Wonder Woman in Manhunter

[DisneyBoy]

Years ago someone mentioned to me how Diana's murder trial was elaborated on in the Manhunter books. Since I didn't care much about Max (LOL) or Infinite Crisis, I never checked it out, but now I'm thinking of tracking down the issues.

For those of you who read that book, how many issues dealt with Wonder Woman? And did you enjoy the way they expanded upon the death of Max? Does it tie in with Amazons Attack in any way? Is the art nice? Or did it all feel like more unnecessary, drawn-out drama?

If I'm just going to be annoyed by it, I'd prefer to steer clear, but I'm curious now if maybe it's worth a read.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Years ago someone mentioned to me how Diana's murder trial was elaborated on in the Manhunter books. Since I didn't care much about Max (LOL) or Infinite Crisis, I never checked it out, but now I'm thinking of tracking down the issues.

For those of you who read that book, how many issues dealt with Wonder Woman? And did you enjoy the way they expanded upon the death of Max? Does it tie in with Amazons Attack in any way? Is the art nice? Or did it all feel like more unnecessary, drawn-out drama?

If I'm just going to be annoyed by it, I'd prefer to steer clear, but I'm curious now if maybe it's worth a read.

Its issues Manhunter #26-#30 by Mark Andrekyo which people might better know as the writer for the 'Wonder Woman 77' series.
And it opens by establishing that the world court had already cleared Diana of all charges, but that the Federal Government began pressing charges a year after the event, with the story being focused on an indictment hearing to decide whether or not it goes to court.

Its legit a pretty good story, though worth warning that this is a book with a B and C plot focusing on the books supporting characters which are happening alongside the main plot. Would probably be a two issue affair without subplots to also juggle.

[DisneyBoy]

So it's a kind of epilogue to the whole thing. Interesting.

Are there good Diana moments, or is it entirely skippable? If there's 3 Diana pages per issue and it's all just her feeling shameful or whatever, I don't need that LOL.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

So it's a kind of epilogue to the whole thing. Interesting.

Are there good Diana moments, or is it entirely skippable? If there's 3 Diana pages per issue and it's all just her feeling shameful or whatever, I don't need that LOL.

More like 5-10 pages? It is the A plot of the book after all. And one can skip the B and C plots if their only in it for the A plot as their not connected to the Wonder Woman story.

Lemme see if im doing spoiler tags correctly.....
[spoiler]

So theres a couple big twists to the story that set the stage for it.
One is that this trial was not simply done out of nowhere, it has a mastermind whose orchestrating things behind the scenes to try and ensure it would destroy Wonder Womans reputation. Its also setting the scene unfortunately for Amazons Attack, as elements in that are set up in this.

The other factor which isn't established ANYWHERE ELSE aside from this book, is the reveal that as far as the general public knows, Diana out of nowhere killed Maxwell Lord without reason. The version of events that the general public saw is muted and edited to make it look like an unprovoked attack after he was already restrained.
This is revealed to be because Wonder Woman refuses to let the general public know that Superman had been mind controlled or that Batman created an evil killer murder AI to conquer the world with. Believing such things would irrevocably destroy their respective reputations, and give their enemies ideas for weaknesses in her friends to exploit. Which Dianas enemies are happy to go along with because this tarnishes her reputation instead.

[/spoiler]

[DisneyBoy]

Thank you for the details! You said just enough to give an overview without spoiling everything. Appreciated!

(I think you have to put a single space between the spoiler brackets and the start of the text though - yours are touching, so everyone can see it all.)

How's the art? I got excited seeing Phil's work on the first cover, but he's obviously not doing the interiors, right?

[Fuzzy Mittens]

No matter how much I fiddle with that spoiler tag it does nothing....


id say the artstyle is pretty solid?

Its got Javier Pina on pencils
Robin Riggs on inks
and Jason Wright on colours

[HestiasHearth]

Marc Andreyko's Manhunter is, IMO, one of the best solo female comic books I have ever read (yes, ever). I suffered so much during that book's run seeing how month after month it had tepid sales despite eliciting glowing reviews from pretty much everyone who read it. It was a sharply written series that perfectly balanced characterization, plot, and action, and it vividly gave Kate Spenser (the title heroine) a memorable voice. She was smart and resourceful, but she had flaws and contradictions. And boy, was she badass!!! Seriously, that book deserved to sell a million copies a month (lol). If I were a powerful editor at DC I'd greenlight a Sensation Comics revival that had Andreyko write something...anything (but particularly a Huntress backup).

[kcekada]

I collected and enjoyed the entire run of her series. One thing that she was missing was a compelling design and original abilities. The plots and characterization were great, but Manhunter's look was so so -- and abilities were very generic.

[DisneyBoy]

After reading the issues, I can say your descriptions, Fuzzy, were spot-on. I rather enjoyed it and there was a solid explanation for why the audio was muted: if the world had heard Superman under Max's control, and Max saying he could easily control him indefinitely, it would hurt the public's trust in Clark, which Diana sought to prevent.

I wouldn't normally be a fan of the foremost female superheroine falling on her sword, so to speak, for the sake of a male character, but this is Superman, her close ally and general symbol of the best of humanity. People trusting in him is pretty essential to the DC Universe, so of course she wouldn't want the world to know he was turned into a dangerous puppet by someone so seemingly average.

Decent art and storytelling too. The Diana stuff took up about 12 pages per issue, so it was a good two-and-a-half issue epilogue of sorts.

Manhunter herself was a bit odd to me. A lawyer who usually represents criminals...but then puts on a costume to hunt them down at night? Okay. And her costume design wasn't much to speak of.

The one really weird thing, Diana-wise, was her being surprised at paparazzi taking pictures of her and Kate eating at a restaurant. Hasn't she been a celeb for enough years by this point to know that's what they do?

It was a really jarring moment. I know they relaunched the Wonder Woman book at this point, but Diana as a character wasn't relaunched. This is the same one who'd run an embassy a year prior.