My Favorite Martian (NSF56K)

Jordyn

Well, I knew it was coming but it doesn't make it any less upsetting. Still, in the wake of what happened in Final Crisis, I've dove right back into all my favorite Martian Manhunter stories. And I decided that we should all take a moment to look back on how just how goddamn awesome J'onn could be.

He was always a member of the JLA, but his only solo series came in 1998 and ran for three years. It was pretty awesome though.

J'onn has been my favorite character for sometime now. I'm not really sure when it happened because it used to be Flash, but somewhere along the way I realized that J'onn had surpassed him. It's also my birthday this week, so happy birthday to me.

I have officially started rambling so let's just get to some stuff to look at.

He kicks some ass here.



This guy has the right idea


Ultraman does not


Hahaha, oh J'onn


One of J'onn's secret identities is a cat.


On the first episode of Justice League, he fucks up the Imperium


And he's totally awesome in this scene. I watch this whole episode just for this scene sometimes.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HWqqvYo61MA

Look at us


awwwwww

ok, I'll be back in a bit. Let's not complain about what happened to him, let's talk about how awesome he was. Or I'll just tell you guys a bunch of stuff because you might not realize all the awesome stuff about him.

Lucascraft

I really like Martian Manhunter too. I got the 12 issue limited run that they did last year, and I was honestly hoping that the run would spark enough interest that they'd give him his own book again, but alas, it was not to be.

Among my favorite MM stories is New Frontier. I love what Darwyn Cooke did with the character. His early scenes with Batman are pretty cool, and I love his interplay with Faraday.

Overall, he's got the potential to be the 2nd most powerful person in the JLA. Its too bad most writers don't know what to do with him. I'd love to see Geof Johns or Grant Morrison take a whack at him. If anyone could bring some long-term revival to the character, they could.

Blankspace

Morrison already took a whack at him

Jordyn

This is one of my favorite scans from his solo series:



I also really like when J'onn is just wearing his little short thingies.

Munch

Here's one of my favorite J'onn moments. Cameron Chase of the DEO visits Fire in Portugal to gather information on J'onn. Surprisingly, Fire's not too keen on her old friend and teammate.

But I wouldn't worry about J'onny. After all, he's still got a destiny to fulfill.

And even though it takes him a million years--



--he finally gets it.

KVW

Never was a big J'onn fan. It was more the way he was written than anything wrong with the character. Despite being nearly equal to Superman in terms of raw strength, he's intangible, shapeshifting, invisible and telepathic. He's practically godmode and he's been treated as the permanent Watchtower monitor duty bitch and like a second class citizen.

Who saves the day 99% of the time? Batman or Superman and the rest is dedicated to Wonder Woman, GL or Flash. J'onn almost always gets a little fire near him or a telepathic attack or some other cliche'd attack that eliminates him from the battle. He's the Sentry of the DCU. He shows up everywhere and is all powerful, but heaven forbid he does anything or is shown to be as powerful as he is supposed to.

Hell, even in Kingdom Come he was tossed to the sdie with some mental breakdown. At least they gave himcredit for his godlike powers.

So, while I laugh at his random Oreo joke scenes every once in a while, I've never found a reason to actually care about the character with how he's treated by DC editorial.

Again, shame to see him die in such an undignified way, but there's lots of wiggle room to bring him back, so hopefully he isn't gone too long.

Jordyn

I really liked in the future where he becomes a part of Mars. It seemed like the absolute best ending for him.

In Japan, J'onn was a star of a manga which called him the Jade Warrior.

It was a little annoying that other people often got to be the ones saving the day in JLA, and I'm sorry you apparently never read his solo series, K, because obviously he does most of the day-saving in there. A lot of writers tend to show J'onn's strength by making him fight the rest of the league via someone controlling his mind. "Oh look at how much of the league he can take out."

