Full Story:

We find Kate, months ago, using an ID card to access a dark storage room in the Los Angeles Federal Building. We see that the room is full of contraband: weaponry, devices, and high-tech gear that undoubtedly came from the likes of super-villains, aliens, and other beyond-ordinary sources. Internally, Kate questions what she's doing there, and how any of this stuff might help her hunt down Copperhead, when she isn't even certain about the origins of these items.


The Suit:

In the "not-so-distant past", and "somewhere between the Earth and the Moon". A group of Darkstars are engaged in combat against a hostile alien battalion. In the ensuing melee, one of the Darkstars is hit in the chest by a blast that sends him into the Earth's atmosphere. He streaks across the sky like a flaming meteorite, and ultimately crashes in a brushy area, near a railyard on the edge of a city. Finally at rest, the Darkstar's corpse sizzles in the seemingly undamaged suit. We see the seasons change and plants grow around the point of impact, as his undisturbed body decomposes in the Darkstar suit.

How many seasons have changed since the crash is uncertain when we see a homeless man, named Jake, rummaging through a bin by the tracks, looking for recyclables. A gleam of light from the nearby grass attracts his attention, and leads him directly to the Darkstar suit. He lifts it from the grass as the bones and dust of the deceased Darkstar spill cleanly away from the seemingly untarnished suit. Jake decides to try it on, and discovers that it's a perfect fit; he happily remarks that his luck is changing, as he pulls his camouflage pants and hooded coat on, over his newfound garment.

Later, we catch up with Jake as he slurps down some soup at a mission. Upon leaving the building, a couple of belligerent guys on the street begin verbally harassing Jake. He expresses no desire for confrontation, but when one of the taunters becomes physical, grabbing Jake by his coat, Jake lashes out in reaction, effortlessly batting his tormentor through the air, causing him to land in a puddle, several yards away. The astonished tormentors flee the scene.

Later, as Jake huddles in an alley, a pair of headlights appear. The tormentors have returned with two more friends. Jake asks them why they're messing with him, why they simply can't leave him alone. The same tormentor who had been earlier thrown by Jake explains that they're bored, and Jake is "here", before calling on his cohorts to attack.

The four men, armed with bats and chains, surround Jake and begin raining down blows and kicks. As his outer clothes begin to shred, Jake suddenly thrusts himself to his feet and throws all four men away from him. One by one, he proceeds to incapacitate the attackers, and informs them that he had no desire to hurt them, but they had forced him to.

Shortly thereafter, we see a cop venturing into the alley, and calling for whoever's there to identify themselves. He shines a flashlight into the darkness, expecting to find vagrants to chase off, but discovers the four men who attacked Jake, now stripped to their underwear and badly beaten. All are unconscious, apart from the original tormentor who sits, huddled and traumatized, staring into the policeman's flashlight. Finally, the flashlight falls on the now-discarded Darkstar suit, lying over the edge of a dumpster.

Jake is shown, elsewhere, wearing the original tormentor's orange shirt and pants, carrying a sack over his shoulder, and happily remarking once again that his luck is decidedly improving.


As Kate continues looking around in the storage room of the Federal Building, we find her dismayedly sorting through gaudy super-villain-type outfits on hangars. Her eye is caught by the Darkstar suit, once in Jake's possession, and she seems satisfied with it, hoping to herself that it's "Copperhead-proof".


The Gauntlets:

Post-quake, Gotham City. In what appears to be a warehouse, we find a hood named Philly trying on a pair of formidable-looking silver gauntlet/gloves, and deciding that he needs to graduate from common criminal into the "costume" echelon. His running buddy, Stoops, surprises him and proceeds to inform about a "hot tip". Philly idly daydreams what could have been if he'd found more of the bat-costume that the gloves had originally belonged to (Azrael's Batman costume), in the wreckage. When the payoff of something "million" is mentioned by Stoops, Philly stops daydreaming about what he's going to call himself as a costume-villain, and pays attention.

Stoops' tip comes from a buddy, named Burgos, whose relative works as a janitor at a high-end law firm. The relative told Burgos that one lawyer who represents "all the mobsters, psychos, and costumes in Gotham" keeps records of all the loot that his clients have stolen in a safe in his office. Since Philly's forte is safecracking, coupled with the fact that he happens to be freshly in possession of the bat-gauntlets, Stoops figured it would be a natural target for he and Philly to go after. Philly agrees.

Later, we find Philly and Stoops outside of a tall building, on a window washers' platform, hanging several stories in the air. Philly expresses doubt over whether Burgos' relative disarmed the motion sensors; Stoops reassures him. Philly uses expertise culled from watching Jeopardy re-runs to correct Stoops' grammar, as they lower themselves in front of the window of the office with the safe. Having donned the gauntlets, Philly uses the fingertip to cut a small circle in the window. Realizing that there's no latch to reach through the hole, since the window isn't made to be opened, he proceeds to cut a hole large enough to enter through.

Once inside, they locate and open the safe. It's empty, and within seconds, an alarm sounds. No sooner does Philly realize that they've been set up, than two armed guards burst in, ordering them to raise their hands. When Philly and Stoops run for the hole in the window, the guards open fire. They make it out, onto the window washers' platform, but one of the guards' bullets severs a cable holding up a side of the platform. As that side of the platform drops away, Philly and Stoops tumble off of it.

