.
When last seen in issue 5, the SSOSV Manhunter clone went out, shall we say, with a bang, following Darkseid into a boom tube, on a mission to kill Darkseid, and there was an explosion just as Darkseid's boom-tube faded away. Manhunter apparently dying to complete his mission.
But YOU KNOW Darkseid wasn't killed or ever would be, and despite Manhunter being on a self-proclaimed suicide mission, Manhunter could have survived too, in some
million-billion-trillion-to-one unforseen circumstance. As there always seems to be, for heroes and villains when they appear to be going to their deaths.
The boom tube while fading away could have taken the explosion with it, out of our dimension, sparing Manhunter.
Or Darkseid, saving himself, in close quarters could have inadvertantly protected Manhunter with the same force sheild Darkseid might have put up to save himself.
Or Darkseid could have grabbed and thrown the explosive far in the distance, so that neither Darkseid or Manhunter were close to it or injured when it exploded.
Or... he could have been killed.
And then he could just be replaced by ANOTHER one of the hundreds of Paul Kirk clones, that could also be revealed to have somehow miraculously survived the destruction of the Council's underground base, back in the DETECTIVE 443 conclusion.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Detective-Comics-1937/Issue-443?id=5685It arguably wasn't overly well handled in SECRET SOCIETY 1-5, since it was juggled by 4 different writers, alternating almost every issue, who visibly weren't overly committed to the series. And a similar constant rotation of artists on the SSOSV series.
But I still think this offshoot Manhunter storyline could have been salvaged into something memorable. And while not the greatest thing ever done, was a somewhat interesting concept to revive Manhunter for 5 issues, that could have been further developed. .
SSOSV issue 4 cover, by ChanSECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS1 Gerry Conway story, Pablo Marcos/Bob Smith art, June 1976
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Secret-Society-of-Super-Villains/Issue-1?id=792922 Gerry Conway/Dave Kraft story, Marcos/Bob Smitth art, Aug 1976
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Secret-Society-of-Super-Villains/Issue-2?id=792993 Dave Kraft story, Pablo Marcos/Vince Colletta art, Oct 1976
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Secret-Society-of-Super-Villains/Issue-3?id=793004 Dave Kraft story, Pablo Marcos/ Chan, Colletta art, Dec 1976
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Secret-Society-of-Super-Villains/Issue-4?id=793015 Bob Rozakis story, Rich Buckler/Vince Colletta art, Feb 1977
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Secret-Society-of-Super-Villains/Issue-5?id=79303