We all know we here at CMMH! love J'onn J'onzz. But there's one potential problem with his character that didn't hit me until literally thirty seconds ago.
Becuase hit counters have REALLY evolved since the days when I first got on the Internet, I can see what search keywords lead readers to my blog. Some make me quite proud: "noir storytelling devices," for example, some are non-sequiturs, but make sense given my usage of certain words: "existential crisis comic," some make perfect sense: "adam strange covers," some are plain awesome: "comics bromance," some are funny: "superman is a jerk" and "happy martians," and others make hardly any sense at all: "make me comics." Well, no, only if you pay me good money will I do that.
But this one gave me pause:
"green skin", "blue cape", "blue boots", comic
Someone was obviously looking for the Martian Manhunter and either couldn't remember or didn't know his name!
My first thought was "whoa." My second thought: well, how many times does the Martian Manhunter introduce himself in comics, or is introduced by someone else, where, by the magic of comics, when someone speaks a superhero's name, the words are automatically rendered into that superhero's logo? I can't think of any time when that happened with J'onn J'onzz. And does he even have an official logo of his name anymore, or did DC forget about that? And how often do other superheroes call him by his full name and not "J'onn" or "Manhunter?"
So, here's the question which is being begged: Is "The Martian Manhunter" a catchy enough name? I'd imagine that most fans from the cartoon don't even know him by his official moniker, only "J'onn J'onzz," becuase that's the only way they ever refer to him. Smallville fans know him only as "John Jones," too, apparently, becuase when I mentioned how I love Smallville cameos by the Martian Manhunter, my Smallville-watching best friend said, "Oh, you mean John Jones?" (She must've figured out who I was talking about through osmosis, I think.) I can understand Smallville wanting to stay away from superhero names, becuase they do that with a lot of characters, but why the cartoon? Is "Martian Manhunter" too hard for kids to pronounce? Does Bruce Timm have something personal against the letter "M"? Is it just too long? Or--gasp!--is it not memorable enough?
Well, I wish I had the answer, but I don't, becuase I can remember his name. (Though I still have trouble spelling "J'onn J'onzz" on occation.) But I challenge you to find one member of the non-comics-reading-general-public who even recognizes the name "Martian Manhunter" and associates it with a superhero. I'm a betting kind of gal, and I'd bet you good money that you can't find anyone who fits that criteria.
Honestly, I think "Martian Manhunter" is kind of a clunky-sounding nom de guerre, and it just doesn't roll off the tongue like "Superman!" or "The Flash!" or even "Green Lantern!" do, all of which sound like they automatically have exclamation points after them, which is why I put exclamation points after all of them. Logistically, there's just too many syllables, and semantically, no one knows what a manhunter is anymore, so I wouldn't be too averse to a name change. "John Jones" is way too plain. "The Martian Detective" has some potential, but really doesn't sound like a superhero name, and probably wouldn't be any more memorable than "Martian Manhunter" is. I'm at a loss, because I suck at naming things, and I come from a long line of people who suck at naming things, because every time my grandparents got a new dog they named it the same thing as the previous one. (Yes, really.) Talking about dogs in my family made it sound like you were talking about royalty becuase "the Second" or "the Third" was always appended after pets' names for the sake of clarity.)
So, what do you think, fair citizens? Could J'onn J'onzz use a new superhero name? Is there no improving the old one? Could you offer a few suggestions?
Oh, and a side note: the fine folks at the Dow Chemical Company are workin' hard or hardly workin', becuase somebody was surfing for the Brightest Day Teaser Poster and stopped on over for a visit. Chemists do need their comics, too, I suppose.
12 comments:
Even though the name is an anachronism -- nobody calls cops "manhunters" anymore -- he's had it so long that it's too late to change it.
Hmm...okay, it is grandfathered in. But...there's one other superhero named "Manhunter" and there's the Manhunter robots in the GL mythos. If anyone's going to change their name out of those three, it's J'onn. Plus, other characters have changed their name. (Okay, mostly sidekicks now going solo, but still.)
The second story on Justice League revolved around the Manhunter Corps, and it was apparently more important to cater to one time villains than a series regular who shares the same name as another series regular.
I prefer just "Manhunter," because DC consistently screws the brand by having three or more completely unrelated Manhunters running around at any given time, and I'd like that stopped. Also, dropping the "Martian" helps avoid explaining how the guy could come from a lifeless world right next to our own. It will never happen though, because just "Manhunter" yields too many search results, and they've marketed "Martian Manhunter" to a generation of kids through the JL toy line (and more, if you go back to the 1985 Super Powers Collection figure that hooked me.)
Ohhhhh....so that explains it. I do remember that episode. Still...are kids really that easily confused? Wait. Actually, they are.
