What Are the Manhunters in Lanterns? DC’s Original Killbots Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Lanterns Episode 2, “Trust Fall.”

The Green Lantern Corps was not the Guardians’ first attempt at policing the universe.

That honor belongs to the Manhunters — an army of virtually indestructible robots that interpreted justice in the most catastrophically literal way possible.

In Episode 2 of HBO’s Lanterns, John Stewart learns that one of these ancient synthetic beings may be hiding in Rushville, Nebraska. According to Antaan, the Manhunter can create new bodies and blend into an organic population without being detected.

John and Hal Jordan now have 48 hours to find it. If they fail, the aliens hunting it intend to destroy the entire town.

So, who — or more accurately, what — are the Manhunters?

What Are the Manhunters in DC Comics?

Billions of years before creating the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians of the Universe built the Manhunters to serve as their intergalactic police force.

Unlike Green Lanterns, Manhunters did not need to be chosen for their courage or ability to overcome fear. They did not require training, judgment or even free will. They were machines programmed to identify evil and eliminate it.

You can probably see where this is going.

The Manhunters gradually became obsessed with punishment rather than justice. Their original mission was reduced to an inflexible belief that order could only exist if every perceived threat was destroyed.

Their philosophy was summarized by the declaration:

“No man escapes the Manhunters.”

Eventually, the robots rebelled against the Guardians. The Guardians defeated and banished them, replacing their mechanical army with the Green Lantern Corps: living officers capable of exercising compassion, judgment and restraint.

The Manhunters did not disappear, though. They continued operating throughout the universe, building networks of agents and waiting for an opportunity to take revenge on their creators.

The robotic Manhunters made their first full comic appearance in 1977’s Justice League of America #140 by Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin, although DC’s complicated history with the Manhunter name stretches back much further.

What Happened in Space Sector 666?

The Guardians did not replace the Manhunters simply because the robots became a little overzealous.

They replaced them because the Manhunters committed genocide.

A flaw in their programming caused the machines to massacre almost every living being in Space Sector 666. The Guardians then attempted to conceal their role in the atrocity rather than admit that their supposedly perfect system had annihilated an entire region of space.

Only five beings survived. They became known as the Five Inversions, and one of them was Atros — the alien who would eventually become Atrocitus.

Atrocitus watched the Manhunters murder his wife and children. His resulting hatred of the Guardians ultimately helped fuel the creation of the rage-powered Red Lantern Corps.

That makes the Manhunters much more than another group of robots for Hal and John to fight. Their history connects directly to one of the darkest secrets in Green Lantern mythology and could eventually open the door for Atrocitus and the wider Emotional Spectrum to enter the DCU.

To be clear, Lanterns has not confirmed Atrocitus or the Red Lantern Corps. The connection currently exists in the comics, but introducing the Manhunters gives DC Studios a very clean path toward them.

Can the Manhunters Disguise Themselves as Humans?

The Manhunter described in Lanterns is not walking around Rushville in the robots’ traditional red-and-blue armor.

Antaan tells John that Manhunters are synthetic beings capable of building new bodies, allowing them to embed themselves inside other societies. That means virtually anyone in Rushville could be hiding the machine they are looking for.

The idea has roots in DC Comics.

The 1988 crossover Millennium revealed that the Manhunters had planted sleeper agents throughout Earth. Some had infiltrated the lives of DC’s biggest heroes for years, including Lana Lang, Wally West’s father Rudolph and Outsiders ally Dr. Helga Jace.

That history turns the Lanterns investigation into something closer to Invasion of the Body Snatchers than a conventional superhero fight. Hal and John are not simply hunting a giant robot. They must determine whether someone they already know is secretly a Manhunter — and whether that person was ever human at all.

Are the Manhunters Connected to Martian Manhunter?

No. Despite the shared name, the robotic Manhunters are not versions of J’onn J’onzz.

Martian Manhunter is a surviving Martian, longtime Justice League member and one of DC’s most powerful heroes. The Manhunters threatening Rushville are artificial enforcers created by the Guardians of the Universe.

DC has also used “Manhunter” for several human characters, including Paul Kirk, Mark Shaw and Kate Spencer. Those characters are separate from both the robots and Martian Manhunter.

Comics are exceptionally normal and straightforward.

Why Does Hal Visit Sinestro After Learning About the Manhunter?

Hal immediately understands how serious the situation is when John tells him that a Manhunter may be operating on Earth.

His response is to leave the planet and visit Sinestro, his former mentor, inside an intergalactic prison. Sinestro knows the Corps, the Guardians and their secrets better than almost anyone. If the Guardians buried the truth about a surviving Manhunter, he may know why.

It also hints that the mystery in Rushville is larger than one rogue machine.

The Manhunters represent the Guardians’ first great failure. Their rebellion led to the creation of the Green Lantern Corps, while the Sector 666 massacre helped create one of the Guardians’ greatest enemies.

If one has resurfaced on Earth, it may not be there by accident.

Who Is the Manhunter in Lanterns?

For now, Lanterns has not revealed which Rushville resident is the hidden Manhunter.

The show has established that the synthetic being can construct new bodies and disappear inside a community. Waylon and Antaan’s group followed it to Rushville, but their willingness to destroy the town suggests they are not especially concerned about protecting the humans living there.

That leaves Hal and John hunting an enemy that could look like anyone while racing against another group prepared to wipe Rushville off the map.

The Green Lantern Corps may have replaced the Manhunters billions of years ago, but the Guardians’ original mistake is still very much alive.

And it may already be standing right beside them.