Who Are The Manhunters In Lanterns? The DC Comics Villains Explained
Contains spoilers for "Lanterns" Season 1, Episode 2
Episode 2 of HBO's Green Lantern reboot "Lanterns" introduces a whole new group of power players to the DC Universe, as the alien Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) and his crew abducts John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) after a lengthy chase and fight sequence. Against all appearances, it turns out that these folks might not be peaceful, but they're at least on a somewhat right track to keeping peace. After initial misunderstandings, it transpires that Antaan has a very valid reason behind his actions: He's after a creature known as Manhunter.
Antaan describes the Manhunters as artificial creations with a mysterious origin. They have eradicated countless lives in the past and, as it turns out, the last known one is on Earth and presumably up to no good. Antaan's people have located the threat to Rushville, and since they are unable to enter the mysterious Nebraska town thanks to its suspiciously good alien-detecting technology, they want to recruit John as their Manhunter-locating eyes on the scene.
"Lanterns" didn't just pull the concept of Manhunters out of its sleeve. These artificial constructs are somewhat deep-cut characters from Green Lantern lore with a well-established presence in the comics. Let's learn more about them.
The Manhunters are a failed peacekeeper prototype
Created by the great Jack Kirby and debuting in 1975, the Manhunters are the Guardians of the Universe's first stab at creating a galactic peacekeeping force. There's a reason the Guardians ended up abandoning the project in favor of the Green Lantern Corps, though.
The programmed credo of the Manhunters was "No Man Escapes the Manhunters," and if that seems like the motto of an extermination-slash-hunter team, you wouldn't be terribly wrong. In fact, thanks to a particular Guardian called Krona, the Manhunters deduced that crime stems from emotion, which comes from organic life. This led to the massacre of an entire sector of a galaxy, marking the end of the Manhunter program — but not the end of the Manhunters themselves. Since then, they've lingered, sometimes waging war against the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps and other times biding their time while posing as residents of faraway planets and causing further trouble.
Interestingly, the Guardians modeled the Manhunters after the Martian Manhunters, the police force of the planet Mars. Prominent Justice League member and Martian J'onn J'onzz has a history with them, to the point of using the name Martian Manhunter. Apart from the Martian Manhunter cameo in "Zack Snyder's Justice League," the character hasn't had much presence in DC-adjacent films, so who knows? The DC Universe might be playing the long game to introduce a surprising character down the line.
"Lanterns" Season 1 is streaming on HBO Max.