DC has a number of interesting villains, some of whom are more interesting than others. One of them was Manchester Black. Although it is never explicitly stated that he is from Manchester, his name is a dead giveaway. Manchester Black, created by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke, began as an antihero before embracing the role of a villain.
Manchester Black is arguably the last guy you’d expect to defeat Superman among the myriad foes he’s encountered. The guy, on the other hand, managed to give Superman a stroke! Let’s dig right in and discover out about his dark past and why he became a villain.
Manchester Black: Origins
Manchester Black made his first appearance in Action Comics #775(2001). He’s known to have a heavy British accent and sports a Union Jack t-shirt. Much isn’t known about his past, except for his childhood, that he shows to Superman. No one even knows his actual name, and if Manchester Black is his real name, it’s not so bad. He is first introduced when he and his team of antiheroes assist Superman during an attack in the fictional city of Bialya.
But before Superman can know about him or his team, both his team and he teleported away. But the world media had already found out about Superman’s new acquaintances; Lois and Clark go to England to find more information on the team. There, Manchester Black seeks out Superman on his own and takes him to introduce his team. After being introduced to the rest of the group, Manchester finally begins his story. Manchester Black was brought up in an abusive household where he was the 5th son and the second youngest child in the family.
He often fended for himself as he had no mother and was abused by his alcoholic father. He also took the responsibility of caring for his younger sister, Vera. They would often dupe people by staging scenarios where Vera would cry in the streets and gain the attention of some unsuspecting people who would offer to help her. At the same time, Manchester would pick the pockets of these people while they were distracted. One such day, while the siblings counted the money they had stolen, Manchester is plagued by a sudden, horrible headache that leaves him writhing on the floor. At this moment, the cops arrive with the couple they had last pickpocketed from.
Vera decides to defend her brother against the cops with Manchester on the floor by throwing rocks at them, but she is soon caught. While in the middle of the scuffle, a struggling Vera tries to get out of the clutches of the police but ends up being thrown on the train tracks while a train approaches. A horrified Manchester witnesses the incident, but before his sister is hit by the train, he manages to unlock his powers and crushes the front of the train, stopping it before it kills his sister.
It’s quite a tragic and sad history. Black’s powers detect something happening as people scream, so Superman and the team arrive at the crime scene. They join forces and work together to get the people who had been stuck in the trains after the tunnels were blown apart by a group of terrorists. After rescuing the civilians, Manchester manages to catch the terrorists and demands information from them.
When they don’t indulge, he begins to torture them, but Superman stops him, while Manchester insists that this is what the terrorists deserve. A few days later, Manchester does a broadcast to the world that he and his team, now known as the Elite, are the new heroes that the world needs. They would serve justice by giving criminals precisely what they deserved and would not shy away from violence so that they did not come back to do society any more harm. Superman travels to Bialya, where he is hit by a neutrino blast generated by Manchester’s teammate Cold cast. He is rescued by the Elite and brought to their spaceship, where he tries to persuade Manchester to give up his violent ways, but he is teleported back to Earth before he can say anything further.
The supervillain Atomic Skull breaks out of prison and wreaks havoc in Metropolis City. The Elites arrive and try to fight Atomic Skull, but to no use, till Superman comes, and they join forces and defeat him. As Superman insists to send Skull to prison, Manchester wants to execute him. He finally does kill Atomic Skull after the crown cheers him on. Soon they also kill the leaders of Pokolistan and Bialya for the notion of peace among the nations. Superman opposes their violent acts, and Manchester declares that Superman’s time is over and the people need someone who will deal with the criminals effectively, unlike Superman and his aversion to killing, which leads to Superman’s adverse reaction. The Elite take this as a declaration of war.
The next day, they arrive at Metropolis City, but on Superman’s insistence that he will fight them but not in front of the population as he did not want to endanger the civilians. The Elite teleport themselves along with Superman to Jupiter’s moon with the help of their spaceship.
