The meat of this issue is a very strong rooftop fight scene between the new Manhunter and a classic Hawkman foe, the Shadow Thief. It has echoes of Identity Crisis, in that the Shadow Thief is crazier and more dangerous than he has previously been, and it's a gorgeously executed example of the rookie hero versus the experienced villain fight. It is also, unfortunately, one of the problems that I have with this book, in that Andrekyo hasn't really given us much of a character to hang onto yet in protagonist Kate Spencer, and so her inner torment doesn't really connect with me. This is a very nice looking book, and it has some solid action, but it doesn't have much of a soul yet, and it needs to get one. Fast.
The main problem, I guess, isn't just that Kate Spencer is something of an enigma, but also that I don't like what we do know. She's a truly rotten mom who seems to have trouble taking responsibility for herself, and she's put herself into danger and begun murdering supervillains because "it feels good." She comes across as selfish and dangerous rather than heroic, and while there's certainly an interesting story to be told there, it doesn't feel like that's where Andreyko is going with it. It feels more like we're meant to sympathize with Kate's plight, to feel bad for the situation that she has put herself in, and all I can think is that her son and ex-husband (and society at large) would probably be better off if she took a tumble off a roof.
My intense dislike of the protagonist aside, however, this issue does feature a terrific set piece, a rooftop fight between Manhunter and Shadow Thief. Andreyko's take on the Shadow Thief has him as a bit of a multiple personality, talking to the shadows in his head. It's not as interesting to me as the corporate spy angle that Ostrander introduced in Hawkworld, but it's an interesting take, and Andreyko, Saiz and Palmiotti do a great job of playing his powers off as scary and effective as well. I love the notion that he's not just wearing a suit, but that he has become shadow, and the way the story plays off of shadows and light interacting with his body is terrific.
Visually, this issue is a real treat. Saiz gives a great sense of the height of the battle, and really brings the brutality of the fight to life as well. This is not a bloodless superhero-supervillain fight, but a dirty street fight. Kate worries about losing teeth, winds up dangling precariously over a ledge and comes down hard on a nearby prop, and the Shadow Thief (temporarily) loses himself a limb. Andrekyo is definitely aiming for a violent vigilante style, more akin to the Punisher than Spider-Man, and Saiz and Palmiotti do an excellent job of bringing that style to the page.
Manhunter has an interesting tone and some really nice action, but we're three issues in and we still don't have much of an explanation for why Kate Spencer is doing this, or who she is when she isn't being Manhunter. In a market where new concepts (even ones that are tagged with the name of a second- or third-string character) have very little room to prove themselves to readers, this slow burn, enigmatic approach seems like sales suicide. A little more focus on Kate Spencer would balance the book out considerably, and turn it from an OK read into something much stronger. 6/10
