Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #502: Manchester Black

In light of last week’s entry on Jenny Sparks, it occurs to me that a character somewhat inspired by Jenny Sparks and other Warren Ellis- or Mark Millar-created characters might make for a good entry here.  As it is, let’s take a look at Manchester Black.

Manchester Black first appeared in Action Comics #775 in March of 2001 by writer Joe Kelly and artist Doug Mahnke.  Black was the leader of a four-person antihero team of violent wannabe heroes calling themselves “the Elite.”  Black, alongside Coldcast, the Hat, and Menagerie, were essentially an Authority-like team that believed the best way to deal with bad guys was to use lethal force at all times.  Superman, naturally, objected to this idea, and the Elite made him question whether anyone still cared about Truth, Justice, and the American Way.  Black, a British man with a Union Jack tattooed to his chest and a head full of purple hair, was a powerful telepath and telekinetic who talked about awful (and yet seemingly impossible) things that happened to him that struck me as meaningless but meant to invoke an Ellis or Millar anti-hero or maybe just any Grant Morrison script.

A later storyline, featuring Manchester’s sister Vera, actually illustrated one of these stories Manchester told as something that legitimately happened somehow.

Anyway, Superman went into a moral quandary.  Were his methods enough, or should he be doing more?  He ultimately didn’t think so, leading to a battle on Jupiter’s moon Io where, initially, the Elite were winning until Superman finally decided “the gloves are off” and made it look like he killed Coldcast, the Hat, and Menagerie in short order before claiming he used very precise X-ray and heat vision to cut out the small growth from Black’s brain that granted him his mental powers through Black’s pupils.  Black, panicking, said it wasn’t right because Superman doesn’t do those sorts of things, only to learn that Superman doesn’t do those sorts of things and the whole thing was a trick to show Black what it was like to be on the other side of those sorts of things.

It is worth noting that the Elite, as a team, would go on to somewhat reform under the leadership of Black’s sister Vera while Manchester would become something of a reoccurring villain, first reappearing as a member of the Suicide Squad sent to retrieve Doomsday to go off and fight Imperiex, a mission where only Black survived.  He’s come back, and even died a couple times, but most interesting may be a relatively recent storyline where Black joined the Authority.  This was a team specially formed by Superman that went off on missions to Warworld and the like, and Black actually reformed.  Then Lex Luthor killed him in order to erase the knowledge that Clark Kent was Superman from the minds of most people.

The thing is, that first appearance is probably a modern classic in the era of Superman comics, even earning a straight-to-video animated adaptation at one point.

Black, it should be noted, is the most noteworthy and memorable of the bunch.  Coldcast was actually interested in being a straight-up good guy.  The Hat basically disappeared as near as I can make out.  Menagerie’s powers, essentially where her body was a depository for smaller alien life forms, corrupted her and her sister when the powers transferred to the second Menagerie.  But Black?  He keeps popping up from time to time, even appearing as a character on the live action Supergirl series as played by actor David Ajala.

So, not bad for a character that might have arguably been a parody of a certain type of then-popular antihero.