Mark Shaw (New Earth)
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History
Mark Shaw was a public defender, unhappy about how easily criminals manipulated the system and got off without punishment. Shaw's uncle Desmond introduced him to an ancient sect of crime fighters called the Manhunters. Shaw contacted the Grand Master, the sect's leader, through a magical lion medallion. Shortly, he assumed the Manhunter name and costume from a previous Manhunter.[1],[2]
Mark Shaw later reappeared and the Manhunter sect and was shown to be comprised of androids, created billions of years before by the Guardians of Oa to police the galaxy. For millennia, they served the Guardians well. However, the Manhunters became obsessed with the act of 'hunting' criminals. Their code, "No Man Escapes The Manhunters", became more important to them than seeing justice done. Eventually, the androids rebelled against the Guardians, but were swiftly defeated by their creators. Those that survived went into hiding.[3]
The latter-day Manhunters attempted to disgrace the Guardians with Mark Shaw at their side. They were opposed by the JLA, especially by League member Green Lantern. Shaw realized that he had been duped by the Manhunters and turned on them, killing the Grand Master, who was revealed to be a robot. Mark Shaw quickly returned as a new hero called the Privateer, but it was soon revealed that he was also working as a villain called the Star-Tsar, in league with the Key. The Red Tornado discovered this deception and Shaw went to prison.[4]
While in the midst of serving his sentence, Shaw was offered the chance to accompany the Suicide Squad on a mission as the Privateer, and was released when the mission was completed.[5] In the wake of the Millennium crisis, he donned a new costume to distance himself from the Manhunter cult, and had his own adventures. Shaw now hunted costumed criminals for the bounty. He kept insisting that he was just operating for the money, but he kept finding himself doing the right thing.
During this time, he and his family were threatened by two shape-shifters named Dumas. Shaw killed the first Dumas and his battle with the second led him to give up the Manhunter identity. It was later revealed that Mark Shaw was actually himself Dumas and much of his history was actually the result of mental programming by the US Government.[6] Shaw joined the Shadow Fighters in order to battle the supervillan Eclipso. It was assumed that Mark Shaw was killed opposing Eclipso alongside his other team members in the Shadow Fighters. This was soon revealed not to be the case.[7]
He was actually undercover at the time he was facing Eclipso, masquerading as his old enemy Dumas at the behest of Sarge Steel.[6]
Recently, Mark Shaw has been approached to take up the mantle of Azrael. It remains to be seen if he follows up on the offer.
See Also
- Discuss Mark Shaw (New Earth) on the forums
- Appearances of Mark Shaw (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Mark Shaw (New Earth)
- Images featuring Mark Shaw (New Earth)
Links and References
- Manhunter at Wikipedia
Footnotes
- ↑ First Issue Special #5
- ↑ The unnamed Manhunter was created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in First Issue Special #5. He reappeared in Justice League of America #140 and in a flashback in Secret Origins vol. 1, issue 22. This Manhunter wore a costume similar to Paul Kirk's 1940's outfit.
- ↑ Justice League of America #140
- ↑ Justice League of America #143
- ↑ Suicide Squad vol. 1 #8-10
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Manhunter vol. 3 #13
- ↑ Eclipso #11-13
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Manhunter (comics). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with DC Database, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