A violent battle erupts between the Elite and Superman on the moon, with the Elite having a clear upper hand as the Man of Steel struggles. He soon falls victim to the Elites’ might, as Manchester Black causes Superman to have a stroke, and he then ends up getting blasted to smithereens with only a piece of his cape left behind. This was all being broadcasted live to the world media.
But moments later, Superman’s voice is heard again; as he tells Black that he now understands what needs to be done and, seemingly adopting the Elites’ violent tactics, begins to attack and kill the team. Soon only Black is left, and he transports himself back to Earth through he tries to kill Superman relentlessly. Nothing works out, and Superman uses his heat vision to eliminate the growth he figured to be the source of Black’s powers.
A now powerless Black weeps and blames Superman for adopting the methods of murder, and he was just like them and not unique. But Superman, in all his glory, declares that this was only a demonstration to show the world the nature of violence and the devastation it causes.
He tells Black that all his teammates are safe, and his powers are only temporarily gone. Black is then sent to prison along with the rest of the Elites. Although in the movie Superman Vs.the Elites, Superman permanently disables Manchester Black’s powers. He was even a part of a new Suicide Squad after his arrest for a while.
Manchester Black makes Superboy kill Superman
Manchester Black makes his first appearance in the DC Rebirth issue #23, where we see that he has his powers restored, although his hair is black and not purple. Black kidnaps Superman’s son Jon Kent, feeds him horrific images using telepathy, and strips Jon of his powers. The pictures show Jon’s parents suffering at the hands of Black’s minions, the worst scene being Lois’ leg being cut off. Black was also behind the illusion of the town of Hamilton, where the Kents lived.
When Superman finally finds Jon again, he comes face to face with Black. They engage in their usual debate of peace being excellent and killing being wrong. Superman tries to capture Black, but to his absolute horror, Black restores Jon’s powers and gets in his head, corrupting his mind and turning him against his father. The Super Elite and Jon- Now called Superboy Black to engage in a fight with Superman, Batman, Robin, and others as Superman tries his best to bring back his son’s consciousness and to stop his rampage as it is clear that Jon was mighty.
As Superman leads away Superboy after Batman tells him only the parent bond might be able to get through to Jon, they both crash the quantum reactor and witness future timelines. This causes Jon to turn on Black as he asks him to get out of his head. He then attacks Black and plummets him to the ground, almost losing all his self-control.
At this moment, Lois arrives, and as Jon witnesses his mother being wonderful, his control is restored, and he is freed from Black’s influence completely. As Black tries to attack the Kents again, Kathy uses her powers to create telepathic feedback, and Black collapses. It is later revealed that the telepathic feedback resulted in Black’s consciousness being transferred to the body of one of the Cobb family’s cows, forever trapped.
Manchester Black’s Mind-blowing story in Supergirl
Manchester ‘Ches’ Black was a British citizen living in National City. He was born in England and used to be part of a gang of football hooligans. The gang belonged to his father. He met Hat around this time, and the two became good friends. He met Fiona Byrne, who introduced him to the non-violent philosophy of ‘Ahimsa,’ and eventually, the two fell in love. Manchester sent her to live in the United States after Manchester’s old gang discovered her status of being an alien, threatening her safety.
But soon after their engagement, Fiona went missing around the time of the rise of Agent Liberty. Manchester arrived in the US to find her, eventually teaming up with J’onn. Using the Martian Manhunter’s powers, Manchester briefly spoke to a projection of Fiona, where she hinted at the location of her imprisonment. They track her down, but unfortunately, Fiona is stabbed by Agent Liberty. Although she survived the knife to her neck, she eventually succumbed to the various fatal wounds and died, leaving Manchester completely distraught.
Fiona’s death leads Manchester on a path of revenge. He gets himself the iconic Union Jack t-shirt and arms himself with different kinds of weaponry. He ends up killing quite a few of the Children of Liberty during his quest to find the identity of Agent Liberty. He teams up with Supergirl, who is not at par with Manchester’s violent methods. He betrays her when they go to look for Agent Liberty at Stryker’s Island Penitentiary so that he can get himself an audience with Agent Liberty.
