Think Batman will ever be like this again?

I gotta say, "HOLY STRETCH MARKS!" has now entered my vocabularly.

Look out, world.  I just hope I don't run into any pregnant women between now and the time I'll forget about that phrase.

Come on, admit it.  Some small part of you wants Dick back as Robin and randomly shouting things like, "HOLY HIGHER RENT DISTRICT!"

Look at the prety pictures

I'm too tired and fighting off a cold to come up with the blog post I was intending to write.

So in the meantime, enjoy the view of Amy Reeder Hadley's art from Madame Xanadu #21 and some dialogue by Matt Wagner.  Madame Xanadu is having some apartment problems, it would seem, and J'onn still has that trademark dry sense of humor.  Good stuff!

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 4

Becuase in my universe, a week is ten days, and we're somehow on Day 4.  And it's countdown item #3.  Anywho...

3.  Silver Age J'onn J'onzz had a purpose.

This is something that seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years.  (Or perhaps just in the wake of the Crisis.)  In some 90's stories you'll hear J'onn refer to himself as a "manhunter," which is some sort of Martian peacekeeper kind of role.  But back in the day, "manhunter" was just slang for a cop, and J'onn J'onzz chose to become Slueth from Outer Space.

The gimmick of J'onn's character was that he was a detective who used his powers to solve the crimes that regular humans couldn't.  He's now gotten away from his detective work altogether and many a DC writer doesn't know what to do with him besides make him confront the ghosts of Martian past when flying solo, or acting as the fall guy for Superman in ensemble stories.

Capture the criminal...or go back home?

If you bring J'onn J'onzz back to his detective roots, he'll have some purpose again.  (Another way to give his character some meaning: shepherding a group of immature heroes.  Hey, it worked once before.)  Either way, J'onn needs to DO something to participate in society.  Right now, J'onn isn't serving man or any higher purpose other than the vaguest of superhero motivations.  The more he goes off and is forced to confront rebuilding Mars, the less relevant his is to Earth and the less identifiable he becomes.

Give him a personal mission that forces him to make a few tough decisions, a mission that we can relate to, and it will only improve the quality of his character.

Making the difficult choice: what a hero is supposed to do.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 3

2.  The John Jones noir dynamic.

I recently had the pleasure of reading all three of the available trades of Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley's Madame Xanadu.  What a treat.  More on that series later, but for now, let's just say I was overwhelmingly surprised to see a Silver Age John Johns running around solving mysteries.

Now, I'll take a John Jones cameo.  He showed up for a panel or two in DC Universe Legacies and that made me happy.  Well, to see the character actually understood and used as he should be by Matt Wager was downright mind-blowing.  "Mr. Jones" shows up during the 1950's to help Madame Xanadu to solve a case they are both working on.  He came off so mysterious and full of intrigue that Madame Xanadu at first mistook him for the Phantom Stranger.  Though never revealed his true identity, several hints were laid down in just the right spots.  The end effect was that of an implacable character closely guarding his own secrets and though rent down to his core by his vulnerabilities, still saw to the needs of others over his own safety.

And if it were Popeye helping her?  "I yam as I yam!"  Geez, that was bad.  Even for me.

What I just described up there could easily be a noir protagonist.  While the mystery is generated here becuase Jones is seen from an outside perspective, in the right hands, the same dynamic could be translated to a story seen from J'onn's point-of-view.  It's the setting, really, that makes this all work.

All that needs to be done to achieve this dynamic is bring J'onn back to the 50's and surround him with humans.  Having a secret = instant tension.  Tension = suspense = a good story.  While death is treated as a joke in the comics world, having one's secret identity revealed is a real game changer.  And when a character has to act despite the risk of losing something, well, that makes the story even better.  It's just one more vulnerability for a character defined by his weaknesses.  If everyone around you could potentially blow your cover and cause you to lose your job or your good standing in society, everyday life would be like venturing out into a mine field.  It makes J'onn's current "plight" in Brightest Day about as exciting as reading about someone walking through the park.

