Alan Kistler’s Profile On: THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER

He has super-strength, telepathy, bullet-proof skin, shape-shifting (which also allows invisibility and intangibility), Martian vision, some super-speed, and flight. Even with all his power, he prides himself moreso on being a detective and having a finely trained analytical/tactical mind. He’s been alive for centuries and may still be alive long after this planet is gone. His only weaknesses are fire, his own sense of compassion, and Oreo cookies. Yet some still see him as a second-stringer, just a nod to Superman and not a hero in his own right.

Whatever the case may be, let’s look back on the history of a character who has quite simply refused to die or be sent to comic book limbo. The heart and soul of the Justice League himself, J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars.

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND (I know, it’s cliché, but c’mon!)

In 1953, DC Comics published a story in BATMAN #78 in which a green-skinned Martian described as a “manhunter” (which is another word meaning “detective” or “crime-fighter”) named Roh Kar arrived on Earth, in pursuit of an escaped Martian convict. With the assistance of Batman. Roh Kar had Martian technology that allowed him to become invisible and teleport. He wasn’t intended to ever be seen again, but two years later another “Manhunter from Mars” appeared in Batman’s other title.

This new hero J’onn J’onzz showed up in a back-up story in DETECTIVE COMICS #225 in 1955. Like Adam Strange and Captain Comet, he was a sci-fi adventurer rather than a super-hero. This was during the time when super-hero comics had fallen in popularity, partly due to disinterest and partly due to the machinations of people like Dr. Frederick Wertham who claimed that "Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic book industry." Western and sci-fi adventure stories were still deemed “safe” for the most part, as were tales of just a handful of heroes such as Superman and Batman, so they helped keep the medium alive.

In the story "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" (written by Joe Samachson and illustrated by Joe Certa), a Dr. Erdel accidentally teleported a real live Martian into his lab. Just as we all suspected at the time, it turned out Martians did indeed have green skin and no hair. He immediately learned English from Erdel via telepathy, explained that he was a scientist named J’onn J’onzz (pronounced “John Jones”) and wanted to know how he’d gotten there. Erdel was so excited and flabbergasted (love that word) to see a real alien before him that, after his explanation, he suffered a heart attack and died. Unable to work the machines himself, the Martian realized he was stranded on Earth. Fortunately, J’onn was capable of shape-shifting and made himself look like a human being. Deciding to work among humans and watch over his newly adopted home world, he joined the police force as John Jones and became a detective.

John Jones and J’onn J’onzz

The Martian Manhunter’s adventures were of a clandestine nature. As Jones, he would investigate crimes and then; when police work wasn’t good enough, he would close the case by secretly shifting into his Martian form and using his powers. His adventures as a Martian were not known to the public and only a few criminals would see this strange green creature attack them before they were knocked out. And a lot of the time, J’onn would also make himself invisible so as not to be found out. Because of this, I do not agree with those who claim that he, and not Barry Allen (Flash II), was the first Silver Age hero. Yes he had powers, but he did not act as a public super-hero until AFTER the appearance of Barry Allen.

To many, J’onn seemed analogue for Superman. Like Superman, he was an alien who adopted Earth as his home, and what’s more he seemed to have roughly the same powers. He could fly, he was strong and bullet-proof, he had "martian vision" which involved both good eye-sight (though no X-rays or fancy things like that) and force beams from his eyes. Sometimes he showed “Maritan breath” which could blow down a door. His hearing was better than a man’s but not as good as Superman’s. He was nowhere near as strong and fast as Superman. But on the flipside, he could shape-shift, turn invisible and read minds.

The drawback? He was vulnerable to fire, as its presence caused his powers to shut down. In some adventures, it was also stated that J’onn was more vulnerable when he was invisible and couldn’t use his other powers (except flight) when he was in this state. Not all writers followed this (or knew abou it) though.

While some readers thought this character was interesting and found him different than Superman in that his weakness was more available on Earth and he’d been raised as a alien rather than as an Earthman, others disliked him for practically the same reasons and considered him a poor man’s Kal-El.

With the later introduction of Barry Allen as the new Flash super-heroes began to make their way back into DC comics as the front-runners. Rather than fall by the wayside, J’onn J’onzz’s stories shifted and had him operating publicly now in his Martian guise, acting just as other super-heroes would except that instead of changing into a costume he merely assumed his true appearance. When DC decided to create a super-hero team, they had J’onn become one of its founding members in order to give him a boost by featuring him in stories with people like the Flash and Green Lantern. Thus, the Manhunter from Mars became a founding member of the Justice League of America. It would later be revealed that the JLA formed when these different heroes of Earth banded together to defend Earth from invaders from the planet Appellax. So ironically, J’onn made his public debut as an alien among humanity by fighting other aliens.

Since Batman and Superman were only "honorary members" at the time, J’onn was used as the League’s big-gun. As the stories went on, and as Superman became more and more involved with the League, the Martian Manhunter seemed slightly redundant. At one point, they tried to soup of J’onn’s powers by saying he was “master of transmutation”, that he could not only change his own body but other things. This didn’t really enhance his character and later writers either dropped it or forgot about it entirely. He wasn’t a bad character, just not one that stood out.

MARCO XAVIER, MANHUNTER FROM M. A. R. S.

To help develop J’onn, he started having solo stories in DC’s HOUSE OF MYSTERY title. They gave him a sidekick: a dim-witted nekkid dwarf named Zook (who possessed special antennae and the power to control temperatures) and arch-rivals such as Professor Hugo (who bore a strange resemblance to Lex Luthor, except he was more lame).

J’onn was also constantly attacked by various creatures and demons, all of whom were created by a mystic totem known as …(wait for it)… "The Diabulo Idol-Head." J’onn never did find out the origins of this mystical device, so there was no kidding over the fact that it was nothing more than a pathetic macguffin. These stories were seen as hokey (NO WAY!) and mundane, so DC decided to shake things up.
In movies and film, spies were big now. James Bond, the Man from U.N.C.L.E., stuff like that. Marvel took the hint by bringing back their army character Sgt. Fury and reintroducing him as the older "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." DC was not one to miss out on this craze. In HOUSE OF MYSTERY, the U.S. government contacted J’onn and said they needed his help to investigate and combat the "super-secret international criminal empire called V.U.L.T.U.R.E." The especially wanted the head of Vulture, a mysterious overweight man called Mr. V.

