DCU Comic Book Reviews

MANHUNTER #21

Psychobabble, Part Two:  Mind Over Morals

June 2006

Written by Marc Andreyko

Pencils by Javier Pina

Inks by Fernando Blanco

Cover by Javier Pina

Synopsis

Edgar Cizko (aka Dr. Psycho) is on trial for psychically manipulating several Metropolis citizens to brutally kill members of the Hangmen.  Kate Spencer (aka Manhunter) has been ordered to defend his actions in court, a task she finds unpleasant.  Meanwhile, Dylan is on the phone with Cameron when strange things happen to his phone and computer screens.  In Runyon Canyon, a runner finds a strange dog named Thor before he is hit with a tranquilizer dart in the neck.   In Los Angeles, a man and woman having an affair at a motel are savagely killed.  Back at court, Kate cross examines Pieter Cross (aka Dr. Mid-Nite).  Afterwards, she approaches him to find out if her father was really Al Pratt (aka the original Atom). 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was a fascinating read for two reasons:  first, to see how Kate debunks the prosecution’s case against Dr. Psycho and second, to learn more about what happened in Metropolis when the Society attacked en masse.  Obviously a lot of the big battle appears elsewhere, but a lot of that was focused (naturally) on the heroes and villains.  In this issue, the focus is on the citizens who were caught in the crossfire.  This one thing that is usually forgotten whenever there are big battles in populated cities: what about the people living there.  The glimpse of Dr. Psycho’s control over the people was frightening, especially the full page of the woman tearing apart the Hangmen.  More chilling was the rebuttal and Kate’s maneuvering to get the poor woman to basically cancel out her testimony.  I would have to imagine that she would not be able to do that with all of the people that were shown in the attack, but this once was good.

The rest of the issue was really just brief set-ups for future plotlines.  There was a death scene in the previous issue similar to the death scene at the motel, so I will assume they are the same.  I wonder if the running scene and Dylan’s computer malfunction are connected, either to each other or to anything else in the book.  I guess we will have to wait and see.

There was a cute little moment when Kate slight chokes/coughs before she can say the last part of Martian Manhunter.

And, just in case you were wondering, an MRI of the brain would show you nothing.  To show brain activity such as what Dr. Mid0Nite suggests, I would suggest a PET (positron emission technology) scan.

Comic Connection

The start of the battle in Metropolis occurs in the Villains United Infinite Crisis Special and the rest of it appears in Infinite Crisis #7. 

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