See?  That tension showed actually up in the Silver Age, too.

Me, I'll take a mine field over the park any day when it comes to fiction.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 2

1.  Why John Jones is here.

We all know how J'onn J'onzz came to be: he was accidentally brought to Earth by a teleportation machine created by Dr. Erdel, and after Erdel's subsequent death, was unable to return home.  A few details were tweaked a bit post-Crisis, but the main idea is the same.

So, stranded on Earth, what options did J'onn J'onzz have?  What was he to do with himself?  Well, he took in a few of the local Earth sights and noticed that our planet is a little bit behind his:

It was then that J'onn J'onzz decided to dedicate himself to his main task.  This is his "bat through the window"* moment:

And he decided to wear a hat.  There was much rejoicing.

So now we know J'onn's reason for being: J'onn chose to fight crime on Earth in the hopes that one day it will be obsolete.  Pretty much like Batman, he used an active decision to turn a setback into a raison d'être, and for both characters the choice easily could've been to indulge in more self-serving activities.

To look at his origin from behind the curtain, the character of John Jones, the Manhunter from Mars was created as a detective who used his Martian powers to solve crime.  He was a detective who happens to be an alien, not the other way around.

*Just in case anyone doesn't know to what I'm referring: a bat flew through Bruce Wayne's window, thus inspiring him to use a bat for his symbol.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 1

I'm on a John Jones kick again.  So I figured, why don't I make an event out of it?  Hopefully the week will culminate with something special, when it arrives in the mail.  (Squee!)

So, what do most of us know about Silver Age Martian Manhunter?  Well, it's not all ocean gold-mining and ice cream conjuring.  Yes, there definitely is a hefty dose of goofiness, but like to think of J'onn's original source material in the same way as I think of Richard Donner's original cut of Superman II before Richard Lester came along and added in the cheese: somewhere in there is a serious story waiting to come out.

I think it's only fair to take things at face value (with maybe a few side trips into out-of-context jokes), and I feel that J'onn's early days haven't seen their serious side represented enough on the internet.  (I'm guessing this is probably the case for most Silver Age characters.)  Hopefully I can straighten out some misconceptions, find a clearer focus of who the Silver Age J'onn J'onzz was and why he was created, and dig out some stories that a "modern" audience might appreciate.  If taken seriously, Silver Age John Jones has the potential to be a rich and meaningful character.  It's just that very few writers see him this way.

Maybe I'll need to expand this to two weeks.

For the sake of brevity, here's one panel to get things started.  If you thought my post from the other day about John Jones being a jerk was an anomaly, it's not.  Silver Age J'onn really liked to scare the crap out of people:

Tough love for criminals or just getting his kicks scaring the living daylights out of people?  You be the judge.

When John Jones was younger...

Back in his Silver Age heyday, the stoic, gentle Martian of integrity we know and love today was a bit more snarky.  What's our Martian hero to do when he's wrongly imprisoned in jail?  Meditate and wait out the situation?  Reason with the guards?  Pfft.  Why do that when you can cause all sorts of trouble and make outrageous demands of your jailors?

I'm going to go steal a toilet made out of gold while I'm at it, too.  Be back in a jiffy!

And what about his servitude to the public?  His stoic, noble goal of protecting his adopted homeworld, of making sure its citizens can live a life free of worry?

When you got it, flaunt it, Jonesey.

Well, there goes that.  Don't worry, that lady will be fine when she gets wiped from history in the next Crisis.

Do We Feel This Way About Comics Now?

I recently was pleasantly surprised at work when a student let me read her essay detailing how Batman, being a superhero without powers, inspired her to choose a career in nursing that would let her help others and be a hero to them.  I was pretty moved by reading it, because not only is it inspiring to hear about the dreams of youth, but the fact that a fictional character could have a profound influence on someone makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

And my second thought was this: are adults similarly inspired by comics today?

