No man escapes the tedium of the Manhunters.
Winick tried to make them interesting by making them less threatening;
Johns is trying by making them more threatening.
It doesn't really matter how threatening they are;
they aren't interesting, regardless.
They're red robots that kill people. My guess is the Manhunters were cobbled together from ...
Silver-Age Nazi robots,
abandoned projects of Mr. Morden,
and ore-crushers named "Roger"
after they locked Jack Kirby in the DCU garage-vault.
Their devastating power (snicker) has some basis in the Green Lantern energy, but if you ask me their planet-shattering color scheme would be sufficient.
They have zero individual identity (whoa, they really were the predecessors to the Lantern Corps). The most famous Manhunter of all time is Lana Lang (and if you don't understand that statement, then consider yourself lucky and move on).
Compared to the OMACs (who stole their only fun schtick, the human sleeper agent routine), they might as well have big keys sticking out of their backs.
As far as I know, they have no connection whatever with Jack Kirby. Yet they reek of Kirby's chromium pseudo-Aztec designs.
Kirby-esque, square-mouthed, bucket-headed interchangeable drones, bent on destroying all mutants, oops, I mean life?
Off to Marvel with them; perhaps the Sentinels can use them for spare parts.
I will happily second this transfer, if only you will agree to bundle them with the New Guardians. I think you hear me knocking, Scipio...
ReplyDeleteTom "Pie-Face" Malkeulaka is.... Computer Man! Deep hurting, indeed.
Actually, the robo-Manhunters were based on the not-quite so robotic Manhunter Cult that Jack Kirby had introduced in an issue of DC's First Issue Special (I think it was #5), so that's why they look so Kirbyesque.
ReplyDelete-Mindbender
I was surprised to see you comparing them favorably to OMAC. You realize that Kirby created OMAC (at least the design at this point), don't you? ;-)
ReplyDeleteJhunt; what? and give up Extrano?
ReplyDeleteMindbender: thanks, I did NOT know that and that explains it!
JM: only if by "the design" you mean "a mohawk", LOL! And the Mohawks created THAT!
Uh, Scipio, the design of the OMAC is pure Kirby. Same body design, same mohawk, same package. While it's true that Kirby didn't create the mohawk, he did create the design.
ReplyDeleteThus, amazingly, you appear to like a Kirby design. :-)
Now, on another topic, what did you think of the use of an Absorbacron on last night's JLU?
I haven't yet seen the episode.
ReplyDeleteThe current OMAC cyborgs are smooth and nearly featureless; Kirby machinery, robots included, is characterized by extraneous Aztec-styled detailing. And they bear virtually no resemblance to the original human who was OMAC. New Wave, Nuklon, Adam Strange, and Despero don't look like "Kirby designs" just because they have fin heads, and neither does OMAC, which, without the name, would not make you think of Kirby in 100 years.
I agree that the Manhunters are boring and ugly. I was hoping for a more imposing design when the "updated" model was introduced in Green Lantern #2, but no, it looked pretty much the same as the old ones, down to the ridiculous plate-metal Elizabethan ruff. Yup, send these losers off to Marvel where they can brunch with the Kree Sentry and the Master Mold.
ReplyDeleteTck.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you have against the grandeur that is Kirby anyway?