John Ostrander’s work for DC in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s is often heralded as some of the best comics of the time period. Especially in regards to his run on Suicide Squad, his ability to mix genres into intriguing and engaging plots while adding depth to previously flat second-string characters stands out above many of his contemporaries.
But often overlooked in this praise is the work Ostrander did with his wife Kim Yale on the book Manhunter. Published for only twenty-four issues starting in 1988, the book was a spin-off from the DC crossover event Millennium, and it centered on the character of Mark Shaw, a former villain trying to redeem himself by working as a bounty hunter. Although he was looked down upon by the police for being essentially a hero for hire, he was also motivated strongly by his own moral code. The book followed not only his battles with various villains, but also his personal struggles with his family, with love, and with his own ethics.
For me, however, this series will always be special, for it represents a number of firsts in my comic collecting career.
DC’s books had been carrying an ad for the comic for a while, offering a special subscription at a discount rate. Just looking at the character, with his red and blue jumpsuit and his high-tech mask and baton, I was already enraptured. I knew I could not miss one of this character’s adventures. Never before had I had such an immediate response to a character I knew nothing about, but this time I was hooked. Thus, this book was the first series that I got a subscription to. Actually I had been given a subscription to JLI for Christmas earlier that year, but that was a gift. For Manhunter, I had to earn the money myself. My mom worked for the local newspaper at the time, and she got me a job delivering complimentary copies of a special section of the newspaper to all the local businesses who had advertised in it. It was only one day’s worth of work, but it was hard-earned as I had to trek all over town. Still it was worth it when the issues finally came.
As a gift for my subscription, I received a cheesy paper replica of the mask Shaw wore as Manhunter. I remember I did wear it a few times while playing, but the thing ripped after only a short time and so went into the trash. A more permanent gift came in the form of the first issue itself, which as a reward for my subscription had been autographed by the writers and artist. It was the first autographed book I ever got, and it still is one of the prizes of my collection.
Even after my subscription ran out, I still went out of my way to track down each issue. At the time comic shops were few and far between in my neck of the woods, and I was nowhere near old enough to drive myself to the nearest one each week to pick up my books. No, I had to rely on the spinner rack at the local pharmacy to get my books, which usually meant I’d have to pick up a comic whenever we needed a prescription filled or had run out of band-aids. But with Manhunter, I counted the days down each month until the new issue hit stands and I made my mother drive me to the store to pick it up, having saved up what little allowance I had each month just to buy this comic. In many ways, Manhunter was my first fanboy obsession.
Sadly, Manhunter was another first for me: the first book I collected that was cancelled. I remember I was devastated when I saw the cover of the final issue, which boldly announced “Manhunter No More!” Then later when I read the farewell lettercolumn and my fears were proven true, my little fanboy heart was broken. I had guessed that the end was coming, since prior to the final issue the series had been engulfed in a six-issue epic story pitting Shaw against his arch-nemesis Dumas one last time. All the while copies were becoming harder to find in those spinner racks, but I refused to read the handwriting on the wall. Once the book had ended, I was crushed.
Looking back on the series now, I still find it as strong a read as I recall (unlike so many other hero stories that I read when a child, which when read today smack of being the cheesiest examples of superhero storytelling known to man). Perhaps the main reason the book has stood the test of time, why it reached me then and today, is the take on the main character. He was different from all the other superheroes around at the time. He didn’t have tons of powers, fighting crime through the use of a few gadgets and his wits. He didn’t have grand reasons for being a hero, like the death of his parents or favorite uncle. Instead he did it for money, even if he was at heart a good person.
And the stories went beyond the “epic battle of good versus evil” to explore the more human aspects of this character, really rounding him out and making him seem like a real person to me. His supporting cast too really stood out; in fact to this day one of my favorite comics of all time is issue five of this series, an issue written solely by Kim Yale. This issue focuses not on Mark Shaw but on a woman named Sylvia who works a desk at the police station Mark Shaw brings his busts to.
A later issue had a back-up story by Yale and artist Sam Keith called “Fairy Tale” that also stands out in my memory. This story focuses on the captain of that police department, who doesn’t like Shaw much, and his daughter who adores Manhunter. In that story, the captain tells his daughter a bedtime story, transferring the events of a recent bust Manhunter made into a fairy tale setting, a truly innovative change in tone and point of view for the time.
Manhunter explored various themes of political intrigue with its ties to Suicide Squad. It involved aspects of Japanese culture in its major stories, especially the first and last stories which featured elements of the Yakuza. Whenever guest stars showed up, it was always to serve the story, not just to sell more issues, and they always added new dimensions to the characters that I had never seen before. The two issues which were part of the Invasion crossover guest-starred the Flash, making him out to be a hotheaded young punk that caused trouble for Shaw rather than helping him.
In short, it was everything normal superhero stories were not, which is the type of superhero story I find myself drawn to even today. Perhaps it was just too off-beat for it to survive, and it truly is a shame it was cut down after such a short time. I still look on those twenty-four issues as one of the best runs of a book I’ve ever read.
DC’s books had been carrying an ad for the comic for a while, offering a special subscription at a discount rate. Just looking at the character, with his red and blue jumpsuit and his high-tech mask and baton, I was already enraptured. I knew I could not miss one of this character’s adventures. Never before had I had such an immediate response to a character I knew nothing about, but this time I was hooked. Thus, this book was the first series that I got a subscription to. Actually I had been given a subscription to JLI for Christmas earlier that year, but that was a gift. For Manhunter, I had to earn the money myself. My mom worked for the local newspaper at the time, and she got me a job delivering complimentary copies of a special section of the newspaper to all the local businesses who had advertised in it. It was only one day’s worth of work, but it was hard-earned as I had to trek all over town. Still it was worth it when the issues finally came.
Sadly, Manhunter was another first for me: the first book I collected that was cancelled. I remember I was devastated when I saw the cover of the final issue, which boldly announced “Manhunter No More!” Then later when I read the farewell lettercolumn and my fears were proven true, my little fanboy heart was broken. I had guessed that the end was coming, since prior to the final issue the series had been engulfed in a six-issue epic story pitting Shaw against his arch-nemesis Dumas one last time. All the while copies were becoming harder to find in those spinner racks, but I refused to read the handwriting on the wall. Once the book had ended, I was crushed.
And the stories went beyond the “epic battle of good versus evil” to explore the more human aspects of this character, really rounding him out and making him seem like a real person to me. His supporting cast too really stood out; in fact to this day one of my favorite comics of all time is issue five of this series, an issue written solely by Kim Yale. This issue focuses not on Mark Shaw but on a woman named Sylvia who works a desk at the police station Mark Shaw brings his busts to. 