Back in the early 2Ks, DC Comics released a total of 17 volumes collecting all of Jack Kirby's 1970s output for the company an a good chunk of the work he did with his partner Joe Simon in the 1940s. One thing DC didn't release was S&K's "Manhunter" series. Manhunter ran from Adventure Comics #58 through #92, but S&K were responsible for only eight of them. Despite their short run, their work was instrumental in defining the character for decades to come. I have ceased holding my breath waiting for DC to collect these stories and have decided to read them as reprinted in New Gods.
Originally, "Paul Kirk, Manhunter" was a "tracer of missing persons" who did favors for his friend, Tim Holden, the chief of police. The character was created by Ed Moore and solved ordinary murder and robbery cases and tracked down crooks. When Simon & Kirby came aboard they redefined the character as thoroughly as they did the Sandman. For all intents and purposes, as with Sandman, their Manhunter was an entire different character. Based on the fact that their Manhunter was initially named "Rick Nelson" I suspect that that was their intention.
ADVENTURE COMICS #73 - "The Buzzard's Revenge" (Reprinted in New Gods #4):
"Rick Nelson" was re-lettered to "Paul Kirk"... except in panel three of page three, in which his suit was also miscolored, leading me to believe that the letterer and colorist didn't realize that it was the same character. (Also, the colorist has a problem with Manhunter's blue facemask; he colors it red, like a half-mask, even though it's not drawn that way.) Nelson/Kirk is described as a "young sportsman" (and later a "big game hunter"). Gone is Police Chief Holden, replaced by Inspector Donovan, whose murder sparks Nelson/Kirk to don a super-hero costume and use his tracking abilities to hunt down the killer. The Buzzard is very much in the vein of villains who appeared in in S&K's Captain America. At some point between issues, someone decided that this "Manhunter" be the same as the previous one and his name was changed to Paul Kirk.
ADVENTURE COMICS #74 - "Scavenger Hunt" (Reprinted in New Gods #5)
At a society costume party, "Runt" and "Big Droop" are in competition for the same girl. Paul Kirk steps in and suggests that whichever wins the scavenger hunt wins the girl. Witnessing Big Droop fix the challenges, Paul decides to help Runt (Henry) as Manhunter. Henry's assignment is to bring in Crusher Burns, public enemy number one; Paul's is to bring in a skunk. (I think you see where this is going.) with Manhunter's help, Henry wins and, surprisingly, Big Droop is a good sport about it.
ADVENTURE COMICS #75 - "Beware of Mr. Meek!" (Reprinted in New Gods #6)
The lesson here is that appearances can be deceiving. Myron Meek is a soft-spoken diamond thief. Panama Parker is a beautiful strawberry blonde. When she witnesses Mr. Meek kill her employer, she steals his diamonds to keep them safe. Passing Paul Kirk on the street, she plants a big kiss on his lips and the diamonds in his pocket. Manhunter saves her, and she saves him in return. He still turns her in for the robbery, but testifies on her behalf.
ADVENTURE COMICS #76 - "The Legend of the Silent Bear" (Reprinted in New Gods #7)
Paul Kirk is visiting his friend George who own a cabin in the woods. George's twin boys, Timmy and Tommy, go hunting bear with their air rifles and are not discouraged at all by their father's admonitions that there are no bear in the area. They soon see a bear being approached by a man. The man puts his hand in the bears mouth and triggers a steel trap. the man runs off and the boys fire at the bear, which is actually a life-like statue made of steel. A door opens in the bear's stomach. From out of a nearby house comes an old man who runs them off.
Timmy and Tommy tell their dad what happened. George suspects they were playing around old Ben Raspp's place. Raspp doesn't trust banks, and rumor has it he has a fortune hidden somewhere around the place. Paul decides to investigate further as Manhunter. That night, two men attack Ben Raspp in his sleep. A scuffle ensures and one of the men shoots him dead. Manhunter accosts them, but the flash of a gun going off too near Manhunter's face temporarily blinds him.