In today's world, I think not.  Fifty years ago?  You be the judge:

Justice League of America #15, 1962

Could you honestly see anyone over the age of ten writing a letter like this to DC?  This guy is talking about hope, faith, justice, a belief that humanity can improve itself.  Now all I see when I look at the world is snark, cynicism, and complacency.

There was an exhibit of comics books at the Yale Law Library highlighting superheroes in court, lawyers, and the law, in which one of the lawyers interviewed stated that comic books inspired him to become a defense attorney (whose specialty is defending spies, to boot.)

What are modern comics inspiring us to become?  What do superheroes fight against and what do they stand for, if anything?  I don't know if any hero believes in anything besides "stop the bad guy."  Have superheroes ever fought any domestic evils like corruption, organized crime, or just your run-of-the-mill mugger in recent years?  To me, it seems that these crimes are too small for big-time superheroes to be bothered with.  I'm not suggesting another "Hard Traveling Heroes," but a simple change in perspective once in a while to show how regular people are inspired (or not) by their hometown heroes.

And where have all of comics' supporting characters gone?  The lawyers?  The cops?  The city mayors?  The regular citizens who looked up in the sky or out beyond the stars for their heroes?  Why must cops become costumed vigilantes to become "heroes?"  (Or become the Spirit of Vengeance for that matter.)  Renee Montoya was as heroic as any superhero when she was "just" a detective.  And in addition to that, Clark Kent did some heroic things while he was Clark Kent, and so did Bruce Wayne.

I want to believe in something again, DC.

I Am Quite Tired...!

Well, it was a very long, tiring, interesting day for me.  I spent most of it applying makeup that would put RuPaul to shame and twirling around on stage at the local performing arts venue.  It was our studio's end of the year recital, and even though our dance was barely over two minutes, it was a pretty tiring two minutes.  So after a lot of a day of pirouettes and looking all ballet-ish, and no comics in the mail, I don't have much to say.

Well, except this: which DC superhero do you think has some ballet experience?

Yep.

Cue the spin-off series: Justice League Bolshoi!

And who would stricken our hero with such a rigourous trial as an exhibition of ballet prowess?  Why, our old friend Professor Hugo, of course.  (I'm sure he's quite the balletomane.  You might have to look that word up, guys.)

I don't think there's a name for this particular "intricate dance step" in any ballet syllabus that I'm aware of...

Let me tell you, J'onn.  Ballet is hard and a perfectly acceptable form of torture for any unsuspecting superhero, but it certainly pays off in pretty costumes and great core strength.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll find something more serious to blog about!

A Guide For Writing the Rebooted Martian Manhunter Part 10

Top Ten Things Writers Need to Consider When Writing the Martian Manhunter

Looking back: Number 10, Number 9, Number 8, Number 7, Number 6, Number 5, Number 4, Number 3, Number 2.  Whew, that's a lot of numbers.

Now, considering that the last chapter to Blackest Night just arrived yesterday, I realize this is all pretty irrelevant now.  But, oh well.  Here's the last installment in my "countdown."

1.  Figure out who the Martian Manhunter is.

Now, I don't mean what his powers are.  I don't mean how powerful of a telepath his is.  Or what his costume is like.  Or any of that superficial stuff.  (Though that is important as well.)  I mean, deep down, who is this character and what does he stand for?

Superman and Batman have instantly-recognizeable character premises: the ideal superhero, the avenging of a past wrong, respectively, and this is why readers connect to them, not because of X-ray vision or batarangs.

Now, it's no secret the character of J'onn J'onzz has suffered from a lack of focus.  Go back twenty years and you'll see at least three different versions of his character (including the I-don't-care-about-humans-anymore coneheader.)  Was Batman really all that different twenty years ago?  Sure, there were some differences, but the character was fundamentally the same as he is today.  (Well, the Bruce Wayne version, that is.)  Someone at DC needs to take the initiative the define the Manhunter from Mars, otherwise he's going to be a B-lister all his life.

