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That's mildly amusing Greg. But it's also really old news ... why the post now? Did a Manhunter trade (or two) just come out? (er, no pun intended.)

Yeah, the third trade came out last week. I was just struck by how Andreyko really beats us over the head with the fact that they're gay. In single issues, I wonder if it had the same impact, but reading nine issues over the course of a day really brings it home that the only time Damon shows up anymore, it's to talk about how gay he is.

Ahh. I don't recall it seeming quite so head-beating in the individual issues. Of course, he's pretty much just Todd's BF — that sort of defined his raison d'etre, in my recollection. (Having said that, I'll note that I didn't start buying the series till about halfway through. Did he have anything to do before he started dating Obsidian?)

That's the point: he was Kate's legal assistant, and we didn't actually learn he was gay (the first panel) until the second trade (I can't remember the issue number). Since then, however, he doesn't seem to do any work, just make googly-eyes at Todd. Even Obsidian shows up and kicks some ass in the third trade. I just wish Damon would have something to do. It's as if he suddenly lost any reason for being, as you point out, except to be gay. It's annoying.

So does this trade have cliffhangers or have anything happen that makes sense if you don't care about Crisis, or is it just like the second trade?

I dunno, Greg, I think Andreyko is just giving the same treatment to them as he has to Chase and Dylan, which is probably Andreyko's point (I'm going to depict the gay couple the same way I depict the straight couple).

There IS a lot of sex in Manhunter, though, now that you mention it.

And frankly, Chase and Dylan got far more screen time together. By scanning all 7 pages where it's mentioned, this is overmuch on the gay theme? Can't say I agree with that conclusion.

My point is that Chase and Dylan are in the book A LOT doing other stuff, and yes, they have an active sex life too. In the second and third trades, the pages I scanned are pretty much the only time Damon shows up. It's as if he was going along being Kate's legal assistant, and then Andreyko wrote, "He's gay!" and then the rest of his life dropped away. Chase and Dylan have more to do, and they seem like well-rounded characters. Damon was on his way to that, but he got waylaid by his orientation! So I don't think he depicts the straight couple the same as the gay one, except that they both have a healthy sex life, which is totally cool. But there's only one brief scene in the third trade in which Damon appears where we AREN'T reminded that he's gay.

You're right, Brian, there is a lot of sex in Manhunter. More power to it!

I don't know, FGJ. I enjoyed all three trades. This one sinks a bit more into arcane DC history, however, which is a bit annoying.

I don't want to ruin the surprise, Greg...

SPOILERS!!!

But that new lesbian Batwoman might be gay too.

I didn't read any of the dialouge so I can only assume the blonde guy is sucking the venom of a snake bite out of the other guys mouth.

And then they... wrestled.. naked... and then took a nap? Its all quite confusing. Not sure what the rest of the panels are about.

You’re right, Brian, there is a lot of sex in Manhunter. More power to it!

But it's like everything else in Manhunter - it's there to show how 'cutting edge' it is, nothing else.
It's like Kate's smoking in it, it's constantly mentioned, over and over again, just in case we haven't realised 'this superhero smokes!!!', which somehow makes her tougher.
Of course it's all let down because the stories aren't cutting edge at all - the trial with firestorm made no sense at all.

I don’t know, FGJ. I enjoyed all three trades. This one sinks a bit more into arcane DC history, however, which is a bit annoying.

I liked the initial storyline.
I was then lost in an identity crisis storyline, followed by a trial that spun out of it - where every cliffhanger was just a splash page of a villain - one I'd never heard of, and the story itself gave no reason for me to know/fear them.
Then there was a storyline about past manhunters, that then got tied into omac's or something.

It's just flat out poor!

What happened to her being on the other side of America so that she was in her own world, acting solo?
Whatever happened to a debate about taking the law into one's own hands - you don't become a DA without having some respect for the process of law... this character just decided to fore go it and has just been running around ever since.

I think the book was a nice idea, with an interesting start, that's just slid off the rails ever since.

I think it's fair to say, Funky, that Manhunter's stories after the first trade basically WERE "what can we tie into so that we can continue showing the readers these characters that we think are neat?"

So yeah, there's going to be some drag on the quality of the book going by that approach.

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