The Manhunters are a fictional race of extraterrestrial robots that appear in titles published by DC Comics. Publication history The broader history behind the alien robot species covered in this article was introduced in Justice League of America #140 (March 1977), in a story by Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin. Fictional character biography Interstellar police The Manhunters are the first attempt of the Guardians of the Universe to create an interstellar police force that could combat evil all over the cosmos. Their name and much of their code of behavior is modeled by the Guardians of the Universe on the Manhunters of Ma'aleca'andra (Mars) millions of years ago (This creates an apparent chronology problem, since the Manhunters were created many millions of years ago, while the Green Martian race were retconned as having come into existence from the Burning Martians only about 20,000 years ago.) For thousands of years, they serve the Guardians well. However, the Manhunters become obsessed with the act of "hunting" criminals. Their code, "No man escapes the Manhunters" (corrupted from the original "No evil..."), becomes more important to them than seeing justice done. Exile Eventually, the robots conspire to rebel against their masters, but the Guardians defeat and destroy most of them. Those that survived hide away on many planets, slowly rebuilding their forces and spreading their beliefs to others. Since then, the over-riding goal of the Manhunters has been to take revenge on the Guardians, as well as on their replacements, the Green Lantern Corps. The Manhunters infiltrate and liberate many planets disguised as living beings and create a "Cult of the Manhunters" that trains others to be their minions. On Mars, the people of that world start a group of Martian Manhunters based on the lessons of preserving justice taught unto them by the Manhunters and even erect a temple based on the appearance of their inspiration. On Earth, most of the Manhunters' agents are unaware that their masters are robots, or that their real purposes are not noble. Some of these agents became superheroes also known as Manhunters. They wear red-and-blue costumes patterned after the Manhunters themselves. The most famous of these is a big game hunter called Paul Kirk. He is active in the 1940s, and stars in his own series. The character is brought back in a modern version in the 70s, in which he was supposedly killed years before but