Despite being around for sixty years, being a founding Justice League member, having a higher profile now than ever thanks to his appearances on the CW's Supergirl, and starring in his own ongoing comic series, Martian Manhunter is a character that has typically remained in the background, steeped in mystery that keeps him distant from the reader. Fans--and character in-universe--have said that Martian Manhunter is what you get when you combine Superman and Batman. He has all of Superman's strength, and even more powers, but he is just as secretive, smart, and steeped in tragedy as Batman. Even then, to describe J'onn J'Onnz as merely an amalgam is relegating and denies him his own three dimensionality.
Over the last year, we at Screen Rant have become a bit obsessed with Martian Manhunter, discussing his enemies, and now we're presenting the 16 Things You Didn't Know About Martian Manhunter.
16. He's addicted to Oreos
Sometimes you just can't force product placement. Chocos are DC's fictional equivalent of Oreos, and when you consider that one of DC's major characters became a violent psychopath while eating them, you might understand why Oreos insisted on a name change. Martian Manhunter loved eating the cookies, so JLI pranksters Blue Beetle and Booster Gold decided to steal all of his Chocos and then buy out the entire region's supply. When there were none left to eat, Martian Manhunter went crazy; he grew to mammoth size, his shapeshifting abilities were out of control and his ability to reason was nullified. Justice League International writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis later confirmed the transformation was simply meant as a parody of The Hulk.
Batman deduced that martian physiology reacted to the cookies like a human's to a heavy narcotic. Martian Manhunter was going through withdrawal, leading to possibly the best line in comic book history: "You're a junkie. A Chocos junkie!"
J'onn beat his addiction by literally destroying a physical manifestation of it. Much later, Batman placed a Choco on his coffin as a tribute to him.
15. He Debuted in Detective Comics
Martian Manhunter debuted in 1955's Detective Comics #225 as a backup to the highly forgettable "If I Were Batman!" story. It was a common practice at the time--give a new character a backup series in book with established readership. The character proved to be highly popular, though very different than the one we'd come to know over the next several decades. Originally called The Manhunter from Mars, he was not the sole survivor of his race (many martians would appear over the course of the series) nor did he have a wife or daughter. He had a massive catalogue of powers--many copied from Superman. Martian Manhunter's backstory borrowed from both Superman's lone survivor of an alien race origin and Batman's hard-boiled detective with a tragic backstory. Had Detective Comics at the time not already become that strange combination of sci-fi and crime stories, Martian Manhunter's cross-pollination of influences may not have worked. Instead, it did, and serves as one of the few good things to come out of the fantastical '50s stories.
14. American Hero
Superman and Captain America get the credit for being the most patriotic superheroes. In Cap's case, he's this scrappy native New Yorker who wants to fight tyranny; in Superman's, he's the immigrant that wants to give back to the adoptive world that took him in. They're apolitical defenders of freedom who have stood up against the government as many times as they stood with it--all in the name of the American people.
In Darwyn Cooke's seminal miniseries, DC: The New Frontier, Martian Manhunter's origin is altered, this time adding that after his arrival on Earth, the racial and ethnic hatred, the violence of criminals, and all the war disgusted him. His fears were confirmed when he was detained and imprisoned by government forces led by King Faraday. Through conversations with Faraday, J'onn came to understand the noble side of humans. I Later, in seeing Faraday sacrifice himself for the sake of others, Martian Manhunter decided to stay, eventually becoming a member of the Justice League.
DC's New 52 saw the re-imagining of the brand, and Martian Manhunter was no longer a founding member of the League. Rather, he was later involved in the formation of the Justice League of America: a strike team devised by Amanda Waller to protect the United States in case the Justice League ever went rogue. When asked, he made his reasons clear: he wanted to protect the place that was now his home.
13. Connection to the Fourth World
When Jack Kirby created the New Gods, he created a mcguffin to tease the story out. The Anti-Life Equation is a formula for complete control over all sentient life. Darkseid, a malignant despotic alien god, spent thousands of years searching the universe attempting to piece it together, killing and enslaving world after world along the way. Over the years, writers have interpreted the Anti-Life Equation in many ways. Thirty years after its original creation, John Ostrander added an incredible wrinkle to it in Martian Manhunter 33-35. Taking place before the fall of Mars, Darkseid's Elite explored the planet, casing it for those worthy of being kidnapped and enslaved. They found an ongoing project the Martians were working on: The Life Equation, which would prove that the very core of the universe is defined by and reliant on free will. Its existence confirmed, Darkseid became obsessed with finding its negative correlate. Although Martian Manhunter did rescue his captured people, none of them knew that their sharing of thought, science and philosophy would lead to such danger.
12. He Almost Stopped Final Crisis Before it Began
While Martian Manhunter did not play a major role in the series, which saw Darkseid proving the Anti-Life Equation and taking over Earth, he almost stopped it from happening. In Peter J. Tomasi's Final Crisis: Requiem, we're brought back to the moment of Martian Manhunter's death at the hands of the Secret Society. Rather than replicate what we had already seen, Tomasi took the time to establish a story between the s, showing us Martian Manhunter's last stand. Despite being ventilated by pyro-tranqs, he fought back against Effigy, Doctor Sivana, Gorilla Grodd, Lex Luthor, Ocean Master, Talia al Ghul, Doctor Light and Vandal Savage.