During his initial work with several F.B.I. agents, J’onn inadvertently caused the death of Marco Xavier, one of the top lieutenants of V.U.L.T.U.R.E. Seeing an opportunity to infiltrate V.U.L.T.U.R.E. from the inside, J’onn then took on Marco Xavier’s name and appearance. As J’onn became a counter-spy hero, other storylines were dropped. The Diabulo Idol-Head was destroyed. Zook just vanished. And the hokey feel gave way to a much darker atmosphere of stories, with "Marco Xavier" displaying more and more of a gallows humor, showing he was a tough guy who wasn’t fooling around anymore. While the stories weren’t bad, many readers became angered that J’onn had gone from a laid back character to such a bleak person. DC actually got more letters demanding the return of the "real J’onn" than they’d received complaining about the old J’onn being hokey in the first place.

To satisfy both camps, DC brought Zook into the V.U.L.T.U.R.E. stories, but this only annoyed folks more since the alien dwarf didn’t fit into the new atmosphere. Finally, DC said "Screw it!" and tossed out both their Marco Xavier feature and their "Dial H for Hero" feature and turned House of Mystery into an anthology horror title with the character Cain narrating (years later, Neil Gaiman would feature both Cain and his special house in the pages of THE SANDMAN).

BACK INTO SPACE

Thrown back into the super-hero arena, J’onn’s character was developed in a different way, by building up his past. In DETECTIVE COMICS #500, Hawkman discovered that Dr. Erdel, who’d brought J’onn to Earth so long ago, hadn’t died of a heart attack. His computer had actually gained sentience and killed him (as living computers seem to be prone to do). As time passed, more stuff was filled in. It was revealed that Mars had been home to two races at war: the Green Martians and the White Martians (or Pale Martians as they were sometimes called). J’onn had been leading an army of the Greens against Commander Blanx of the Whites when he was suddenly teleported to Earth and stranded there. It was then revealed that before the formation of the JLA, Earth’s heroes had helped J’onn just weeks earlier when Earth was invaded by Blanx and his forces. Now, after having been with the JLA for years, J’onn left to rejoin his fellow Martians as they went to build a new settlement on Mars II.

So J’onn was gone from Earth for a while. Superman and others would occasionally run into him space and in these adventures J’onn showed that he hadn’t lost ALL of his hard-ass attitude since HOUSE OF MYSTERY. In one adventure that featured the first appearance of the alien warlord Mongul, J’onn actually told off Superman for being too arrogant and cocky in battling the villain.

SON OF MARS, SON OF SATURN

In 1984, Greg Potter and Gene Colan wanted to do a new series that re-imagined the Martian Manhunter. After submitting ideas to DC, they were told the story was too radical a change for J’onn and altered things about his history that had been previously established (this is back when DC editors were more reluctant to allow changes in continuity). Rather than simply throw the story out, the two just rewrote exactly who the characters involved were. At fist, they changed it to be about another Martian named Jemm. Then they made Jemm an alien from another planet entirely.

Raised on Saturn (though it was never explained how a humanoid race could live on a gaseous planet), Jemm was born a prophesied savior, marked by the stone on his brow. A Red Saturnian, he was a hero to his people and an enemy of the White Saturnians. Eventually, he came to Earth where he befriended an orphan boy and was blamed for the death of a human being, which brought him into conflict with Superman. The series ended with issue #12 and Jemm was forgotten about as the years went on.

HANGING WITH OLD FRIENDS AGAIN

J’onn didn’t return for a visit to Earth again until the Appellaxians once again attacked the JLA. Later, he returned again to warn them of a militaristic faction of the Green Martians, including his former lover, who saw Earth as a stepping stone to galactic conquest. J’onn joined with his former JLA allies and helped beat back his own people, though the JLA Sattelite and J’onn’s own space shuttle were destroyed in the battle as a result. After the invasion was over, J’onn was now seen as an outcast by his people.

With no other home to go to, he stayed with the team and stayed in the roster when Aquaman reformed the team and based their new HQ in Detroit. When Aquaman left soon after that, J’onn was appointed team leader. A while later, when several old Leaguers showed up to help the new team out of a jam, J’onn convinced his old friend Batman to take on the reins of leader, hoping the Dark Knight could also help train the new younger heroes who made up much of the team.

Later on, when the team broke up and then eventually reformed as Justice League International, Batman told J’onn that the Martian was the right one to lead the team, as he was the only one who could look at the Earth equally in terms of its need for protection due to his alien upbringing.
J’onn and Gypsy
J’onn showed more and more that he was the heart and soul of the team through his relationships with the other characters. Batman spoke to J’onn with a deference that he rarely used with others. Gypsy started seeing J’onn as a father figure. And even Steel I (Hank Heywood), who was normally a cocky jerk demanding to be recognized as the heavy hitter of the group, would back down when J’onn would tell him in no uncertain terms to sit down and shut up. Later on, J’onn showed his true spirit during the LEGENDS saga. After the Leaguers Vibe and Steel I were murdered by Professor Ivo and his killer androids, the President announced (due to political pressures at the time) that super-heroes were outlawed and ordered the League disbanded. J’onn said that the world needed heroes and the League had to survive if Vibe and Steel’s deaths were not to be in vain. In this moment, he showed just how much his adopted family meant to him. The League was an ideal he wouldn’t fail.

After the events of the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, many characters had their histories altered or completely redone. One thing done to J’onn post-Crisis was a "Private Lives" story in which it was showed just HOW he had become a cop. In the story, we saw that J’onn educated himself on Earth culture largely through television. Finding a great admiration for TV detectives, he decided to emulate them. He assumed the human identity of John Jones and minutes later walked into a police precinct. Using his mental abilities, he was able to convince the entire police station that he has been working there for years and knew many of them personally. This story was nice in showing just how J’onn had assumed the identity of a police officer, but it also added back a manipulative quality of J’onn’s that had not been seen since HOUSE OF MYSTERY.

