Stuff tends to stack up in the August household.

We have systems in place to optimize magazine readership and recycling,¹ but printed objects of which I am the sole reader — comic books, scripts, serio-comic novels purchased on an Amazon spree — have a tradition of piling up on the corners of desks and counters.

I offer this preamble as partial explanation for my delay in articulating how much I love Marc Andreyko’s Manhunter.

I’m not the first writer of note to notice that it’s great. It features blurbs from Joss Whedon and others. But I came upon so late, and so randomly, that I feel some obligation to point out its merits so others can appreciate it.

As long-term blog readers will know, I have deep respect and shallow knowledge when it comes to the comic book world. I didn’t grow up reading them. My teenage years were spent around the D&D table, arguing over the relative merits of a vorpal blade vs. a sword of sharpness.² That and snow-caving. (Colorado + Boy Scouts = unsafe survivalism.)

So a few months ago, when I was in Golden Apple picking up the latest Black Adam, I had no idea that Manhunter was a DC character, or that Marc Andreyko was doing a new series with a female protagonist: Kate Spencer, a D.A. with no special abilities, a failed marriage and a smoking habit. I would have passed it on the shelf, unopened, except that Marc Andreyko happened to be in Golden Apple at that moment, and recognized me from a screening of The Nines.

After a friendly chat, I asked him what he wrote. He put three trade paperbacks of Manhunter in my hands. Which then landed in one of my to-read piles.

I read all three over Christmas, back-to-back, forgoing sleep and egg nog.

Other than Batman, I never had much use for superheroes who couldn’t fly or punch through walls. If I wanted normal people, I’d read a novel. What Manhunter does so well is create a deeply flawed and funny hero who has to interact with the super-powered every day. As a prosecutor, Spencer has to deal with all the villainous debris left behind after the capes fly off. And one day, frustrated by guilty psychopaths going free, she decides to deliver justice herself.

The series is set in LA, rather than a mythical surrogate city, so having direct references to real places is refreshing. The book manages to weave in a who’s-who of minor DC villains, with some big names showing up in unexpected ways.

There’s no shortage of ambition in the comics world — that’s one of the things I admire most about it, as opposed to features. But the combination of ambition and execution in the Manhunter series is why I’d urge you to give it a shot.

1. When finished with a magazine your significant other and/or roommate may also wish to read, write (your name) read in big letters across the cover with a Sharpie. Then the other person may safely recycle the magazine after reading. ↩
2. You can see a summary of the vorpal/sharpness situation here. And no, I didn’t write it. ↩