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Who are the Manhunters in ‘Lanterns’? Everything to know about the DC villains

One buried name from Antaan’s story could explain everything happening in Rushville

‘Lanterns’ Episode 2 reveals an ancient threat that predates the Green Lantern Corps: the Manhunters. In ‘Trust Fall,’ the latest episode of ‘Lanterns,’ the Green Lanterns are no longer dealing with some small-town murder mystery. John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) was kidnapped by an alien named Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor), who insists that a Manhunter has been sighted in Rushville, Nebraska. To ensure John knows what he is talking about, Antaan forces him to experience the memories of a Manhunter in the form of some particularly gruesome imagery: an entire civilization wiped out in an instant. This is the first sign that something is seriously wrong, but it gets worse: the Manhunters, it turns out, actually existed before the Green Lantern Corps was formed.

The Guardians of the Universe, the ancient protectors of the galaxy who created the Green Lanterns, initially put together a force of emotionless robots to patrol the galaxy and bring order to the solar system. For a while, the Guardians were quite successful in their efforts, but eventually the Manhunters began to question their existence and orders. Without the ability to feel empathy and understand nuance, the Manhunters began to see their orders as a problem, and ultimately turned against the very beings that created them, leading to their dissolution as an organized fighting force. This, ultimately, is when the Guardians turned to creating the Green Lanterns, ring-bearing agents who could act with positive intent, protect the galaxy, and have feelings.

One Manhunter, Antaan claims, managed to avoid the wipeout and hid on its homeworld. It disguised itself as a native and effectively coexisted without being noticed. Then, as he says, the Manhunter “quietly engineered a holocaust,” orchestrating the annihilation of his entire civilization before any of the inhabitants realized what had happened. This was not the end of the Manhunter. According to Antaan, a Green Lantern tracked him down and arrested him, promising to execute him. But he doesn’t buy any of this. Antaan believes that the Manhunter has been living in Rushville all along, and has, in fact, been manipulating and deceiving Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) the entire time. That theory is actually what ties the four dead aliens back to the football field in Rushville in 2016, when Antaan’s own people were murdered the moment they ventured too near their target.

Now, John has just 48 hours to find the Manhunter. Antaan can’t just walk into the town, as he would be detected easily. So he wants John, who can walk freely without being seen, to discover the Manhunter’s human identity. If he doesn’t, then Antaan’s people will break into Rushville regardless and blow themselves up, killing the Manhunter but also incurring thousands of innocent civilian casualties. The Manhunters first appeared in 1975 in DC Comics, but their dark legacy was sealed in ‘Justice League of America’ #140 in 1977. In this regard, Episode 2 is not only about reintroducing an old DC villain, but also about revisiting the Green Lanterns’ most grievous error that could haunt both Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Each new episode of ‘Lanterns’ premieres on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max, and with this week’s installment, the battle against the Manhunters is set to become the show’s focal point.