DCU Comic Book Reviews

MANHUNTER #33

Forgotten, Part 3:  Found

October 2008

Written by Marc Andreyko

Pencils by Michael Gaydos

Inks by Michael Gaydos

Cover by Liam Sharp

Synopsis

In the midst of investigating the deaths of immigrant women, Kate Spencer (aka Manhunter) infiltrates Vesetech Pharmaceuticals but encounters meta-human security.  Earlier, Sandra Knight calls Iron Munro to tell him she thinks they need to tell Ramsey about his grandfather, their son.  In Mexico, another body of a young woman is found.  It is the cousin of a young man who works in Kate’s office.  When she visits his home, she learns the woman’s heart had been taken from her.  Elsewhere, Dylan is worried about the Joker when an unknown person approaches Dylan and then knocks him unconscious.  Meanwhile, Sandra and Iron are discussing what to say about their son.  Nearby, Dylan is playing with his new dog Thor, who runs into the road in front of a speeding truck.  Dylan runs out to save his dog.  Dylan gets hit by the truck, but it is the truck that gets smashed to pieces, not Dylan.  Now, Manhunter eludes the meta-human security, but just as she gets away, she runs into the Suicide Squad.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I need to come up with a better way of saying how much I liked a particular issue of this book besides simply saying that is good stuff, once more.  But for a title that is such a consistent, excellent read each month, I am thinking that there might not be a better way.  So let me say:  Good stuff. 

One of the things I enjoy is the manner in which Andreyko writes the fight scenes.  It is probably a combination of his writing and the character of Manhunter, but I enjoy the way she is confident in her abilities, but not too confident.  She makes mistakes and things don’t always go as planned (but sometimes they do) and she does get beat up, but Kate still manages to make it through in the end.  I get the sense of someone who is good, but not perfect, which is a theme of the book in general.  Kate is constantly struggling in her life (demonstrated with the cigarette scene) so the fight scenes are a great demonstration of that.  She struggles, but she overcomes those struggles. 

I like the fact that in both of the sub-plots not involving Kate, the characters are having to deal with the past and confront what happened head on.  Both Dylan and Sandra and Iron tried to run away from the pasts and tried to hide from the past, but now it is catching up to them. 

This book operates in a weird manner in that it is obviously part of the DC universe, but at the same time it tends to tackle problems that are more consistent with the real world (such as illegal immigrants).  So it has to draw the fine line of incorporating capes into the story and dealing with issues that would not be solved by the presence of capes.  I think this issue goes a little too far with the capes with the arrival of the Suicide Squad.  The appearance of Blue Beetle made sense (given the locale near Mexico), as does Oracle (given Manhunter’s role in the birds Of Prey).  The same could be said with the Joker.  But the Suicide Squad takes the story to whole different realm, one that I don’t think helps the book.  I could be wrong (and I hope I am wrong) but the gritty, realistic feel of the book may suffer with the arrival of a human that looks like a tiger. 

Does the cover of the book have anything to do with the contents?  Granted, a lot of comic books are like that, but the television screen and the “no comment” just begs for the story to match.  Or at least begs for Andreyko to tackle a story like that. 

ïPREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXTð

Home ●  Blog ● Who Are We? ● Site News
Alive and Well since April 16, 2006

 DC Universe Reviews.  All Rights Reserved
  Characters, trademarks, brands are property of DC Comics

For problems or questions regarding this website, please contact our kindly webmaster.
Last updated: 08/06/11.