Mark Shaw (New Earth)

Mark Shaw
Mainstream Universe‎, 1986‎-2011‎
Gallery
Real Name	Mark Shaw
Other Aliases	Privateer, Star-Tsar, Dumas
Relatives	Hugh Fletcher (Outlaw, father, deceased), Rose Shaw (mother), Eliot Shaw (step-father), Eleanor Shaw (half-sister), James Shaw (half-brother), Desmond Shaw (uncle)
Affiliation	Manhunters, Suicide Squad, Shadow Fighters
Base Of Operations	New York City, Star City
Status
Identity	Public Identity
Citizenship	American
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Bounty Hunter, Public defender
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Blue
Hair	Brown
Origin
Universe	New Earth
Creators	Jack Kirby
First Appearance	1st Issue Special #5 (August, 1975)

History

Mark David Shaw was born Mark Fletcher. His father, Hugh, was a criminal and died when Mark was very young. His mother, Rose, married Eliot Shaw and Mark was legally adopted. Eliot and Rose had two additional children (James and Eleanor).

As a young man, Mark was a public defender, unhappy about how easily criminals manipulated the system and got off without punishment. Shaw's uncle Desmond Shaw 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.,

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.

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 on federal extortion charges.

When the Millenium event occurred Mark was still serving his sentence. Due to his familiarity with the Manhunter cult, Shaw was offered the chance to accompany the Suicide Squad on a mission as the Privateer, and was released when the mission was completed. Mark donned a new costume to distance himself from the Manhunter cult, moved home to New York City (specifically Manhattan)and began hunting 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. 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.

He was actually undercover at the time he was facing Eclipso, masquerading as his old enemy Dumas at the behest of Sarge Steel.

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.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

None

Abilities

• Manhunter Training: As part of the Manhunter Cult's training, Mark has learned the following skills:

• Fighting: Manhunter has learned numerous martial-arts styles and fighting techniques.
• Tracking: Manhunter is able to find and track people through various terrains.
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Manhunter Mask: Manhunter wears a specially designed metallic face mask that contains equipment giving him the following abilities/uses:

• Automatic Activation: The mask's sensors automatically activate upon donning.
• Biological Scanning: The mask scans and records biological information including heart rates and voiceprints of those observed.
• Eye Beams: An attachment that allows periscopic vision.
• Magniscopic/Telescopic Vision: Lenses can magnify images.
• Sensors: The mask sensors include infra-red, heat and sound.
• Unidirectional Mike: The mask allows Mark to pick-up radio signals such as police scanners. It is possible the mask can amplify Mark's voice and magnify sounds as he was able to have a conversation with a person over 50 feet away.

• Power Baton: Manhunter modified, via modular attachments, the power baton given to him by the Manhunter cult. The original baton serves as a power source. Once completely drained the baton can replenish the energy in 3 hours. With the additions it provides him the following abilities/uses:

• Bo Staff: The baton can function as a weapon.
• Javelin/Spike: The end of the baton contains a retractable spike that enables the baton to be thrown much like a javelin.
• Magnetic Pulse: The baton can create a magnetic pulse (either with attractive or repulsive polarity) enabling him to pull/push items including himself.
• Nunchaka: The baton can be separated into two ends connected by a cord allowing the baton to function as nunchaka.

• Manhunter Costume: The costume contains heavy padding in the upper torso.

Related

• 88 Appearances of Mark Shaw (New Earth)
• 31 Images featuring Mark Shaw (New Earth)
• 8 Quotations by or about Mark Shaw (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Mark Shaw (New Earth)

External Links

• Manhunter at Wikipedia

Footnotes

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Manhunter (comics). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.