"Hail and Farewell"
Writer: Marc Andreyko
Artists: Javier Pina, Diego Olmos & Cafu(p), Robin Riggs, Art Thibert(i), Jason Wright(c)
Publisher: DC
Manhunter, thanks to the trade paperback sales, continues in the summer. This could have been the last issue, which would have been a crime. Manhunter is simply the very best comic book DC currently publishes. Here's why. Marc Andreyko writes characters that think, feel, live and breathe. These characters are not cipherous slaves to half-assed plots. These characters react like real people. They behave like real people, and they grow like real people.
This issue we mostly get to see how Kate interacts with her son Ramsey. Originally, she felt like a failure as a mother. She really had trouble connecting with Ramsey, and he wasn't exactly a joy to experience. This issue summarizes Kate's greater acceptance of the role and indeed her welcoming of this slice to her life. Ramsey has in turn become happier and much easier to stomach, and even enjoy.
Kate's growth into a more attentive parent parallels her growth as a super-hero. This is an antithetical idea. Usually writers portray the super-hero aspect of life working against the secret identity, and let me just say that anybody who denies Manhunter super-hero status just because she kills villains is an idiot. Kate is effective. She kills the criminals who escape justice. She follows a precise moral code of conduct, and she's more than a killer of criminals. She hunts the most dangerous game, yes, but in this issue the reader sees that Kate also enjoys the more aesthetic realities that come with the costume:
"Los Angeles, is actually beautiful once you go above the smog line. And this flying thing is something I could really get used to."
Kate has a distinctive voice. She's tough but also funny with a slight tinge of acidity. In terms of characterization, she falls more readily into the private eye category than the slot occupied by super-heroes. This combination of super-hero goals and gumshoe flintiness meshes effortlessly.
Back in the days of the multiverse, super-heroes had a variety of different voices. Nowadays, it's difficult to tell who is who just by their dialogue. Not so, in Manhunter. Kate obviously stands out because she wears the red, and this issue contrasts her voice to voices, just as unique, of three other heroes.
Andreyko's Wonder Woman works beautifully in the context of Manhunter's world and as a bona fide incarnation of the DC Universe Princess. I don't buy Wonder Woman. I'm a Wonder Woman fan, but I don't buy Wonder Woman. DC lost me. They lost me with Phil Jiminez's debacle soon after his brilliant Batman Family/Wonder Woman Family team-up. Walt Simonson's clean-up attempt did nothing for me. I began to get interested again with Rucka and Drew Johnson on board, but Infinite Crisis ruined any lasting good they tried to accomplish. Allen Heinberg's mishmash of bad continuity porn, not Jodi Picoult, is the real blame for Wonder Woman's current descent in quality. I would love to see Picoult's Wonder Woman, without DC's ridiculous trappings. After Picoult, Simone takes over the book. Oh. Joy. I don't see myself picking up Wonder Woman any time soon.
Manhunter gives readers a glimpse of what might have been. Marc Andreyko's Wonder Woman is a rich, deep and meaningful portrayal. In these pages, Andreyko shows Diana in good spirits as she humorously takes Kate's advice, nice when meeting Ramsey and deeply hurt over the memory of Blue Beetle's death. Now, I don't recall Diana ever really interacting with the Blue Beetle in comic books, but I don't care. When missing pieces have been written this well, continuity can go to blazes. I loathe the whole idea of Ted being humiliatingly shot in the head by un-foreshadowed villain of Identity Crisis Maxwell Lord, a character specifically created to be comic relief, but Andreyko makes Blue Beetle's death poignant, instead of the shock value stunt that it was.
Diana wants Everyman to pay for his impersonation, his staining of Ted's memory. She flies away with sorrow creasing her face so gorgeously in a heart-breaking depiction by Pina. She makes a vow, in shrunken font by letterer Travis Lanham, to Ted Kord's spirit. The people responsible will pay. I doubt any scenes in Diana's future will be able to match the power, vulnerability and grace Diana conveys in this moment. Andreyko is such a natural writer.
The villain behind the ruse asserts himself, but that's not the most impressive bit in the scene. Everyman's reaction to Batman discovering his identity last issue is the real treat for fans. Andreyko gets Batman. Batman isn't in this issue, but his presence is felt. Batman is a menace to villains everywhere. They fear his intelligence, and there it is in Everyman's dialogue:
"Well...Everything was great until Batman showed up..."
How I've longed to hear words like that again.
Kate actually has a super-hero friend. Obsidian hasn't ever been portrayed better than he has been portrayed in Manhunter. Johns turned him into an insane monster. Andreyko saw that he just really needed to come out of the closet, and ever since, he's been a healthy asset to Kate's extended family and a much better hero. Todd became Kate's former assistant now law partner's lover during the One Year Later jump, and Andreyko doesn't portray Obsidian as a stereotypical gay man. He's not what you expect. He's tough, witty and multifaceted. He acts like a regular guy who just happens to passionately love other guys.
I could go on. I could go on about how Chase Cameron is another triumph for Andreyko. The displaced adventurer who had her own cult series fit snugly into the internal continuity of the book as Kate's roommate in college, and Andreyko evolved her a subplot that strengthened her relationship with Dylan, Kate's originally coerced technical advisor, but now clearly a friend. It disgusts me that writing of this quality almost went away.
Andreyko's writing is so easy to digest that it really doesn't need explanation. He does not hit you with one lump of information. He feeds you the characterization bit by bit in the dialogue and the way he directs the scenes. The artists enhance the book's natural feel by contributing proportionate characters acting amid perfectly staged dramatic scenes. Read Manhunter.
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