Just Manhunter is okay. At least it's simple. But it sounds a little too tough. Like he wouldn't mind killing someone once he brought them to justice. I'd like something more peaceful-warriorish. But I think I'm asking too much. But really, of the original 7 JLA members, "Martian Manhunter" just doesn't sound like it goes with everyone else. Or, maybe, it's not supposed to...
They could just go with "John Jones," because that works on Smallville. Eh. But I feel he needs something out of left field like "Morpheus" or something. Something exotic.
Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Flash
Green Lantern
Aquaman
Martian Manhunter
Two of these names break the pattern, but J'Onn's ain't one of them. Still...
Marsman.
Fixed... or should we go hyphenate? Trick question! Only Marvel hyphenates, brand traitors!
Marsman! That has a nice ring. I am...Marsman! Is it pronounced Mars-man or Marsmun. Nah, no hyphens.
Or we could just switch things to Martian Hunterman. But then J'onn would need to wear camo and one of those ugly flourescent orange hats to match his name...
Actually, I like the idea of a superhero named John Jones, even though that's not an appropriate name for our J'Onn, at least not as we know him today.
Heck, how long did Jean Gray go by just "Jean Gray"? Not to mention, Guy Gardner is just Guy. Yeah, let's just call him John Jones. :-)
Yeah...! And didn't Kitty Pryde just go by "Kitty Pryde" at some point? We can just call him John Jones, then. But when he's incognito he'll have to come up with another unsuspicious name like Bob Smith or something.
Cool topic, Liss. I’ve come up with two options
1] Mars-hunter
Not sure about the hyphen and we’d have to live with risk of having to say things like “No, Timmy. He doesn’t hunt the red planet. It’s a tip of the hat to when he was called the Manhunter from Mars and the Martian Manhunter...What’s that, Timmy? You don’t know what a Manhunter is?”
The JLA list test has made me throw out John Jones, because people (newbies) would be asking, “What’s this normal human without a codename doing among the ranks of JL of A? Is he the JLA’s lawyer?”
Seriously, the hero formerly known as MM would say things like, “John Jones...representing the JLA...Here’s my motion to suppress the fact that JLA also smashed your client’s previous home to bits in the commission of an superheroic act...you know, saving the world and such.”
I began thinking why John Jones looks out of place on the JLA list (IMHO). Now, if we discount the Jean Grey example, the name of John Jones is too ordinary (for a team roster, anyway). He might as well been called Mary Johnson or Mike Smith. The general rule when having an actual name (first and last name) as your superhero name / callsign / codename is that the last name MUST be intriguing or must tie back to the hero’s origin / powers / mission / whatever. Zany example: Bob Phantom.
That brings me to my second somewhat left field option...
2] John Cairo
Cairo means Mars – that’s the only reason for the name. That and we get to keep the every man name of John.
Final thoughts on the topic: Martian Manhunter is FIVE syllables long. The lengths of the best superhero names range between one and three syllables, which make every name on this comments thread superior to Martian Manhunter (in that sense anyway).
Cool topic, Liss. I’ve come up with two options
1] Mars-hunter
Not sure about the hyphen and we’d have to live with risk of having to say things like “No, Timmy. He doesn’t hunt the red planet. It’s a tip of the hat to when he was called the Manhunter from Mars and the Martian Manhunter...What’s that, Timmy? You don’t know what a Manhunter is?”
The JLA list test has made me throw out John Jones, because people (newbies) would be asking, “What’s this normal human without a codename doing among the ranks of JL of A? Is he the JLA’s lawyer?”
Seriously, the hero formerly known as MM would say things like, “John Jones...representing the JLA...Here’s my motion to suppress the fact that JLA also smashed your client’s previous home to bits in the commission of an superheroic act...you know, saving the world and such.”
I began thinking why John Jones looks out of place on the JLA list (IMHO). Now, if we discount the Jean Grey example, the name of John Jones is too ordinary. He might as well been called Mary Johnson or Mike Smith. The general rule when having an actual name (first and last name) as your superhero name / callsign / codename is that the last name MUST be intriguing or must tie back to the hero’s origin / powers / mission / whatever. Zany example: Bob Phantom.
That brings me to my second somewhat left field option...
2] John Cairo
Cairo means Mars – that’s the only reason for the name.
Final thoughts on the topic: Martian Manhunter is FIVE syllables long. The lengths of the best superhero names range between one and three syllables, which make every name on this comments thread superior to Martian Manhunter (in that sense anyway).
"John Jones, Esquire." Since he's so ridiculously overpowered, DC could just get rid of his powers alltogether and make him a lawyer. What kid wouldn't want to read a comic about due process and stare decisis?
"Cairo" means Mars? I didn't know that! John Cairo does sound kind of cool.
I think the Phantom Stranger uses "Bob Phantom" when he wants to check in to hotels and such when he's traveling incognito.
The syllable length of "Martian Manhunter" is what bugs me. It's just such a mouthful!
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