Eventually, he finds the identity of Agent Liberty, who is Ben Lockwood. He finds his address and goes there to get his revenge finally and meets Lydia Lockwood, Ben’s wife. After Lockwood arrives, Black reveals his identity to his wife. He tries to kill Lydia so Ben would feel the pain of losing the one he loves but is stopped by J’onzz. He tries to pursue Lockwood but is stopped by Supergirl. He is knocked out by Nia Nal and is then sent to prison.
It is in the prison where he dyes his hair purple and forms the Elite, who kill humans that harm aliens. The team consisted of Hat, Pamela Ferrer, and a Morae named Mo. Black led the Elites in a battle against the Superfriends after hijacking a satellite to destroy the White House and kill the President. He was stopped by an intervention by D.E.O Director and Supergirl. However, he manages to escape with the help of Brainy’s Legion ring.
Eventually, the Elites fall apart as Pamela is captured during their attempt to kill Lockwood. Problems arose when Black dismissed Hat’s idea that could help them keep aliens safe, and Hat reminded him of the real reason for creating the Elite, but Black was hell-bent on revenge and killing Lockwood. Hat eventually leaves Black, taking Mo along with him as their ideologies no longer match, thus ending their friendship.
J’onn arrives to battle Black. Rather than getting captured, Manchester jumps into one of Superman’s relics, presumably killing himself. But he was saved by Hat, who did this as a repayment for the time Black stood up for him. He appeared at the second conference held by Lockwood and got on stage to encourage aliens to fight against humans. He met J’onn and goaded him to attack and kill him.
As J’onn was about to land the final blow, Manchester revealed that J’onn had been fighting a hologram of what was an innocent man looking like Manchester. Soon the entire Elite team was arrested, but Manchester did nothing to rescue them.
Manchester stole the Staff of H’ronmeer and met J’onn to punish him for betraying his Martian roots. He mentally tortured J’onn by using their mental link, causing J’onn to strangle himself before he was broken out of the illusion by Kara. Fed up with Manchester’s horrible actions and realizing he will never become the man he once was, J’onn takes the Staff of H’ronmeer and aims it at Manchester, turning him into energy and absorbing him into the staff. In his last moments, Manchester tells J’onn that he is beautiful.
What makes Manchester Black so Deadly?
Manchester Black was a powerful psychic with vast telekinetic abilities. He could throw Superman miles away with just a single thought in his brain. He even cut off Frankenstein’s hand just by telekinesis. He can create powerful force fields that guard him against any attacks, even Superman’s heat vision. He was a powerful telepath, even reading the mind of Superman to discover his identity as Clark Kent.
He created elaborate illusions to make Superboy believe that his mother’s leg had been chopped off and made him think their tree was still burning. He was able to control the mind of Superboy, turning him against his father and allies, which almost cost Superman his life. He is even capable of Astral Projection and possession, though he doesn’t do it often.
Manchester altered Doomsday’s mind to make him forget his hatred for Superman, which showcases his immense telekinetic abilities. He even tried to end his life by trying to rope Superman into doing it. He staged Lois’ death, thinking he could steer Superman into an immense rage, and he would be killed. Although, Superman figured out his schemes, and they didn’t work.
He used his powers on himself to commit suicide, and it was quite an easy task, something not many might be capable of. He also caused his father to have a heart attack and die, which isn’t surprising considering the abuse he faced at the hands of his father.
It isn’t surprising that Manchester Black is considered quite a dangerous and psychotic supervillain in the DC Universe. He came a long way from loving heroes to hurting them, which made him even crazier. He could have caused much more destruction had he put his mind to it. With the power to go toe-to-toe with Superman, Manchester Black remains of the deadliest supervillains in DC, performing feats not many meta-humans could even think of.