I think if I were to pick someone to write a new J'onn solo series it would be Mark Waid. He's the most knowledgeable writer I've ever seen. Like a goddamn encyclopedia. And the times he's written the character already (JLA Year One, Terror Incognita) have all been satisfying to me.

Anyway, more stuff

The Lovely Bastard

I was going to yell at you for not posting the JLI moment but then you did

Jordyn

I scanned a lot of stuff. I'm kind of trying to spread it out. A little bit.

I was trying to scan some showcase stuff but it's kind of hard to get a scan of any frame that's close to the inside seam.

I did get a scan of the dog that was following him around in one issue:



He got hired onto the force pretty quick:



Almost every story ends with some silly wink at the reader moment:



J'onn got assigned a lot of arson cases, and everyone was smoking all the time. He once volunteered to be the stuntman in a friend's movie, only to find the movie was about a firefighter. One time he got hit on the head and forgot he was the Martian Manhunter, discovered he had powers, took a bunch of pictures of himself using his powers and was going to go show them to the Chief, but got hit on the head again on the way there and remembered everything. I love the Showcase book. It's amazing.

ManonvonSuperock

well hell. someone tell me what happens to jonn, because i'm not reading the books right now.

also, new frontier martian manhunter is my absolute favorite dc character.

Servo

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

well hell. someone tell me what happens to jonn, because i'm not reading the books right now.

also, new frontier martian manhunter is my absolute favorite dc character.

this new cat libra ambushed j'onn, captured him, and apparently killed him in a sort of the hood-esque bid for control of the secret society.

though i remain a little doubtful that it's so easy to kill a shapeshifter just by stabbing him.

ManonvonSuperock

Servo wrote: »

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

well hell. someone tell me what happens to jonn, because i'm not reading the books right now.

also, new frontier martian manhunter is my absolute favorite dc character.

this new cat libra ambushed j'onn, captured him, and apparently killed him in a sort of the hood-esque bid for control of the secret society.

though i remain a little doubtful that it's so easy to kill a shapeshifter just by stabbing him.

agreed.

Golden Yak

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

Servo wrote: »

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

well hell. someone tell me what happens to jonn, because i'm not reading the books right now.

also, new frontier martian manhunter is my absolute favorite dc character.

this new cat libra ambushed j'onn, captured him, and apparently killed him in a sort of the hood-esque bid for control of the secret society.

though i remain a little doubtful that it's so easy to kill a shapeshifter just by stabbing him.

agreed.

You forget

Libra didn't just stab him.

He stabbed him with fire.

But yeah, y'know... comics.

Servo

Golden Yak wrote: »

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

Servo wrote: »

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

well hell. someone tell me what happens to jonn, because i'm not reading the books right now.

also, new frontier martian manhunter is my absolute favorite dc character.

this new cat libra ambushed j'onn, captured him, and apparently killed him in a sort of the hood-esque bid for control of the secret society.

though i remain a little doubtful that it's so easy to kill a shapeshifter just by stabbing him.

agreed.

You forget

Libra didn't just stab him.

He stabbed him with fire.

But yeah, y'know... comics.

j'onn's come back from worse than that much fire. i mean, who knows, maybe he's dead. i'm just saying i think it would take more work than that to kill someone who can basically function as a liquid

that said, i'm sure someone will eventually post it, but the bit where crazy monster j'onn is chasing blue beetle and booster gold and max lord gets a huge nosebleed trying to make a guy ignore it, that bit makes me laugh every time i see it

Jordyn

Servo

that's the one all right

devoir

That's utterly hilarious.

Jordyn

devoir

Jordyn wrote: »

o_O

I am both scared and intrigued by the fact that the URL for that image has a two on the end, indicating that there is a preceding image.

Cookies are joy.

Jordyn

I didn't draw it, Arsenic did. The first take was about Batman. I don't believe I have it uploaded though. I do have this thing Keith drew, since it's appropriate to the thread.

