Manchester Black

Manchester Black is a ruthless, amoral British telepath and telekinetic who leads the Elite, a team of antiheroes who believe lethal force is the only real solution to crime — putting him on a direct ideological collision course with Superman's no-kill philosophy.

Few Modern Age creations have cut quite as sharp a silhouette as Manchester Black, who burst onto the DC scene in 2001 courtesy of Joe Casey and Mike Wieringo in Adventures of Superman #594. A provocateur born into an era when superhero comics were wrestling hard with moral complexity, he's the kind of character whose presence in a room — even a room shared with Superman, The Flash, and Wally West — immediately raises the temperature. His footprint across Justice League Elite, Superman, and Adventures of Superman over nearly two decades speaks to a figure who clearly got under the skin of DC's universe and stayed there. Eleven catalog appearances may sound modest, but for a character this charged, every one of them counts.