WELL-INTENTIONED LIES

A couple of years after the Crisis, J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Badger did a mini-series they hoped would add a lot of depth to J’onn. It started off with J’onn suffering a mind-body illness that gave him visions of H’ronmeer (introduced as the lizard-like Martian god of fire and death). After trying to get to the truth of his illness, J’onn was shocked to find Dr. Erdel alive and well. Erdel then told J’onn that the life he remembered of Mars never existed. He was not a warrior and his true appearance was not that of a beetle-browed green-skinned human. His name wasn’t even really J’onn J’onzz. In truth, Martians were a society of pacifists and the being who would become J’onn was a poet and a singer with a wife and daughter. Martians were bipedal, but only vaguely humanoid, as they were much ganglier and had pointier heads.

Life was good on Mars, but then a hideous plague came. To try and halt the disease, hills of bodies were burned, becoming flaming towers. The Martian who would be called “J’onn” later on saw his wife die and was forced to burn her corpse. Overcome with grief, he held his dead daughter, unwilling to let the other Martians burn her body as well. They surrounded him, when suddenly the Martian and his child vanished.

In his lab, Dr. Erdel (now said to have the first name of “Saul”) was working on his teleporter when he accidentally brought the Martian and the dead daughter before him. The Martian panicked and used his telepathy to find out what happened. Erdel apologized and suggested he could send the Martian back but the alien wouldn’t have it and wrecked the machine in a rage. Erdel buried the daughter and then formed a telepathic link with the Martian. Understanding the mental trauma the alien had suffered, he used the link between them to over-write his true memories with new ones he made up, inspired by pulp sci-fi stories he’d once read. Unable to pronounce the Martian’s true name, he called him "J’onn J’onzz", a play on “John Jones” a simple name that could belong to anyone. Influenced by Erdel’s mind, the Martians appearance shifted to a halfway point between human and Martian. Finally, Erdel implanted memories that J’onn had witnessed the scientist die of a heart attack. This way, J’onn would be free to leave and not stay around someone who might one day inadvertently remind him of his past. Because the trauma of seeing his wife and people burn had been so severe, J’onn maintained a severe pyrophobia even though he didn’t consciously remember the reason for this phobia. Thus, his weakness to fire was purely psychosomatic.

Having now learned the truth, J’onn used Erdel’s rebuilt machine to return to Mars. He found spirits and ghosts of Martians long dead and discovered that Erdel’s machine had reached through time as well as space. His people had actually died 40,000 years ago. As the Martians left for their final resting place, J’onn sang and danced in their memory, celebrating the beauty of their life rather than the tragedy of their death. What’s more, now that he understood his weakness was psychological, he began to work on it so that he’d no longer fear fire.

The mini was good and the ending quite beautiful. But, of course, the entire story required a big retcon. Since there were no other Martians, all those stories of J’onn on Mars II and the Martian invasion of Earth could not have happened, meaning J’onn never could’ve left the JLA to go live with his people and that someone ELSE must’ve destroyed the JLA satellite. Another problem was that although artists quickly picked up on what J’onn’s “natural” form now looked like and would remember it for years to come, very few people seemed to have actually READ the mini-series, including DC writers. More on this in a bit.

As the Justice League stories continued, J’onn was given a dry wit. When his teammates broke the roof of the League Embassy, J’onn somberly said he had to leave in order to perform an ancient Martian meditation technique "called screaming." He also revealed he had a deep love of oreo cookies that bordered on addiction (DC’s fear of copyrights had later writers refer to the cookies as chocos).

In his initial SANDMAN story arc, Neil Gaiman had Morpheus, king of dreams, encounter J’onn. J’onn immediately fell to his knees, recognizing Morpheus’s Martian aspect, that of the god T’Zoril. Morpheus said he was surprised by J’onn’s presence, saying he believed the Martian people to be eons dead. This cemented Giffen’s story, although not everyone got the reference since, still, many people hadn’t read it and many writers were not continuity gurus like Gaiman when it came to researching for their stories.

A couple of years later, during the BREAKDOWNS storyline of Justice League America and Justice League Europe, both teams split up. J’onn left for space to find his own destiny. We didn’t see the guy again until a few years later … Or DID we?

THE BLOODWYND STORYLINE

When a new JLA and JLE formed, the American branch eventually got themselves an interesting new member, a sorcerer of sorts called Bloodwynd. Bloodwynd kept his cards close to the vest, never explaining himself or the nature of his powers. Blue Beetle was very suspicious and tried to figure out what Bloodwynd’s deal was. He could fly and was very strong. He had telepathic abilities, though the extent of them was unknown. He seemed to be able to teleport and at times he would call upon the "spirits of the dead" to give him strength. He also refused to be examined physically by anyone, even when he was injured by the creature Doomsday during that monster’s initial rampage on Earth.

During that same fight with Doomsday, there was a moment when Bloodwynd was tossed into a large fire by the creature. Blue Beetle went to find him and was immediately shocked when he saw Bloodwynd in the flames. Evidently, the sorcerer had changed appearance and Beetle cried out, "Bloodwynd is really … Bloodwynd MUST BE -" But was then choked by Doomsday, who immediately beat him into a coma. Readers would not find out for a while yet just what the Beetle had discovered.
Following Superman’s apparent death, the villain Dr. Destiny sent the JLA into a dream-reality where Earth was ruled by a fascist version of the classic "satellite era" JLA team. At one point, Bloodwynd fought the dream version of an evil Martian Manhunter. In the midst of the battle, Bloodwynd’s body shifted and he became the Martian Manhunter himself, only with Bloodwynd’s bloodstone still on his chest. This entire time, J’onn had been serving with the JLA again under a different name and face.