Philly digs the gauntlet's fingertips into the side of the building, as Stoops clings to his leg. Down below, in a red car, Burgos and his relative laugh over setting up Philly and Stoops, and prepare to get away with the safe's contents, which they'd already lifted from the safe. As they begin to drive away, a massive impact caves in the roof of their car, causing them to scream.

Up in the office, the guards peer out of the window. Still clinging to the outside of the building are the gauntlets, now empty. Looking down onto the street, no doubt onto the top of Burgos' getaway car where Philly and Stoops must have landed, one of the guards sums up what he sees with a simple "Ew."


With Kate still in the storage room of the Federal Building, we find her poring over various augmented gloves and handgear. She is nervous about dawdling too long, lest someone discover the fact that the security camera isn't working in the storage room. On the other hand, she doesn't seem to be too eager to choose from the variety of handgear, since she has no idea what kind of devastating things that they might do if she unwittingly activates them. Finding Philly's bat-gauntlets in an evidence box, marked Gotham City PD, she decides that they seem "pretty straight-forward". She then spies a wall of mounted weaponry and contemplates which one of them to choose for herself.


The Staff:

"Not so many years ago" in the South American nation of Parador, during the notorious hero massacre (that occurred in Eclipso #13), we see the moment where Mark Shaw (Manhunter) was believed to have been killed by Eclipso. After seeing Eclipso impale Manhunter with a large, pointed rock, the scenes drift to a while later, as DEO cleaner crews collect the corpses of the many fallen heroes - Wildcat (Yolanda Montez), Dr. Midnight (Beth Chapel), Major Victory, Commander Steel, Peacemaker, and Manhunter. Over these scenes, we hear Amanda Waller informing Sarge Steel that there were no survivors.

The scenes then shift to DEO Headquarters, where Steel chastises Waller for such a steep loss on a failed objective. Waller insists that she had to make choices in the field, that she will have to live with feeling the loss of the agents, and that the last thing she needs is to be ridden by an embittered bureaucrat like Steel. She leaves, informing him that his opinion is of no concern to her, unless he feels like helping her make calls to the fallen agents' families. Internally, Steel has to concede that she's right, and that the "bureaucratic crap is killing me". Over his desk intercom, Steel is informed that Doctor Neely wishes to see him in the forensics lab.

Down in the lab, he meets with the doc, who informs him that the "Manhunter" who was killed by Eclipso isn't Mark Shaw. Steel tries to dismiss the facial differences as a disguise, but the doctor informs him that he's run genetic tests that confirm the man isn't Shaw. Clearly, Steel is aware of this, and is annoyed by the doctor's discovery.

Steel's mind drifts back to a scene from an earlier date, as another doctor injects an unidentified soldier (presumably), dressed in Shaw's Manhunter outfit, with nanites. Steel asks the doctor how long the nanotech will take to kick in; the doctor tells him to ask the patient. Steel proceeds to ask the soldier to identify himself... when the soldier begins answering, it is clear that he believes himself to be Mark Shaw.

Back in the forensics lab with Doctor Neely, Steel again insists that the man must be Shaw. The doctor states plainly that he can't be. Steel plucks the Manhunter staff from the dead man's effects, and reiterates his assertion, with unmistakable official finality on the matter, that the dead man is Shaw. As he leaves, Steel instructs the doctor to send the autopsy reports up to his office.

Back in his office, Steel is typing a report stating that the nanotech was a 100% success in programming the test subject with Shaw's "bio-info and abilities", maintaining integrity even under extreme circumstances. He then speaks on the phone to someone unknown, informing them that "it worked", that Shaw should remain functioning as "Dumas" and that the identity of "Shaw" is essentially dead from hereon in. Also, staring at the Manhunter staff, he mentions that he has an item that needs to be put in storage.


We rejoin Kate, presumably not long after collecting her items from the storage room, as she stands atop a rooftop. She pulls the boot onto her Darkstar suit, slips the bat-gauntlet onto her hand, and activates the final item that she liberated from the storage room: the Manhunter staff from the faux-Shaw's arsenal. She realizes that she's past the point of no return, and internally vows to end Copperhead's freedom.





"Permanently."

Characters:

Costume Drama:

Kate Spencer/Manhunter


The Suit:

Unnamed male Darkstar - original wearer of Kate's suit
Four other unidentified Darkstars
Jake - a homeless man
His four unnamed assailants
Unnamed police officer


The Gauntlets:

Philly - a safecracker with super-villain ambitions
Stoops - his cohort
Burgos - Stoops' buddy
Burgos' unnamed relative, a law firm janitor
Two unnamed security guards

(Azreal's Bat-costume, minus helmet, makes a fantasy appearance in Philly's daydream)


The Staff:

Eclipso
Manhunter - unnamed soldier in Mark Shaw's costume
Wildcat (Yolanda Montez)
Dr. Midnight (Beth Chapel)
Major Victory
Commander Steel
DEO Cleaners
Sarge Steel
Amanda Waller
Doctor Mike Neely
Unnamed DEO doctor
Mark Shaw/Manhunter (in a photo)

Issue summary written by: crawfordcrow