"Who's Your Daddy?" Part 1 Family Plots
Writer: Marc Andreyko
Artists: Javier Pina(p), Fernanado Blanco(i), Steve Buccellato(c)
Publisher: DC
This issue of Manhunter starts out slow, but builds momentum that sweeps the main plot and the subplots into its path. The quick pace carries the reader to an intelligent cliffhanger and leaves that reader wanting much, much more.
Marc Andreyko jumps ahead from Kate's and ex-husband Pete's tryst. We open the pages to find Mark Shaw--former Manhunter--training the newest and in my humble opinion best hero identified by that venerable name. The training session diverts to Kate's confrontation against a loser villain, and Andreyko keeps everything light and bouncy. He also makes the point to show that although Skorpio is a complete pushover for somebody like Kate Spencer, he still to the non-powered is a very real threat.
Skorpio is not a madman. He is not a mad scientist. He doesn't want to rape or murder anybody. He just wants to rob a bank for the very comprehensible motive of getting tons of money to buy lots of stuff. His reaction to Kate is priceless and depicts him as one of the smarter DC villains. This is the way criminals used to react to Batman, Batgirl and the earth-two Huntress. How I miss those days when heroes mattered. Now, only Manhunter matters.
From the quickly and professionally handled bank robbery, Kate returns to the office where her best friend Chase Cameron waits to have a heart to heart chat about her costumed activities. Andreyko makes the conversation very real. Even the outré elements regarding super-heroes he incorporates into a natural dialogue.
Artists Pina, Blanco and Buccellato give the visuals a more open and friendlier look that eases the tension for first half of Manhunter. Everything is sunlit and the colors more summery. This relaxed mood contrasts the scenes in which Kate meets the head, or rather the skull, of the DEO, Mr. Bones. Here, shadows encroach with dark sunset cast colors. Andreyko in these scenes load Kate's dialogue with wonderful threats backed through Kate's knowledge of Bones' unsavory history.
Manhunter consistently generates interest without the exploitation of shock gimmicks. The book snares its prey with the well-crafted stories of Mark Andreyko and aesthetic artwork by Pina, Blanco and Buccellato featuring an appealing super-hero.
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