It was revealed that although there was a real Bloodwynd who was a sorcerer, the JLA had never actually met him. When J’onn had been leaving Earth months back, he’d found Bloodwynd having a bit of difficulty with his magical bloodgem. J’onn tired to help the sorcerer when a strange occurrence took place and the two were bonded. Bloodwynd was trapped within his own gem, which had then attached itself to J’onn and convinced J’onn that HE was actually Bloodwynd. Believing himself to be the sorcerer, J’onn rejoined the JLA, perhaps becuase he subconsciously rememebred this as his only true family since he’d arrived on Earth and wanted to stay close to them. He then used his Martian abilities to simulate Bloodwynd’s mystical abilities. For instance, when it looked like Bloodwynd had teleported away, it was actually J’onn becoming invisible and then flying away.

The League helped separate the Martian Manhunter and the sorcerer. The real Bloodwynd then went off, feeling no loyalty to a team that had believed him to be their teammate for months. Back in his true form now, J’onn did not join the main League teams. Instead, he became head of the Justice League Task Force. Each adventure, J’onn would be given an assignment by the U.S. government and would select a different team of heroes depending on each mission’s needs. Later, after Zero Hour, J’onn created a more permanent roster for a new stable Justice League Task Force. The Task Force issues were never that great, ranging from the fairly interesting to the absurd (such as an adventure where J’onn went undercover among a group of women by becoming a female version of himself). It wouldn’t be until Mark Waid and Grant Morrison came around that J’onn could shine again.

HISTORY LESSONS

There were too many Leagues and not enough readers. The various books were cancelled. Mark Waid’s story JUSTICE LEAGUE: A MID-SUMMER’S NIGHTMARE introduced the NEW JLA which was composed of the big guns, as hadn’t been seen since the earliest days. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Flash (Wally West), Aquaman, Wonder Woman and, of course, J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter.

After this story, the new JLA run started with a new series by Grant Morrison. Morrison made sure to emphasize that J’onn was essential to the JLA, due to his passion and dedication, and even had a scene in which Batman said that he knew no one else who understood team dynamics better than he. In his first story-arc, Morrison also showed that Martians and humans were more connected than had even been realized. It was said that thousands of years ago, a clan of White Martians started screwing with primitive humans. Due to their experimentations, they actually altered the human race. Originally, evolution was going to make humanity into a race of superhumans. Due to the Martian tampering, now only one in several over the generations would be able to develop any kind of superhuman powers, either naturally as a mutant or later in life through some trauma that altered their body chemistry (i.e. being bathed in electrified chemicals like the Flash or being exposed to certain kinds of radiation). As punishment, this clan of White Martians was exiled to the Still Zone, a limbo-like dimension. In Morrison’s story, they returned to Earth to conquer it and the JLA and J’onn were forced to beat them back.

Morrison also wanted to emphasize that J’onn was the passionate heart of the JLA, the guy who, like Batman and Superman, you never wanted to screw with. In his stories, J’onn was a gentle soul, but once you threatened innocent lives or his teammates he was an outraged powerhouse, as evidenced when he met Ultraman (an evil Superman from the anti-matter universe) and did not hesitate to take down the incredibly powerful murderer. J’onn actually shape-shifted to have his own body covered with spikes that could pierce the villain’s hide and mess with his nervous system directly.

Fans were appreaciative of this interpretation, but there was still a problem for some of them. Morrison, often hailed as a man with a nearly insane knowledge of comic continuity, had commited a continuity error. Morrison was completely unaware of the DeMatteis mini-series years ago and that it had done away with J’onn’s pyrophobia. So he had no idea that there would be complaints when he opened up the new series with an invasion by a lost clan of White Martians and showing that the aliens were rendered powerless when in the presence of fire. Also, a Martian city in the Antarctic was unearthed that was called Z’onn Z’orr, thus indicating that J’onn J’onzz was indeed a true Martian name.

But Morrison was actually not the FIRST to make this mistake, he was just the first to get noticed by so many readers. In an issue of AQUAMAN several months beforehand, Peter David showed a scuffle between Arthur and the League, during which the sea king nuetralized J’onn with fire. And in the afore-mentioned MID-SUMMER’S NIGHTMARE, Mark Waid showed J’onn go into a near catatonic state when he was assaulted by visions of flames around him, and Wonder Woman specifically stated during the story that Martians were vulnerable to fire. So Morrison was just following suit. He knew about those stories and not about the DeMatteis mini-series, just as Waid and David didn’t evidently.

JLA: SECRET FILES #1 added a new depth to the Martian Manhunter. It showed that he not only maintained an identity of John Jones (as a private eye now rather than a 9-5 cop), he also used dozens of other identities all over the world, involving different ages, races and sexes, all in an effort to study all aspects of humanity and their world. At the end of this feature, Giffen’s idea of J’onn being just as much poet as warrior was echoed when readers saw the Martian praying for peace before an altar. Another thing that was revealed in JLA: SECRET FILES was that, since he noticed most super-heroes were located in North America, J’onn tried to make up the difference by focusing on the rest of the planet when he wasn’t on a mission with the League. In the Southern hemisphere and Australia, he was seen by people to be as great a champion as Superman himself.

In Mark Waid’s JLA: YEAR ONE, he showed that J’onn remembered having a wife and child during the early days of the League, long before DeMatteis said he regained his "true memories." It was official now. DeMatteis’s mini-series was out (although his idea of the Martian god H’ronmeer and the depiction of a Martian’s natural form in his story would carry on). Waid had J’onn say that his wife and child had been lost to a “tragic accident” that happened before he came to Earth. More on this in a bit.

In JLA: YEAR ONE, it was shown that, still not sure if he should trust humanity or these new heroes, J’onn investigated all the super-heroes and kept detailed files on them. Later, the terrorist organization Locus stole these files and used them to attack Earth’s defenders. Although the JLA saved the day, J’onn was now given a new motivation. Along with his deep desire to help people and fight for justice, he was also trying to make up for the damage he caused during the early days of the League.

Showing that he wasn’t ignorant of continuity, Morrison brought in a surprise character from the past. When Lex Luthor formed a new Injustice Gang, it was composed of analogue for each of the JLA members. For GL, there was his enemy Dr. Light. For Flash, there was Mirror Master. Wonder Woman’s arch-enemy Circe was there. And for Batman and Aquman, there were also the Joker and Ocean Master. But what about J’onn? Outside of general League enemies, he had had no personal rivals since THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY. So Morrison surprised everyone by bringing back Jemm, Son of Saturn, who hadn’t been seen in years.

