History:

When Donald Richards (oddly called "Dan") graduated at the bottom of his Poloce Academy class, his girl, Kit Kelly, was understandably disappointed, especially as her brother Jim took top honors. But when Jim refused to kill someone for a crooked politician, and was then framed for murder, Dan first took his Manhunter identity to track down the real killer, using secret files he had gathered on known criminals to help him clear his friend's name. A hprase used by the real murderer provided the clue that cracked the case.

Thereafter, Dan became Manhunter whenever ordinary legal procedures proved inadequate to solve a mystery. As he once said, "Manhunter might get something on them where police methods fail!"

Manhunter was unique in that he had a canine partner - Thor (the "Thunderdog"), a dog that seems to have been part hound and part mastiff. Thor was always within hearing wherever Dan walked his beat, and the dog would come when his master blew a supersonic whistle, inaudible to human ears. Often Richards made use of Thor's keen tracking abilities as well as his training as an attack dog.

Manhunter worked a little with the All-Star Squadron, then was chosen by Uncle Sam to go with him and the other Freedom Fighters to Earth-X to battle the greater Nazi menace there. What happened to him we will never know, for the resolution of the crisis on infinite earths wiped out Earth-X and all its history.

Thus, in the world which emerged, Manhunter remained where he was and fought crime at least until 1950, when the last of his cases was published.

Dan was found dead in a cabin with Thor when Mark Shaw (as Dumas) was killing past Manhunters with orders from the government.

Chronological Appearances:

