DC’s Kate Spencer, aka Manhunter, is starring in a new comic book series this May, titled Manhunters: The Secret History. Manhunter is one of the most long-lived and prolific legacy titles in the DC universe that most readers know little to nothing about. But after Kate was drawn into the Event Leviathan storyline, and the reveal that the title villain is a previous Manhunter, the crimefighter is in the perfect position to dig into the darkest corners of Earth’s metahuman past.

The Manhunter name has been used by a sequence of heroes that starts in the 1940s with an investigator named Paul Kirk. From there, the title was passed down from character to character. Sometimes these were entirely unrelated takes: a big game hunter, a series of ninja clones, even an army of alien robots. On other occasions, “Manhunter” was handed down in the same manner as the Flash name, first to Mark Shaw and later to Kate Spencer. Like Shaw, Spencer worked as a lawyer but donned a mask out of dissatisfaction with the lack of justice in the legal system. Kate stole equipment from an evidence locker and used it to make a difference. Her adventures lasted through a 38-issue series, tied her into the Infinite Crisis crossover, and led to her joining Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey team. She was largely absent following the New 52 reboot, except for an appearance in Green Arrow as Oliver Queen’s defense attorney. It wasn’t until Action Comics and the buildup to Event Leviathan that she returned to the costume.

The announcement from DC bills The Secret History #1 as written by Marc Andreyko, the creator of Kate Spencer, and illustrated by Renato Guedes (Bloodshot: Salvation). The miniseries centers on Kate processing the reveal that her predecessor has become a charismatic villain bent on overthrowing the current world order and digging into the history of the terrorist organization that backs him. The result is the staff-wielding vigilante unearthing " a conspiracy that goes back to the very beginnings of DC history". The main cover from Guedes depicts Kate standing amongst the faces of past Manhunters, including a masked Shaw, the ninja-like iteration of Paul Kirk created by Walt Simonson, and one of the android Manhunters that served as the disgraced precursors to the Green Lantern Corps. The issue also has a variant cover by artist Jae Lee that features Spencer breaking through a pane of glass as images of Leviathan, Green Arrow, and Batman scatter in her wake.

While the Leviathan storyline running through Brian Bendis’s tenure on Superman and Action Comics has met with mixed reception, Bendis has shown a keen interest in reviving underused characters with cult followings, including Kate Spencer and The Question. The structure of the Leviathan Saga, with its air of paranoia and inability to trust anyone with strong ties to existing power structures, feels like a deliberate vehicle for characters like Spencer, Lois Lane, and Renee Montoya who exist in the sidelines and fringes of most superhero stories to shine. Manhunter is ready to burst the DCU wide open and, true to the original Manhunter motto, no evil is going to escape her. Readers can find the full solicitation details below:

  • MANHUNTERS: THE SECRET HISTORY #1 Written by MARC ANDREYKO Art and cover by RENATO GUEDES Variant cover by JAE LEE After the revelation of Leviathan’s true identity in the pages of Event Leviathan, Kate Spencer—an earlier Manhunter—must go on a quest to uncover just how deep Leviathan’s plans go. What Kate didn’t expect is a conspiracy that goes back to the very beginnings of DC history! Unearthing the past to save the future, this is Manhunters: The Secret History! Eisner Award-winning writer Marc Andreyko returns to his classic crime-fighter in this hard-hitting miniseries that will reverberate across the DC Universe!

You can preorder DC’s Manhunters: The Secret History #1 at your local comics shop so you won’t have to hunt it down when it goes on sale on May 13th, 2020.

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