Jemm hadn’t turned evil but was forced to help the villains due to drugs that controlled his mind and forced him to fight the JLA. After the battle, J’onn took Jemm to his base of Z’onn Z’orr, making it his responsibility to care for him. Why he felt a kinship with the Saturnian would be explained later.

THE OSTRANDER SERIES

John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake had received huge acclaim with their successful SPECTRE series. Most impressive had been that they’d been able to write dramatic, thrilling stories starring a character who was obscenely powerful. What’s more, they’d been able to mesh different takes of the Spectre over the decades into a cohesive whole Since J’onn had the same basic problem with being very powerful (shall we go through the list of abilities again?) and having been interpreted in different ways, they were the natural choice. By this time, J’onn seemed to be many characters rolled into one. Philosopher and warrior. An alien yet also perhaps the one Leaguer most in touch with compassion for humanity. A super-hero and a detective. A team player, yet also a lone outcast, the last of his kind.

Ostrander did not reveal the Manhunter’s new official history chronologically. But rather than jump through the different time periods like he did, I’ll just put everything here, rearranged as linearly as possible.

Long ago, on the planet Ma’lecaandra (known as “Mars” to Earth people later), there were the warrior-conqueror White Martians and the pacifistic philosophers, the Green Martians. The name Ma’lecaandra is a reference to what C.S. Lewis called the planet Mars in “Out of the Silent Planet”, saying that was its name in the universal language known as “Old Solar.” Ostrander also said that Martians referred to Earth as “Per’elandra.” This is another C.S. Lewis nod, as Perelandra was his sequel to “Out of the Silent Planet” and in that story it is given as the Old Solar name for Venus.

The Green Martians formed a police force that also acted as their army and as a council of judges when neccesary. The roughest English translation of what these folks were called was “Manhunters." This meant that J’onn identifying himself as a “J’onn J’onzz, Martian Manhunter” was essentially the same as Batman’s friend Jim Gordon introducing himself as “Jim Gordon, Gotham City P.D.” It was his job and title, not just a super-hero nickname.

After some years, the Guardians of the Universe, those cosmic immortals who would later become mentors to the Green Lantern Corps, saw the Manhunters of Mars at work and used them as a model for their own agents, an army of android Manhunters. Through this, Ostrander connected J’onn to the GL Corps (which was later formed by the Guaridans when their android Manhunters went rogue) and also established the Martian race as one of the oldest in the universe.

Ostrander also did his best to give the Martian people a unique culture. He talked about how the Martians were, as a people, fascinated by duality and cycles and how each Martian served TWO roles in society. Martians also had a private face (their true form) that was shared only with family and deeply loved ones and a public face (the humanoid, beetle-browed appearance) that they shared with others. As telepaths, they were constantly linked to each other, all hearing a constant undercurrent of telepathy running between them that they referred to as "the Great Voice." By the same token, they were very earnest in their respect for each other’s privacy, thus protocols were followed in just how telepathy was used. Martians telepathically handed down memories from one generation to the next, ensuring that each generation could learn from the experience of the previous one. Also, due to the harsh environment, Martians only had children as society could support it and each child was an act of will by both parents who used their shape-shifting abilities to give away some of their own mass to invoke the offspring.

Ostrander said that Martians worshipped the god H’ronmeer, god of fire and death. Their telepathy had a severe reaction to the presence of fire. When they saw it, their telepathic control over their own body would weaken, deadening their powers and making them vulnerable.

Martian clothing was actually derived from a plant they used that responded to their telepathy and would reform into whatever clothing the wearer desired. This plant was called the "Zo’ok" plant (ZOOK! Get it?!) and in its natural state looked like a yellow disc, sometimes with a starburst design on it (it’s J’onn’s belt buckle, get it?).

Time passed. Both Green and White Martians began making clones to help their societies. The Green Martians made their clones red-skinned and treated them as brothers. The White Martians made their clones white-skinned like them and used them as slaves. The clones were not as powerful as true Martians and were used to help build satellite stations orbiting Saturn. When a war between the Greens and Whites broke out later, some of the satellites were destroyed, as were several ships. The debris from all this formed the initial rings of Saturn itself. The Martians finally left, but the Saturnians remained on their satellite homes, evolving down their own paths. Like the Green and White Martians, the Red and White Saturnians would be forever at war. This also finally explained how a humanoid race could be from a gaseous planet, by showing us that the Saturnians lived ABOVE the planet and hadn’t evolved there.

Time continued to pass. J’onn’s mother Sha’sheen J’onzz was both a Manhunter and a seer. When she gave birth to twins, she knew that J’onn (whose name meant "light to the light") would be a force for good whereas his brother Ma’alefa’ak (which meant "darkness in the heart") would be warped and evil. As time went on, J’onn was a delight to many while his brother was withdrawn and acted coldly towards those around him. As children, J’onn approached his brother and asked about his angry demeanor and resentment towards others. J’onn reached out to his twin and said, "You are my brother. We were born in the same moment. We virtually have the same body. Nothing you could do would make me hate you." Ma’alefa’ak just smiled and asked, "Is that a challenge?" There was a pause between the two and then the darker twin frowned and said simply, "I know you love me, J’onn. You may be the only one who does. And you believe what you say. I know all that. I just can’t help resenting you. That’s all."

J’onn’s mother explained that Ma’alefa’ak’s name was not a punishment but a warning meant for others and himself, based on her visions, the same visions that said J’onn would be a champion embodying the best aspects of their race. As time went on, the two grew up and had to choose their dual roles. Ma’alefa’ak became a theologian and a scientist while J’onn chose to be a philosopher and a Manhunter. After his training, his new colleagues welcomed him and gave him their memories so he could learn from their field experience. He then spoke the oath: "Once begun, to walk the path, to pursue the prey, to never turn aside, short of death, until justice is done."

