Originally a plainclothes amateur detective character, Kirk was called "manhunter" only in the title of his stories, a slang term for someone who tracks down fugitives and criminals.

Reintroducing Kirk as a more ruthless and now lethal hero working against a villainous group called the Council, the story gave him a new costume, new weapons, and a superhuman healing ability.

Though he was obviously a different character than the first DC Manhunter, the name Rick Nelson was changed to Paul Kirk in Adventure Comics #74 by an unknown editor.

The Paul Kirk Manhunter appeared in Adventure Comics until #92 in June 1944, when wartime paper shortages caused DC to drop page counts and cancel his strip.

After Richards was acquired by DC Comics, they are depicted as contemporaries who each adopt the alias Manhunter almost simultaneously while being unaware of the other person using the name until months later.

The two argue over who is allowed to continue using the Manhunter name, then resolve the dilemma by joining different teams, seemingly ensuring the two will rarely if ever cross paths during their adventures.

In 1973, decades after his original run of stories ended, Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson brought back Paul Kirk in his Manhunter role in Detective Comics #437.

[14] In his 1970s revival, Kirk primarily uses three weapons: a modified Bolo Mauser, a Katar (कटार), and two shuriken "throwing stars" carried as part of his costume, on the chest.

By this point, DC Comics had established that its modern-day heroes inhabited a world designated Earth-One while the Golden Age characters and their stories occupied the parallel reality called Earth-Two.

[10] Goodwin and Simonson's new backstory explains that after spending some time as a crime-fighter in the US, Kirk returns to big game hunting and is then killed by an elephant on safari in 1946.

[15] To test Kirk's loyalty, the Council assigns him to kill an Interpol official while refusing to explain how this mission advances their stated goal of helping mankind.

In this story an elderly human wearing the red and blue Manhunter costume retires and passes on the mantle to a man named Mark Shaw.

The Manhunters reveal they are impressed with Kirk's abilities and want him to avenge not only Donovan, who was an agent of their organization, but to also fight against the rising threat of criminals.

Unbeknownst to Kirk, the Manhunters are actually corrupt robots who have been manipulating human agents and allies for centuries, biding their time until they are ready to attempt planetary and then universal conquest.

With his tracking and athletic abilities, he fights a variety of gangsters and super-criminals such as "twerpy crime lord" Mr. Meek (who has a petrifying ray), the Rajah (armed with the hypnotic Burma Emerald), and a gang leader known as the Tiger.

He is unaware this man, a police officer named Donald "Dan" Richards, was also encouraged to fight crime by the secret Manhunter organization.

Following the United States entering World War II, then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt uses Article X as a "superhero draft", asking all costumed champions to pool their resources as the All-Star Squadron and help protect the country.

Paul Kirk's body is recovered by the Council, a group of ten individuals who concluded the invention of the atomic bomb is proof humanity will soon destroy itself unless stopped and properly guided.

Impressed with Kirk's talent for fighting, athletics, and tracking, Council leader Mykros orders his chief scientist Dr. Oka to place him in suspended animation.

To become an even better combatant, Kirk undergoes intensive martial arts training by the Council's agent Asano Nitobe, said to be the last true master of ninjitsu.

Nitobe, who was saved from the bombing of Nagasaki by Dr. Oka and afterward promised to serve him and the Council, trains Kirk for months not only in martial arts but in how to use his new healing abilities, which require mental concentration to be effective.

[21] Kirk's activities attract the attention of Interpol agent Christine St. Clair, who is shocked to learn her own superior and her father are Council operatives.

[22][23][24][25] The 1973–74 Goodwin/Simonson Paul Kirk Manhunter stories from Detective Comics have been collected several times: first in 1979 in oversized, black-and-white format by Excalibur Enterprises; then in color by DC in 1984; they were reissued yet again by DC in 1999 with additional material, namely a silent story illustrated by Simonson from a plot breakdown by Goodwin and him; the new collection was dedicated to Goodwin's memory, who had died before he could write the captions and dialogue (as explained in the book's text piece).

This collection, titled Manhunter: The Special Edition (ISBN 1563893746), won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album in 2000.

Council scientist Dr. Spangle discovered Mykros' plan to overthrow the world's governments, freed Kirk, and gave him a weapon, after which he set out to take down the clones.