Manchester Black
36 years ago - Manchester Black is born to abusive parents in England.
30 years ago - 6-year-old Manchester's sister Vera Black is born.
24 years ago - 12-year-old Manchester's sister Vera Black loses both her arms in a horrible accident.
20 years ago - 16-year-old Manchester runs away from home with Vera Black. When she is almost killed by muggers and thrown into the path of an oncoming train his powers manifest, killing everyone on board. He is recruited as a Checkmate asset.
14 years ago - 22-year-old Manchester uses the shake-up in Checkmate's hierarchy to manufacture his own release from Checkmate, becomes a black-ops British intelligence operative.
11 years ago - 25-year-old Manchester's sister Vera Black is recruited by British Intelligence as a tech operative.
4 years ago - 32-year-old Manchester discovers a renegade living inter-dimensional ship. He severs it's connection with it's Daemonite masters and names it Bunny. He uses his powers to cut all ties with his handlers and begins assembling the Elite. Their tactics bring them into conflict with Superman, who eventually defeats them. While his powers are temporarily deactivated, he is imprisoned. His sister Vera Black speaks to him in prison, and gets him to reveal how to access his ship.
3 years ago - 33-year-old Manchester's powers return. He escapes and attempts to kill Superman. his sister Vera Black reassembles the Elite and leads them against him. Defeated, he takes his own life.
Manchester Black holds a very distinct place in DC's history. Created by Joe Kelley for Action Comics #775, he and his team of superheroes the Elite were meant as commentary on the Authority, the incredibly popular Wildstorm team that depicted a Justice League allegory operating without any restraint, saving the world by exerting their near god-like powers in so brutal and effective a way that they were claiming abject moral authority over the entire world. This single issue was meant as an answer, and firmly re-established that, rather than a relic of modern times, Superman was actually still the bastion of what a superhero should aspire to be.
It was an incredibly successful comic. A delight to read (even more so if you knew the context), the source material for one of DC better animated films, and managed to say something very profound about the overall tone of modern comics. Manchester might have been a character that would have starred in his own comic anywhere else, but in the pages of DC he was a bad guy. Characters, even super-powered characters, don't get to claim moral authority over a world where Superman and the Justice League are there to stop you. |
We are absolutely including the Elite in our timeline. it's an awesome story, and great team, a very cool piece of Superman history, and also speaks volumes about the role the Wildstorm characters will play in our version of the DC universe.
This makes Manchester incredibly important; a lynchpin in an entire unfolding storyline. What he ISN'T however, is a very important character in and of himself. There was an attempt in the new 52, particularly in the pages of the Teen Titans to bring him back, along with several other more obscure Wildstorm characters, but he's simply not meant to operate that way. He services the story, not visa versa. in the Pre-52 timeline, Manchester ultimately takes his own life, and that actually seems like the most fitting end for what is ultimately an incredibly tragic character. |