Garlic Bread

god that's so terrible

Jordyn

On to more pressing issues, J'onn had an asshole brother back in day, who was responsible for the most heinous of Martian crimes: mind rape. He actually mind raped J'onn's wife on their fucking wedding night, along with several other Martians in the city. J'onn's mother, also a manhunter, went after him and died, but told J'onn to go kick his ass.



And fuck yes, he did.

Of course he doesn't kill him there, they wipe his memories and take away his telepathy. Malefic creates the plague that wipes out the Martians and J'onn later throws the fucker into the sun.

Servo

two other points-

"the manhunter from mars" is one of the best superhero by-lines

darkseid is the only comics villain i can really imagine of plausibly condoning like, a rape camp. or in this case, a mind-rape camp.

Jordyn

God, I could probably post scans and images all night, but how about this last one before bed:

DouglasDanger

Yeah, I can see there being room for him to come back from that in Final Crisis 1. In JLA Classified's first arc, the lead-in to 7S, one of the Ultramarines fought him on a satellite and somehow left him a burning puddle and J'onn was back by the end of the issue. Morrison wrote that.

Gigaton

I've always been a pretty big MM fan, even though I don't follow comics as closely anymore. It's always interested me that he is the quintessential "swiss army knife" superhero, yet he's so underused (possibly because of it). It's way too late for me to post scans, but I'll do so when it's more convenient.

Mai-Kero

I thought J'onn wasn't even vulnerable to normal fire anymore?

Gigaton

Mai-Kero wrote: »

I thought J'onn wasn't even vulnerable to normal fire anymore?

It's been pretty inconsistent lately and seems to change from writer to writer.

Furu

DouglasDanger wrote: »

Yeah, I can see there being room for him to come back from that in Final Crisis 1. In JLA Classified's first arc, the lead-in to 7S, one of the Ultramarines fought him on a satellite and somehow left him a burning puddle and J'onn was back by the end of the issue. Morrison wrote that.

Morrison really likes the character which makes me think he'll be back. So back. I bet by FC #7.

Synthetic Orange

Here is a picture of Jonn having a car driven over his ass.

Lux

Wow, they actually call it mind rape? I thought that was just one of those clever alternate terms people come up with.

Jordyn

Furu wrote: »

DouglasDanger wrote: »

Yeah, I can see there being room for him to come back from that in Final Crisis 1. In JLA Classified's first arc, the lead-in to 7S, one of the Ultramarines fought him on a satellite and somehow left him a burning puddle and J'onn was back by the end of the issue. Morrison wrote that.

Morrison really likes the character which makes me think he'll be back. So back. I bet by FC #7.

I've got this all ready.

DouglasDanger

his classic costume is really awkward-looking.

Jordyn

no it's sexy man, shut up. At least when Alex Ross wasn't drawing him with fucking weird nipples, gah.

the new one was awful though. No one could draw it right or something. He always either looked anorexic or like a skrull.

This is pretty hot too

Synthetic Orange

Now I'm picturing you using that last line in bed.

Jordyn

I have a little stuffed Martian Manhunter we rescued from a vending machine.

Gabriel_Pitt

My favorite line, from when he was in human shape and suffering temporary amnesia while tied to a chair in a burning building (thus allowing the story to be told in flashback as he remembered what was going on), "I am not a man. I am a Martian. And I hunt men."

Garlic Bread

i don't think his new costume was bad, just what they did with his head

DouglasDanger

Yeah, his head looked a skrull banana or something.

Lucascraft

This is my theory as to why MM has never really caught on like most of the other Leaguers (or really all superheroes in genera):

All of the most popular characters are Human, at least in appearance. Its easier for people to accept them because of this. Even some of the non-human characters like Superman and Thor still resemble humans. J'onzz on the other hand is green and depending on which era you're reading, has a funny shaped head. I think its for this reason that he isn't as popular with the mainstream. Its because he's an "outsider."

Garlic Bread

he was only in like two issues of outsiders!