The next morning, a boy scout named Jimmy Jones finds Manhunter nursing his wounds. Jimmy earned his merit badge in tracking the week before and is able to lead the blinded Manhunter to the cave where the crooks are hiding. Manhunter's vision returns just in time to subdue the crooks, one of whom turns out to be Harry Raspp, the old man's deadbeat nephew. Harry suspected the old man's money was hidden inside the bear statue, but didn't know how to open it. Manhunter determines that the trick is to depress the eye and the ear simultaneously, which Timmy and Tommy's shots accidentally did. Inside is the money and the old man's will, leaving the money to charity.
ADVENTURE COMICS #77 - "The Stone of Vengeance!" (Reprinted in New Gods #8)
"The scarlet trail of a priceless green jewel begins in a pagan temple in a remote corner of Burma!!" This is "Simon & Kirby do Milton Caniff," with shoeshine boy Johnny Hopper playing Terry Lee to Paul Kirk's Pat Ryan. The Burma emerald follows a trail of death to America. Eventually, Ferret is killed by Rajah, the last man in the chain before selling it to the unscrupulous multi-millionaire jewel collector J. Rutherford Kelsey. Rajah kills Ferret and Ferret drops the gem out the window, where it lands in the shoeshine box of little Johnny Hopper.
Rajah kidnaps Johnny and takes him to his hideout. Meanwhile, Manhunter has been following leads of his own, but Rajah gets the drop on him. Manhunter awakens tied to the radiator next to Johnny as Rajah sets the place afire. Using the lid of a tin of polish to cut their bonds, Manhunter frees them, arriving at Kelsey's mansion just in time to witness the millionaire double-cross Rajah. Rajah shoots and kills Kelsey, and Johnny wonders why Manhunter is not afraid to touch the cursed gem.
"The emerald isn't dangerous, Johnny," Manhunter explains. "The men who handled it earned their own rewards! Kelsey's selfishness finished him. The Rajah and his mob will die in the chair for killing the others!"
ADVENTURE COMICS #78 - "The Lady and the Tiger" (Reprinted in New Gods #9)
(Manhunter appears alongside Sandman & Sandy on the cover of Adventure #78.)
This issue introduces a possible love interest for Paul Kirk as we see him out on a date with Ellen Drake. Meanwhile, in the Drake Penthouse, Ellen's father and his butler Jarvis are gunned down for his jewel collection. Paul and Ellen return just in time for the old man to identify Tiger. Ellen vows vengeance. Word gets around and Tiger's men kidnap her. Manhunter follows but Tiger's men get the better of him.
He awakens on a bridge with a concrete block tied around his neck, about to be thrown off. Using his neck muscles, he whirls the block around knocking two of his assailants off the bridge and into the river below. Freeing himself, he attacks the others but is quickly overcome by superior numbers. Leaving him unconscious, the gang makes their getaway with the girl. He comes to and tracks them, catching up just in time to jump atop their car. As the car drives by a precinct house, Manhunter reaches inside and twists the wheel. Although the police quickly subdue Tiger's men, Tiger himself comes out of the car shooting, "But... hot, hot, body-piercing bullets cut short Tiger's snarling defiance!"
Later, Ellen sings Manhunter's praises to Paul Kirk.
ADVENTURE COMICS #79 - "Manhunter Battles the Cobras of the Deep" (Reprinted in Detective Comics #440)
Manhunter takes on the Nazi Doktor Heinnig and his submarine oil tanker. 'Nuff said!
ADVENTURE COMICS #80 - "Mantrap Island"
As far as I know, this one has never been reprinted, but in my research I managed to find the following description: ""Mantrap Island" is the one time S&K fully utilized Paul Kirk's background as a hunter. Manhunter tracks a gang of escaped convicts to a remote island, but the tables turn and the convicts end up hunting him. Weaponless, Manhunter must use his trapping skills to capture the crooks (with a little help from an orphaned Indian boy); a fine finale for S&K on the series."
And those are all of the Simon & Kirby Manhunter stories. I still wouldn't mind seeing them collected, either by themselves, with other as-yet-uncollected stories by the team, or in conjunction with the stories from Adventure Comics #58-72 and #81-92.
Replies
The hero on the cover of #73 is coloured as Manhunter but has the Sandman's half-mask. There's no Sandy, so I suppose the figure was supposed to be Manhunter when drawn, but there's room for argument. Perhaps the cover was done before the story, and the mask design wasn't finalised.
#79's cover also featured Manhunter, and was tied to the story.