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Mark 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.[1],[2]
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.[3]
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[4] on federal extortion charges.[5]
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.[6] 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 chose to use the name Manhunter as a way of redeeming his earlier actions.[7] Although he consistently insisted he was a businessman, he often acted as a hero. Among the notable villains he captured are: Captain Cold,[8] Catman,[9] Count Vertigo,[10], Mirage,[11] Outlaw II,[12] Penguin,[13] and Sportsmaster II.[14] He also got involved in numerous other adventures such as protecting Anna-Marie Vere and the subsequent take down of her team known as Argent,[15] "body-guarding" Wally West and disrupting a Durlan infiltration plot during an Alien Invasion!,[16] destroying/retrieving an alien robot for reverse engineering,[17] among others.
During this time, he and his family were threatened by two shape-shifters named Dumas. The first, Stephen Forrest Lee, was born with shape-shifting powers. He was recruited by the Manhunter Cult but turned to assassination and formed his own organization. In the 1930's he created the identity of Olivia Vancroft as a way of creating a love interest. Both Olivia and Dumas had obsessions with masks and when Manhunter first appeared, Olivia vowed to get it by "contracting" Dumas. Shaw killed the first Dumas,[18] but his body was soon recovered by ex-CIA agents looking to duplicate his powers. They succeeded in creating a serum but when Dumas' organization tracked them down, one of the got injected with the serum and became the second Dumas.[19] Shaw's battle with this Dumas led him to discover the Manhunter's true origins and ultimately give up the Manhunter identity.[20]
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.[21] 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.[22]
He was actually undercover at the time he was facing Eclipso, masquerading as his old enemy Dumas at the behest of Sarge Steel.[21]
During the period leading up to the Infinite Crisis, the Dumas personality reasserted control over Mark and he was tasked with killing anyone who had ever used the Manhunter title. He succeeded in killing Dan Richards, Chase Lawler, and Kirk DePaul before targeting the newest Manhunter, Kate Spencer, and even himself. Following a battle with Kate and an OMAC, Mark was cleared of the Dumas identity by Dylan Battles who removed the Dumas program from within Mark. Dylan and Mark soon became roommates. Not long after, Mark Shaw was approached to take up the mantle of Azrael by the Order of St. Dumas, but he turned them down.|
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