Secret Origins Vol. 2 #22 (January 1988): "Dan Richards Manhunter" [Flashback]
Police Comics #8 (March 1942): "The Origin of Manhunter"
Police Comics #9 (April 1942): "Death in Hangman's Alley"
Police Comics #10 (July 1942): "The Voodoo Queen"
Police Comics #11 (September 1942): "The Laughing Gas Crimes"
All-Star Squadron #31 (March 1984): "Uncle Sam Wants You"
Police Comics #12 (October 1942): "Peril in a Candy Factory"
All-Star Squadron #50 (October 1985): "Crisis Point"
Young All-Stars #8 (January 1988): "Manhunters of the World, Unite..."
Young All-Stars #9 (February 1988): "You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Souls"
Young All-Stars #27 (July 1989): "Meanwhile..." [Flashback cameo; as a Freedom Fighter]
Police Comics #13 (November 1942): "The Theater Murder"
Police Comics #14 (December 1942): "The Mark of the Cobra"
Police Comics #15 (January 1943): "The Slaughter Symphony"
Police Comics #16 (February 1943): "Wanted: Thor, Manhunter's Dog, Dead Or Alive"
Police Comics #17 (March 1943): "Red Haired Kate"
Police Comics #18 (April 1943): "A Night of Murders"
Police Comics #19 (May 1943): "Here Lies Manhunter"
Police Comics #20 (June 1943): "The Case of the Kidnapped Corpse"
Police Comics #21 (August 1943): "The Blue Room of Blandings Castle"
Police Comics #22 (September 1943): "Dr. Sackville"
Police Comics #23 (October 1943): "The Murdering Rhymester"
Police Comics #24 (November 1943): "The Amnesiac"
Police Comics #25 (December 1943): "Manhunter Unfair to Organized Crime"
Police Comics #26 (January 1944): "The Ghostmaster"
Police Comics #27 (February 1944): "The Man Who Died Twice"
Police Comics #28 (March 1944): "Blue Coats Don't Turn Back Bullets"
Police Comics #29 (April 1944): "The Deathless Brain of Tony Conroy"
Police Comics #30 (May 1944): "Sounds in the Silent Night"
Police Comics #31 (June 1944): "Blackmail and Blood"
Police Comics #32 (July 1944): "The Giggling Corpse"
Police Comics #33 (August 1944): "The Corpse of Mistaken Identity"
Police Comics #34 (September 1944): "Suicide Sanitarium"
Police Comics #35 (October 1944): "Sandor, the Terrorizing Taxidermist"
Police Comics #36 (November 1944): "Had the City Gone Mad?"
Police Comics #37 (December 1944): "The Match"
Police Comics #38 (January 1945): "Framed By Arno Roxx"
Police Comics #39 (February 1945): "Portrait of Murder"
Police Comics #40 (March 1945): "Music Hath Charms"
Police Comics #41 (April 1945): "The Port of Missing Goods"
Police Comics #42 (May 1945): "Two Tracks"
Police Comics #43 (June 1945): "Tramp Club Death"
Police Comics #44 (July 1945): "The Hunt for Trigger Swain"
Police Comics #45 (August 1945): "The Tailor's Dummy"
Police Comics #46 (September 1945): "Torch Tigue, Arsonist"
Police Comics #47 (October 1945): "I'm Guilty!"
Police Comics #48 (November 1945):"The Catsup Bottle That Dripped Blood"
Police Comics #49 (December 1945): "The Archer Who Had No Bow"
Police Comics #50 (January 1946): "Disgrace"
Police Comics #51 (February 1946): "Crime Declares an Armistice"
Police Comics #52 (March 1946): "Mystery at the Morgue"
Police Comics #53 (April 1946): "Dazeen, Master of Illusion"
Police Comics #54 (May 1946): "The Man in the Cloak"
Police Comics #55 (June 1946): "The Masked Pirate"
Police Comics #56 (July 1946): "The Vengeance"
Police Comics #57 (August 1946): "Who Bombed Mr. Tarviss?"
Police Comics #58 (September 1946): "The Killer Called Hatchet"
Police Comics #59 (October 1946): "The Kidnapping of Letha Nordyke"
Police Comics #60 (November 1946): "Jawbone"
Police Comics #61 (December 1946): "Case of the Vanishing Vagabond"
Police Comics #62 (January 1947)
Police Comics #63 (February 1947)
Police Comics #64 (March 1947): "The Spine-Snapper"
Police Comics #65 (April 1947)
Police Comics #66 (May 1947): "Fence, Incorporated"
Police Comics #67 (June 1947): "The Operatic Crimes of Carlo Varini"
Police Comics #68 (July 1947): "Manhunter's Mother Goose"
Police Comics #69 (August 1947): "The Van Clough Tiara"
Police Comics #70 (September 1947): "The Woodbine Hijackers"
Police Comics #71 (October 1947): "And the Result Is Murder"
Police Comics #72 (November 1947): "The Autographed Slug"
Police Comics #73 (December 1947): "Quiz Kit"
Police Comics #74 (January 1948): "Doll Murders"
Police Comics #75 (February 1948): "Dr. Panzrak's Life Force Experiment"
Police Comics #76 (March 1948): "Million Dollar Monstrosities"
Police Comics #77 (April 1948): "The Plot of Dr. Pilbeam"
Police Comics #78 (May 1948): "The Tale of the Broad Arrow"
Police Comics #79 (June 1948): "The Fabulous Frothmere Emerald Robbery"
Police Comics #80 (July 1948): "Who Remembers the Dreadful Strangleweed?"
Police Comics #81 (August 1948): "Boo-Hoo, the Clown Who Wasn't Funny"
Police Comics #82 (September 1948): "Goldilocks and the Three Corpses"
Police Comics #83 (October 1948): "Strangling Hand"
Police Comics #84 (November 1948): "The Eyes Have It With Marsden"
Police Comics #85 (December 1948): "Maddin, the Mastiff Man"
Police Comics #86 (January 1949): "Death at the Dog Track"
Police Comics #87 (February 1949): "The Killing Joke"
Police Comics #88 (March 1949): "Thor and the Kidnappers"
Police Comics #89 (April 1949): "Charles Chuckaluck"
Police Comics #91 (June 1949): "Action for Man and Beast"
Police Comics #93 (August 1949): "Mimic the Great"
Police Comics #94 (September 1949): "Thinker Thelen, Mental Marvel of Mayhem"
Police Comics #95 (October 1949): "Carry Your Bag, Mister?"
Police Comics #96 (November 1949): "The Revenge of Skinny Starr"
Police Comics #97 (December 1949): "Manhunter's Double"
Police Comics #98 (February 1950): "The Life of the Party"
Police Comics #99 (April 1950): [No Title]
Police Comics #100 (June 1950): "The Silent Crime Call"
Police Comics #101 (August 1950): "The Power of the Dog"
Secret Origins Vol. 2 #22 (January 1988): "Paul Kirk Manhunter" [Flashback]
Secret Origins Vol. 2 #22 (January 1988): "Mark Shaw Manhunter"
Secret Origins Vol. 2 #22 (January 1988): "Re-Birth and Revenge"
Millennium #2 (January 1988): "Under"
Infinity, Inc. #46 (January 1988): "Swamped"
Infinity, Inc. #47 (February 1988): "Outback and Back in Beverly Hills"
Manhunter #7 (April 2005): "Trial by Fire Part 2: Witness for the Prosecution"
Manhunter #8 (May 2005): "Trial by Fire Part 3: Bad Influence"
Manhunter #12 (September 2005): "Manhunted Part 3: Masks upon Masks" [Origin re-telling]



Profile written by: Unknown - copied from Who's Who '86 #14
Additional information written by: Tad Dupre
Appearances found and copied from: DCUGuide.com