DC Comics has had a habit of giving us new superheroes with old names. They've been doing it for a loooooong time (Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, etc.) and have kept up the practice to this very day (Robin, Blue Beetle, most of the JSA). Most of the time, they keep the name and toss out everything else. It's rare when an "old name" is spruced up with the original character intact. One of those times, though, one of the very best, was when writer/editor Archie Goodwin and artist Walt Simonson pulled Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Manhunter out of the mothballs in Detective Comics #437 (August, 1973).
Paul Kirk, Manhunter was actually a pretty obscure character, enjoying a twenty issue run in Adventure Comics back during the early 1940s. When, in 1971/72 DC went to a double-sized, twenty-five cent, one-new-story-plus-a-reprint-back-up format for all their comics, Kirby (or one of his assistants) decided to reprint Manhunter in the pages of the New Gods. The stories caught Goodwin's eye and imagination, so when he was trying to come up with a back-up strip for Batman in his Detective Comics run, he chose to update Paul Kirk.Goodwin was a wise editor. Not only did he choose a great character to work with, but he also chose a magnificent new collaborator in Walter Simonson. The two of them created a character and storyline that became legendary. And here, you lucky Groove-ophile you, is Goodwin and Simonson's astounding origin of Manhunter (minus the extraneous parts that would only distract you). From Detective Comics #439 (October, 1973), here's "The Resurrection of Paul Kirk"!