The twins: Ma’alefa’ak and J’onn

In his experiments, Ma’alefa’ak wound up contacting the New Gods of the planet Apokolips, a race of nearly immortal, cosmic-powered beings led by the demonic tyrant known as Darkseid. Darkseid’s emissaries journeyed to Mars and learned about its people. Darkseid’s warrior Kanto became an apparent friend to J’onn. Glorious Godfrey, the manipulative charmer of Apokolips, had many talks with J’onn’s father M’yrn, who was a scientist/philosopher and leading member of the Martian Council. Godfrey said that Darkseid was interested in M’yrn’s studies of what he called "Life Equations" and "subsets of free will." Godfrey added, "By logical extension, there should be negative corollaries that would describe how to NEGATE free will or CONTROL it. Have you considered these?" M’yrn responded, "In THEORY, they might exist, but neither I nor my people would have any desire for them. It would be an Anti-Life Equation."

Later on, Darkseid finally made his move by attempting to invade Mars. He took the Martian children and council members prisoner and captured Ma’alefa’ak. At that point, Metron, scientist and philospher of the New Gods, appeared and said that for a long time now Darkseid had been pursuing a force he knew of in legends but had no name for. Thanks to Martian philosophy, he now saw this force as a tangible Anti-Life Equation and now that his desire was defined he had a solid objective to drive him. J’onn didn’t care about this, and declared he would journey to Apokolips alone, acting as a covert soldier until he had freed every Martian and returned them. He did so, marking himself forevermore an enemy to Darkseid and becoming a hated rival of Kanto’s.

Even after being rescued, Ma’alefa’ak was forever twisted due to Darkseid’s manipulations and later turned on his own people, conducting telepathic mind-rapes on several of them. No longer able to trust that the dark twin, the Manhunter Council created mental blocks in Ma’alefa’ak that cut him off from his telepathic gifts. They also altered his memories so that he did not remember ever having had his abilities or who his true family was. As far as he was concerned, he had been born a freak, alone. Yet without telepathy now, Ma’alefa’ak was the one Martian immune to fire.

Life went on for J’onn. Though he was saddened by what had happened with his twin, he found peace in his own life. He found a wife M’yri’ah, whom he loved very much, and later on they had a loving daughter named K’hym. K’hym, by the way, was named after Kim Yale, Ostrander’s wife who died of Breast Cancer in 1997. She was a writer and editor of comic books for multiple comic book companies, including Marvel, DC, First and Warp Graphics.

Though unaware of his old life, Ma’elefa’ak came up with new reasons to hate the Martian people. He saw himself as a freak who had neither friends nor family and resented all others. Experimenting, he created a telepathic plague called H’ronmeer’s Curse that, when spread, forced Martians to be consumed with thoughts of fire and then burst into flames, dying horribly. To save himself, J’onn had to cut his mind off entirely from his own people. It was a hard and awful experience, as he was no longer able to hear the Great Voice or even offer his family telepathic comfort. He was forced to watch as M’yri’ah and K’hym died in front of him, victims of the plague. Knowing who must have been responsible, J’onn confronted Ma’alefa’ak and they had a terrible battle that destroyed the villain’s lab. Both men survived, each believing that the other had been killed in the wreckage. Each brother then went his own separate way, convinced he was the last of his kind.

As J’onn would later recall, he spent centuries wandering alone. The trauma of having watched his own family die, his belief that he had been forced to kill his own twin, and the isolation he now suffered after having lived among a telepathic community all his life was all more than he could bare sometimes (note: because Ma’alefa’ak was still withou telepathy, J’onn never sensed the echo of his presence). During his more severe moments of depression, J’onn would actually split off a part of his mass to create a facsimile of his daughter or used his shape-shifting to take on the roles of his friends and family, convincing himself for brief periods they were all still alive. This is why J’onn told the JLA in JLA: YEAR ONE that his family died in a tragic accident. Even after being on Earth for years, it still took J’onn a while to admit to himself just what had happened to his family, that his own twin brother had killed them with a plague that had wiped out their entire race.

Centuries passed. On Earth, it was 1956 now and Dr. Erdel (whose first name was now said to be “James” rather than Saul) was an archeologist who found an abandoned and ancient Martian teleporter on a dig. Activating it, he accidentally brought J’onn to Earth. J’onn panicked and the ancient, decaying machine blew up from a short, causing a fire. J’onn’s pyrophobia kicked in, but then he saw Erdel hurt and lying on the floor. Though weakened by the flames, J’onn remembered his role as a Manhunter. He forced himself to act, saving the scientist from the flames. Through telepathy, J’onn learned where he was and how he’d come to Earth, just as the scientist seemed to die in his arms.

Sensing people approaching, J’onn made himself invisible and watched as humans came to investigate. One such human was a detective named John Jones. Noting that this human had a name so similar to his own and that he fulfilled a role in society similar to the Manhunters of Mars, J’onn decided fate had given him someone to learn from. He followed Jones to his home and lived with him for some time, invisibly watching what he did, how he spoke, how he acted. Through Jones, and through television programs the Martian watched when he was alone in the apartment, J’onn learned of humanity.

One day, Jones was going to give testimony in a major court case. But a fellow police officer who was dirty then betrayed Jones and killed him before he could make it to court. Having witnessed this, J’onn immediately took vengeance but realized it was too late. The man who had unknowingly taught him so much was now dead. Believing he was responsible for not being able to save Jones in time, J’onn needed a way to make up for his failure. Knowing how important this case had been to the detective, J’onn assumed his appearance so he could testify in his stead. He had been with Jones long enough by now to perform a perfect impersonation and knew practically everything the detective had known about the case. Afterwards, J’onn went on living as the detective, continuing his life’s work of hunting down criminals and protecting innocent life. As time went on, he would find other people recently dead but whose deaths were not known about. J’onn would take turns assuming the identities of each of these people, learning about all aspects of humanity through their different roles in life, their different living circumstances, cultures and different groups of friends.

At one point, Ostrander showed that J’onn had realized the arrival of Kal-El in Kansas and decided to keep an eye on the alien, making sure the child was safe and that the great powers he would exhibit later would not make him a threat to humanity. J’onn seemed to stay exclusively with the Kent boy for a time, temporarily giving up his other identities. Please note though, this story was immediately in question because it went against some of the Post-Crisis continuity for Superman and now that we’ve had SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT rework a lot of Clark’s past, it’s even more in doubt whether this part of J’onn’s past still counts as canon.

