So this is why we’re here. Manhunter, by Marc Andreyko and Jesus Saiz, with Jimmy Palmiotti on inks, is easily one of my favorite DC series ever—and the first issue shows why.
Titled “Shedding Skin,” it’s an origin story about a district attorney frustrated with the system, so she sheds her lawyer identity at night to punish the criminals who the law can’t stop. Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s sort of a DC version of Punisher.
Her first enemy is, appropriately based on the titled “Shedding Skin,” a snakelike villain, Copperhead. But more than the action is the characterization and the smart storylines. In this first issue, for example, we get the “genetic defense,” where Copperhead’s lawyer successfully argues that he can’t be found guilty because he was born to be a predator…
It sounds stupid, and yet at the same time it recalls the classic “Twinkie Defense” used to defend Dan White after he murdered Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone in San Francisco. It’s so nuts, that it drives Kate Spencer to break into the evidence room and take the staff of a former Manhunter…
…And kill Copperhead:
Right away, you know this is a different kind of DC Comic. We’re off, and trust me, this is a great series.