OK Hypergeeksters. If you are reading this, I already know that you have impeccable taste in all things comic book related. Otherwise, why would you be coming to such a fine website?

As fans of great comics I want to ask you a question: Are you buying the DC comic Manhunter? If you are, then that is great, but if you answered no, then you really should be punished for your stupidity. Manhunter is one of the best comic book coming out of the publishing house at the moment, and it really needs your help.

Manhunter, not to be confused with Martian Manhunter, features the adventures of Kate Spencer, who is a federal prosecutor who became increasingly tired of seeing guilty criminals evade punishment. When the criminal Copperhead, on trial for multiple murders and cannibalism, avoided the death sentence and escapes from custody, Kate took the drastic step of stealing equipment from an evidence room and killing Copperhead. After seeing the limitations of the legal system, Kate took on the alternative, vigilante, identity of “Manhunter”, and kidnapped the super-villain supplier Dylan Battles, blackmailing him into building, maintaining, and upgrading her armor, weapons, and gadgets.

Aside from the legal and vigilante aspect of the book, Marc Andryeko does a great job of highlighting the day-to-day aspects of Kate’s life, with a wonderful emphasis on the awkward relationships with her six-year-old son Ramsey, and her novelist ex-husband. After a time, Kate’s secret life as Manhunter began to cut in to her career and family life, but her co-counsel Damon Matthews covers for her often. Kate’s father Walter Pratt spent time in prison for murdering her mother, and she comes to believe that her grandfather is superhero Al Pratt, the original Atom, a member of the Justice Society of America.

Despite much critical success, the series has 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.

After concluding with the series with issue #30 Didio announced at the New York Comic-Con that the series had been given a second stay of execution. After a year of seeing nothing, the series returned with issue #31 in June 2008, again to great critical success, but low sales. The new arc dealt with the disappearance of hundreds of women along the Mexican border. Kate was on the case both as law-breaking D.A. and costumed vigilante. Meanwhile, Kate’s bloodline tie to the JSA returned to haunt her - and it looks like her sidekick’s most notorious supervillain ex-boss is doing the same to him.

However, the word coming out is that DC are planning to cancel Manhunter yet again, a ridiculous decision on behalf of Didio et al. I really wonder sometimes if they have any business sense at all. Have they ever heard of a loss-leader? It is the concept of creating a product that does not sell terribly well, but gets you lots of attention and critical respect. Sure, Manhunter might not sell all that great, but it is a wonderful book, one of the best that DC publish today, and by keeping it in circulation it will encourage new readers to see that there is more to the DC universe than just Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman, and that there is a darker, more dramatic side to the DC universe. This book has the feel of current Marvel books like Captain America, Daredevil etc, which are all wonderful titles that DC really need to take a lesson from!

So, I implore you to get down to your store this weekend and by every issue of Manhunter that you can find, the monthlies, the trades, anything. Don’t let this book die people, it is fantastic, and the DC Universe will be poorer without it!

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