Another tale showed that at some point J’onn met up with Abin Sur, the alien who would one day choose the famous Earth-hero Hal Jordan to become his replacement in the Green Lantern Corps. And although it was not explored upon in his own series, James Robinson mentioned in his STARMAN series that J’onn had once had an adventure with Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, during his early days on Earth. Robinson said that J’onn had also encountered the alien Mikaal Tomas, who went by the name of “Starman” during the 70s. Our Martian boy got around.

In terms of J’onn’s powers, Ostrander expanded on what had been shown before. To explain how J’onn could sometimes assume massive shapes, Ostrander said he could siphon mass from the Earth itself, adding it to his own. This was not an easy task, of course, and would take a lot out of him, but at times was useful and necessary. Once, J’onn used it so he could grow to gigantic proportions to stop a giant enemy. Another time, he used it to recreate most of his body when he was about to face certain death and telepathically forced his mind into his hand, the only part of him that would survive (though J’onn remarked how difficult this was and that due to the stress of it and the low chances of it actually working, it’s not a trick he’d rely on ever again).

In an issue of CHASE, it had been established that after the retirement of the world’s first super-hero team the Justice Society of America, and many years before the formation of the famous Justice League of America, there had been a small group of athletes and metahumans who had formed the “Justice Experience.” These people were not heroes so much as well-intentioned (if amatuerish) adventurers, who often fought villains more obsessed with becoming famous for clever crimes than in conquering the world. The issue showed the members of the Justice Experience were Major Flashback, the Manx Cat, Acro-Bat, Mr. Adventure, and a guy called Bronze Wraith.

Years later, Ostrander revealed that the “Bronze Wraith” had really been J’onn in his first attempt at being a super-hero (he also had Mandrake alter the look of the costume so it would resemble his Manhunter outfit). When the Justice Experience first showed up, J’onn decided he wanted to work along them, perhaps finding acceptance in such people. He assumed the guise of the Bronze Wraith and pretended to be a masked human with super-powers. J’onn enjoyed being part of a team, but still didn’t feel humans were ready to know his true nature.
The Justice Experience Dr. Trapp
When a woman was accidentally killed in the midst of a battle between the Justice Experience and the villain team called the House of Pain, her lover Larry Trapp took revenge. As the Justice Experience heroes were not that careful, it was easy for Trapp to learn their identities. His first target was J’onn, whom he attacked with a mind-trap that gave the Martian amnesia. For years, J’onn wandered the streets as a homeless human. By the time he regained his memories, it was too late. Trapp had killed every other member of the Justice Experience. He was later captured by JSA members who came out of retirement.

J’onn began to assume new identities again, now that his memories were back. Since a couple of decades had passed since Detective John Jones had been seen (and since he’d never been famous to begin with), J’onn saw no reason not to assume the same basic identity again with a new police force. It had been his first human identity and his introduction to the world, so he had a particular fondness for it. As a cop, Jones was once again fighting crime, occasionally using his powers clandestinely. He was partnered with Detective Diane Meade, who would become a friend for years.

Sometime after John Jones joined the Middleton Police, Superman made his debut and a new wave of heroes started showing up. When Earth was invaded by Appellaxian warriors, J’onn operated in public for the first time as his Manhunter self, believing that if the world could accept an alien like Superman then they were ready now to be given a chance to welcome him as well. Thus, the world came to know the Martian Manhunter. He became a founding member of the JLA and gained in fame. And since post-Crisis he never left to help colonize Mars II (and since he was actually Bloodwynd for a time and later headed up the JL Task Force), he was seen now by fans and characters as the one character who has been a constant presence within the League over the years.

Ostrander and Mandrake’s series was very good and did a lot for J’onn’s development as a character. It gave him some supporting cast, enriched his history and just how important he and his people had been for the history of the DCU. It also finally gave him a rogues gallery with villains such as Dr. Trapp, the telepathic Bette Noire, the serial killing Headsman, and his dark twin who came back, now calling himself “Malefic.”
Malefic Returns!
Ostrander also nicely developed the relationship between Jemm and J’onn. Jemm’s people, the Saturnians, referred to Martians as “the Makers”, and viewed them as having almost demi-god authority. But J’onn was insistent to Jemm that they were brothers and equals, not creator and creation. J’onn helped Jemm recover from the psychological scars of his manipulation by Luthor and a later battle with Malefic. The two departed as friends as Jemm went off into the stars to join with his fellow Saturnians, trying now to build peace between the Reds and the Whites.

Sadly, low sales led to the series being cancelled after 36 issues. It ended with a final battle between Trapp and J’onn, the revelations about J’onn’s connection to Darkseid and the full origin of Malefic, and also showed that Diane Meade was now joining J’onn as his full partner in his private detecive agency was John Jones. Nice tie-ups, but since the series finished, we haven’t seen Diane or indeed been privy to J’onn’s many private lives outside of the JLA. Speaking of those private lives, J’onn suffered a brief incident where his Martian identity and his John Jones identity became seperate entities. After re-merging his two main identities, J’onn dropped most of his identities, focusing only on being a super-hero and Detective John Jones.

One other Martian continuity glitch Ostrander fixed had to do with the question: “if J’onn was the last of the Green Martians, who wrecked the JLA satellite years ago?” In his series JLA: INCARNATIONS, Ostrander created a new alien race known as the Debris who attacked the Earth and took the JLA by surprise, destroying the satellite base in the process. Glitch fixed, just like that! Sadly, other than his adventures alongside the JLA, J’onn now did not have the freedom of a solo book to further explore his character, nor those of his friends and enemies. Another shame about the cancellation is that Ostrander had intended to do a story that brought Dr. Erdel back. Perhaps one day.

In the meantime, if anyone from DC is reading this, how about collecting some of this series, huh? People who come to love J’onn through the JLA comics or the cartoons should not have to look through back issue bins at conventions to try and piece together his rich history.

REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY

In a JLA story by Joe Kelly, J’onn was tired of being a liability to the team due to his pyrophobia (no one else agreed with this, but he was too stubborn to listen). He went to the former villain Scorch and asked her for help. Together, they worked for months getting J’onn over his fear and the two even developed a relationship. But then J’onn began turning more and more malicious until he took on the appearance of a flaming, lizard like monster called Fernus, ready to destroy the world.

The story then revealed that 20,000 years ago there had been a dangerous race of beings called the Burning, who caused fires to help themselves reproduce asexually. The Guardians of the Universe saw the danger in these creatures and split them into TWO new races: Green and White Martians. To stem the threat they posed, the Guardians gave both Martian races genders and also ingrained them with a deep-seated fear of fire. By losing his pyrophobia, J’onn had allowed himself to be possessed by the spirit of Fernus, a Burning who’d originally been killed on ancient Earth by the immortal villain Vandal Savage. In the end, Fernus was defeated thanks in large part to Plastic Man, who isn’t so easily burned and is immune to telepathy. In fact, it was revealed that part why Batman asked Plastic Man into the League was due to this telepathic immunity, in case J’onn ever went rogue. J’onn regained his sanity as well as his pyrophobia.

POSSIBLE FUTURES AND RECENT EVENTS

In the storyline DC 1 MILLION, we saw a possible future where J’onn would live on for millenia. He would meet and help out the Legion of Super-Heroes and would later be involved in a centuries long war. As Mars became colonized again, he would become both teacher and storyteller and would later help lead a new generation of heroes into the final battle against Darkseid, during which the villain would finally die and J’onn would literally become one with the planet Mars itself. His spirit and mind would telepathically inhabit every inch of the very soil, allowing him to continue on as a living, sentient planet until it finally comes time for Mars to die.

During the INFINITE CRISIS saga, many events happened to destabilize the DC universe and throw it into chaos. Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II) was the first to suspect the danger, but J’onn, distracted by many other things and having little patience for Kord, who half the time was a pratical joker, didn’t listen. As a result, Kord investigated on his own and was killed by the then-leaders of the organization Checkmate. J’onn felt responsible and investigated himself, soon theorizing that perhaps there was one villain manipulating these events for their own goals, but before he could speak his suspicions he was attacked by villains behind it all. At the end of the Infinite Crisis, the heroes won but many were lost. Afterwards, with the League disbanded and the their Watchtower destroyed, J’onn went undercover to bring down Checkmate. After some months, he was succesful in helping to end the organization, but it was reformed soon afterwards under a new direction (as seen in the series 52).

A new MARTIAN MANHUNTER mini-series started soon afterwards, written by A.J. Lieberman. Lieberman showed that J’onn now had a harsher, more impatient attitude. Resentful and fed up with a human race that still looked at him with suspicion due to his alien nature, he chose not to join the newly formed JLA and struck out on his own with a darker costume. He also altered his form to more closely resemble his true nature, no longer caring to try and look “more human” (although this seems to go a bit against Ostrander’s often repeated stance that the humanoid appearance was an accepted part of Martian culture and that they only showed their true forms to loved ones).

J’onn was shocked to find another Green Martian named Roh’Kar (get it? If not, re-read the beginning of this article). Roh’Kar told J’onn there were other Green Martian surivors, but was immediately killed by a sniper. J’onn tracked down and rescues the others, who said they left their Mars on a ship days before the plague. Seeing their home now a dead world, they were eventually found and captured by what seemed to be Earth government agents Working against the advice of the JLA, J’onn worked to keep his fellow Martians hidden from the government that had apparently tortured them. But soon, J’onn discovered this was all a ruse by a Green Martian woman named Cay’an. Cay’an had come to Earth some time ago, alone. Learning about J’onn, she decided to take her time having revenge on him, blaming for the plague since he’d allowed Malefic to have his memory and telepathy taken away rather than simply executing him as a criminal. Since there were still White Martians around, Cay’An took a lot of time and effort to hypnotize them into believing themselves to be other Green survivors, as part of a way to hurt J’onn by giving him a new family and then taking it away again.

The story-arc ended with the hypnotized White Martians all dead, save for one name Till’all. J’onn brought Till’all to the JLA, convinced that this White Martian was one who had redeemed himself and wanted peace rather than war. Cay’an disappeared, planning vengeance on our boy.

Despite the fact that he implied Green Martians were actually more comfortable walking around in their true forms, Lieberman otherwise was pretty respectful of the continuity Ostrander set up. He also made it clear by the end of the mini-series that J’onn had been darker not because that was his new nature but because he’d been blaming himself for Ted Kord’s death, for Checkmate (an organization he still viewed as Ted’s killer) reforming despite his efforts, and for not being able to prevent the events that led to so many deaths during the Infinite Crisis saga and that led to the JLA being disbanded for so long. After having seen how his resentment and self-loathing made him easily buy into Cay’an’s deception and how he’d been willing to fight his own friends because he’d distrustful of long-time all humans, J’onn realized he’d strayed from his true nature and had to remember all the good he had seen and experienced over the years. The human race was still violent and paranoid, he admitted, but he also believed that one day they would achieve something great and peaceful and he wanted to be there when that happened.

Following the Infinite Crisis, another White Martian character showed up who wanted to be a hero. M’gann M’orzz (named after Megan Morse, a friend of writer Geoff Johns) took on the appearance of a Green Martian teenager so she could join the Teen Titans. She later left due to hurt feelings, but has recently rejoined. Calling herself “Miss Martian”, she has proven to be a valuable and loyal, if at times naive, member of the team. She’s a fun character and is accepted by the Titans, who are now all aware that she is actually a White Martian who pretends to be a Green one so that humans won’t hate her. It’ll be fun to see what’ll happen when she comes across J’onn finally.

And that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed this profile. If you want to check out how J’onn’s been portrayed in other media, click THIS LINK HERE. And feel free to check out my other profiles. Cheers!

Alan Kistler is a comic book historian who has been interviewed for documentaries by Warner Bros. Pictures and FUSE TV. To see his archives/blog or contact him directly, check out his personal web-site.

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