Martian Manhunter projected a shared illusion into their minds. They believed the Justice League arrived to save their comrade and kill them all as well. Had Libra not been able to see through the illusion thanks to his godhood, Martian Manhunter would've subdued the group long enough for the Justice League to arrive and get a handle on what Darkseid and Mandrakk had planned.
What's most exciting is to see the limit of Martian Manhunter's powers, particularly the way he can warp reality to such a perfect degree as to make someone truly believe their chest is being drilled into by an infuriated Kryptonian. This goes from cool to scary when considering the next item.
11. The Paranoia
JLA: Tower of Babel is one of those seminal comic book stories, truly a modern masterpiece. We learn that Batman has a dossier on the weaknesses of his fellow Leaguers along with methods of crippling or killing each member in case they ever went rogue. Here, an interesting incident is revealed but otherwise glossed over: Martian Manhunter kept the same types of files. He was new to Earth at the time and wasn't entirely certain he could trust anyone, including his new teammates. It was something he was ashamed of and wanted to somehow undo. However, it does show capability as well as a certain level of premeditation.
Martian Manhunter's paranoia is upgraded in the New 52. Prior to ing the state sponsored JLA, he was a member of Stormwatch, a clandestine team of superheroes that take on impossible missions without the world ever knowing about the events or the people involved. In order to keep his secrets when ing the JLA, Martian Manhunter wiped the minds of his Stormwatch teammates to forget he ever existed. He would do something similar later on to Guy Gardner: probing his mind without consent to search for information before wiping the GL's mind as well.
10. The Affair with Scorch
We're all attracted to things that'll hurt us. In superhero comics, that moth-to-the-flame stuff is dialed up to eleven. Cyclops and his love for Emma Frost, Batman and virtually every woman he's ever loved, Captain Atom and Plastique, Firestorm and Killer Frost, Flash and Magenta. But Martians don't do anything on a small scale. Spinning out of the truly awful Emperor Joker storyline, J'onn J'onnz began a relationship with the villain Scorch--whose powers are entirely fire-based. Fire is J'onn's only weakness.
Due to Joker's alterations to her memory, Scorch needed Martian Manhunter to search through the detritus to figure out what was real and what wasn't. With their minds connected, they fell in love with each other. While he was able to briefly help Scorch uncover the truth of her memories, she also helped unlock a door in his. This is a rare instance where he's ever had a love interest; in the perpetual-now of comics, he has always been in the midst of mourning the death of his wife and daughter. Thanks to Joe Kelly, this fact wasn't lost, and gave Martian Manhunter a very sweet touch of humanity.
9. The Burning Martian
Martian Manhunter's interest in Scorch uncovered a hidden genetic memory buried in Martian Manhunter's mind. A secondary personality called The Burning Martian was freed. Entirely on fire and existing only to burn and reproduce, the Burning Martian was the original form of the Martian race. The Guardians of the Universe studied the Martians and realized that their development would soon allow for interstellar travel. Realizing the threat, the Guardians invaded and augmented their genetic structure to subdue the savage traits of the species. They also programmed in a genetic weakness for fire; later developed as a psychosomatic effect to keep the Martians from reverting to their original form.
Before he could be restored, Martian Manhunter as the Burning Martian went on a rampage, very nearly killing the Justice League and all life on planet Earth. As morally gray as the genetic engineering was, the Oans were proved correct in the fear that the Martians were dangerous. This would again prove prescient in the case of Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian.
8. Miss Martian is Even More Powerful
Miss Martian's powers and history are on the strange side. Following the through-line in the Young Justice series which was also hinted at in the Teen Titans comics prior to the New 52, it seemed as though Miss Martian's abilities were developing too quickly (much to the pride and worry of Martian Manhunter). The Young Justice episode "Failsafe" finds Miss Martian's powers pushed past the upper limits that Martian Manhunter himself had difficulties controlling. He acknowledged that she was too young to be able to have these abilities and that she had more potential for power than anyone else in the Martian race.
Over in the comics, the Titans Tomorrow arc saw the young heroes confront their corrupt and morally bankrupt future selves. The future Miss Martian was the most powerful of the pack, and nigh invincible thanks to a few secondary tricks involving force fields. However, the most telling issue was the fact that her teammates were largely afraid of her, partially because her powers made her unstable. The Jean Grey connotations--intended or not--were impossible to ignore. While the subplot never developed, its implications were exciting.
7. He Had a Partner Called Zook
Described as "a mischievous little child," Zook was some sort of unfortunate Cronenbergian mesh of Yogi Bear, Pluto and the Great Gazoo. Zook came from a parallel world in another dimension who accidentally fell through an anomaly and landed on Earth with several criminals. Unable to send Zook back home, Martian Manhunter decided to keep him as a pet and acted as an assistant on cases and adventures. This was actually helpful, as Zook had many of the tracking qualities of a dog and the radar-like senses of an insect.
Zook was tiny and zany, and a very clear cousin of characters like Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite (the latter of whom Zook would team-up with). Due to Frederic Wertham's slanderous Seduction of the Innocent, characters like Zook were created to appeal more to children, embracing a lighthearted fantasy rather than the darker and subversive stories that had been the norm previously. Even for the times, however, Zook didn't last very long. After a handful of appearances, Zook was neither seen nor mentioned again for about thirty-five years, until a brief cameo in Superman/Batman.