realized that drawing nine throwing stars in every damn panel was going to be a big problem. So we fixed that!"
Although the names "Manhunter" and "Paul Kirk" were chosen as a nod to the 1940s character, Goodwin and Simonson did not originally intend this to be the same literal character. By this point, DC Comics had established that its modern-day heroes inhabited a world designated Earth-One while the Golden Age characters and their stories occupied the parallel reality called Earth-Two. Initially, the 1970s Manhunter was simply the Earth-One Paul Kirk, a new character. Later on, it was decided to establish a link with the 1940s stories as a quick and efficient means of providing backstory within the limited eight-page structure of one of the story chapters.
Goodwin and Simonson's new backstory explains that after spending some time as a crime-fighter in the US, Kirk returns to big game hunting and is then killed by an elephant on safari in 1946. His body is cryogenically preserved and eventually resurrected by the Council, a secret organization dedicated to controlling the human race to prevent humanity from causing its own extinction. Kirk is given advanced healing abilities by a geneticist-member of the Council and trained in the martial arts by one of their operatives.Detective Comics #439
To test Kirk's loyalty, the Council assigns him to kill an Interpol official while refusing to explain how this mission advances their stated goal of helping mankind. When Kirk tries to warn the agent instead, a group of clones attempts to kill him. Realizing that the Council have been corrupted by power, gradually warped from idealists into ruthless fanatics, Kirk begins to hunt down them and their agents.Detective Comics #440 Eventually, Manhunter destroys the Council, sacrificing his own life to do so.Detective Comics #443
In 1975 DC published a second, completely independent Manhunter revival in 1st Issue Special #5, written and pencilled by Kirby. In this story an elderly human wearing the red and blue Manhunter costume retires and passes on the mantle to Mark Shaw. It is presumed Kirby meant the elder Manhunter to be Paul Kirk, despite this contradicting the Goodwin/Simonson revival. Since the elderly Manhunter is never identified, some readers concluded it was a new character. In the 1987 comic Secret Origins (vol. 2) #22, the corrupt Manhunters themselves confirm that this elderly Manhunter character was someone who took up the name and costume years after both Paul Kirk and Dan Richards had retired their own costumed identities in the 1940s.
Mark Shaw used the Manhunter identity throughout the 80s, with character Chase Lawler adopting the name and mantle in the 1990s. In 2001, the superhero group Power Company was introduced in JLA #61, followed by several one-shots providing an origin for each member and then the ongoing series Power Company in 2002. The team included a hero called Manhunter who resembled Paul Kirk and wore a black and white version of the costume he wore after being resurrected by the Council. The 2002 comic Power Company: Manhunter explained this character is a surviving clone of Kirk's who acts in the name of good and named himself Kirk DePaul. The series Power Company failed to gain popularity and ended with issue #18. In 2004, the Manhunter name was revived for a new series (Manhunter vol. 3) starring hero Kate Spencer. In issue #11 in 2005, Kirk DePaul makes an appearance and is murdered.
Fictional biography
Golden Age A natural athlete and tracker, Paul Kirk became a famous hunter of large and dangerous wildlife. Concluding there are no more challenges left in the jungle, Kirk returns home to Empire City (later retconned to be New York City). Concluding that criminals are the most challenging prey to track and capture, Kirk becomes an amateur detective, aiding the police in several cases. Eventually, costumed super-villains become more common and one named the Buzzard kills Police Inspector Donovan, a friend of Kirk's. Following Donovan's death, Kirk is contacted by the secret cult of the Manhunters, who claim that they are an organization dedicated to helping the cause of justice. The Manhunters reveal they are impressed with Kirk's abilities and want him to avenge not only Donovan, who was an agent of their organization, but to also fight against the rising threat of criminals. Kirk agrees and is given a red and blue costume by the Manhunters to keep his identity secret and "subtly" enhance his tracking abilities. Unbeknownst to Kirk, the Manhunters are actually corrupt robots who have been manipulating human agents and allies for centuries, biding their time until they are ready to attempt planetary and then universal conquest.Secret Origins (vol. 2) #22 (DC Comics, 1987).