Entertainment
HBO’s Sci-Fi Detective Series Just Revived a Major Part of DC Comics Lore
Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Lanterns Episode 2.
For longtime Green Lantern fans, the reception to Lanterns has been sort of split. Many have enjoyed the reinterpretation of the comic book mythos, with Kyle Chandler‘s Hal Jordan being a breath of fresh air after the previous live-action adaptation. Some feel that the DC Comics stories aren’t being honored as well as they should be, as the HBO series takes a more grounded approach to the characters’ lore. Wherever you stand, the revelation that Manhunters are the next big threat to Hal and John’s (Aaron Pierre) investigation is an exciting one — provided you know what a Manhunter even is, of course.
‘Lanterns’ Episode 2 Namedrops the Manhunters as the Next Biggest Threat to Earth
When John Stewart is kidnapped by the mysterious Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor), he learns the dark truth about the Guardians of the Universe. Before the Green Lantern Corps took over as the DCU’s biggest space cops, there were the Manhunters. According to Antaan, these creatures were synthetic beings that could pose as organic lifeforms, shapeshifting to blend in with their surroundings before sparking an alien genocide. In fact, it was Antaan’s own people who were slaughtered, with the dead aliens found in Rushville, Nebraska, being the select few that tracked down the last surviving Manhunter to the American Midwest. As the alien-in-disguise explains to John, that the last Manhunter was captured by the Green Lantern Abin Sur and taken to be executed — only that execution never happened.
Lanterns proposes that the surviving Manhunter has been living on Earth for decades, ever since Abin Sur crash-landed and bequeathed his power ring to Hal Jordan, making him the first official Green Lantern of Earth. These beings are not to be confused with Martian Manhunter, the superhero who hails from Mars, or the other costumed characters who have gone by the name “Manhunter,” usually heroes from Earth who sought justice outside the justice system. The Manhunters we’re talking about were a race of robotic peacekeepers first created by the Guardians to patrol the galaxy efficiently and without the potential loss of life. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how things ultimately played out. In the comics, we later learn that the Manhunters eventually conspired to rebel against the Guardians, having come to their own conclusions about the way that the galaxy should be run. This often put them in conflict with the Green Lantern Corps, their successors.
Nevertheless, the Manhunters continued to patrol the galaxy, looking for those they could convert to their cause. (Ironically, human Mark Shaw would take up the Manhunter identity and color scheme because of the Manhunters’ influence.) “No man escapes the Manhunters” is the common mantra of this uncompromising force, and they had no trouble making sure that everyone knew it. However, it wasn’t until the “Secret Origin” story arc by Geoff Johns that we began to understand why the Manhunters rebelled. It turns out that the androids’ programming had been corrupted by an Oan named Krona, resulting in a massacre where the Manhunters annihilated an entire sector: Sector 666. Only five survived the onslaught, including the future Red Lantern Atrocitus, whose backstory is quite similar to Antaan’s on Lanterns — no wonder so many are theorizing that he’s Atrocitus in disguise.
Manhunters Have a Storied History in the Green Lantern Mythos
Similar to how they are described on Lanterns, Johns’ “No Fear” arc reveals a Manhunter that appears quite human before eradicating folks around him. From what we can tell, Lanterns has taken some inspiration from this iteration in particular. Still, there’s no telling what might happen or how the Manhunters may evolve throughout the series. Of course, some are no doubt hoping that we’ll get a depiction that’s closer to their comic book counterparts or even what we saw from the robotic race on Justice League or Green Lantern: The Animated Series, but at this point that seems unlikely. Whatever form they take, Manhunters remain Hal and John’s biggest threat thus far — well, besides each other, if Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) is to be believed.
Although the Manhunters first appeared in an issue of Justice League of America, the androids became synonymous with Green Lantern lore over time. Almost every major adaptation of the character has battled them in some form or another, and they continue to plague the Green Lantern Corps as recently as the current DC runs. While they didn’t appear in the highly unpopular 2011 Green Lantern film (which still has its merits), they were still the main antagonists of the tie-in video game Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters. In short, the Manhunters have been on the docket for a proper adaptation for a long time. Here’s hoping that Lanterns can follow through.
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