All of this begs the question: who is the Martian Detective, anyway?  Well, I don't really know.  Sometimes I think I know, and then a few months (or even days) goes by, or someone offers a different viewpoint, and then I really don't know.  I'm not sure anyone knows.  Which is kind of a bad thing.

So far, J'onn J'onzz seems to be the inkblot character of the DCU, with each fan seeming to have his or her own conception of who he is.  Just take a look at the comments over on I-HoD and you'll see what I mean.  I mean, we can't even agree on costume, let alone villains, supporting cast, and such.

Perhaps it's because J'onn's most defining characterist is that he is the "alien" and we all have different ideas of what "alien" means to us.  Well, DC, I challenge you to develop him to be more than just a variation of "The Outsider" archetype.

I'll now digress into my first awareness of the character to show you at least how I see J'onn.  (Not that it really matters what I think--it's up to DC to fix this, not me.  Oh, and feel free to offer your own opinions on who you think the Martian Manhunter is.)

All right.  I'll make a confession: I came to comics really, really recently.  I mean, really recently.  Honestly, I don't deserve to have a comics blog, and without Google I'd know next to nothing.  So, I have a really skewed outsider's perspective on everything comics-related because, well, it's all pretty much new to me.  I started out with Batman, because, well, he was always my favorite, then I started reading Darwyn Cooke's The Spirit (do check that out, by the way) becuase I saw it at Borders, and the guy on the cover was wearing a hat.  (Yes, I really am that superficial.)  Then I heard Mr. Cooke won an award for DC: The New Frontier, and I really liked his style, so I picked up that.  I pretty much knew who no one was in that book at the time except the Big Three and The Flash.  Yep, not even Hal Jordan.

Now, I I like sci-fi.  I like aliens.  I watch the cheesy UFO-sightings shows on The History Channel.  Space fascinates me.  As I was reading New Frontier, there was this little Martian guy running around who I found simultaneously fascinating and amusing.  And if something amuses me, well, I'll be hooked for life.  (Never mind the fact that I thought Darwyn Cooke made him up.  I didn't know he was an established superhero till later.)

Now, this Martian guy had kind of a sad story.  He got beamed to Earth against his will by some scientist in Gotham City.  (Which really ticked me off that there was an observatory in Gotham, because I'm sure the seeing is terrible there.  Worst place ever for astronomy.  Anywho.)  Then the scientist guy dies in his arms and our little Martian friend (who's kind of scary looking) is stranded on Earth.  In addition to being a fan of things which amuse me, I'm also a fan of tragedy.  So, score two points for this Martian guy.

Turns out this Martian guy can shapeshift, and while he's watching an old detective movie, he decides he's just going to be one.  How cool is that?  This guy is naive enough to believe that movie heroes actually exist in the real world, and he decides he's going to go out and be one.  There's such a sweet little wide-eyed innocence in that premise that it melted my cynical little heart.  This was a guy who wanted to be good for the sake of being good, despite being given a raw deal.  Not because his parents got murdered or some such.  That's the true essence of hero in my book: someone who puts his or her personal needs aside for the betterment of humanity.  Score three points for the Martian.

Oh, and he wears a Fedora.

Four points!

So the Martian decides to be a cop, and he acts and talks like a movie cop, which is simultaneously amusing and endearing, much to the chagrin of his hard-boiled partner.  Now, I failed to mention that I love buddy cop stories, so we're now up to five points:

John with his partner Slam Bradley, as portrayed by Robert Mitchum

Oh, and I like secret identities.  Six points.

He also has this strange hypnotic weakness to fire, which I found intriguing.  A superhero stricken to his knees by flame?  This guy can't get a break.  Again, kind of tragic.  I liked it.  Meanwhile, Detective Jones (oh, I like detectives, too: seven points) is investigating some weird goings on in the world, complete with a conspiracy board, and takes a lot of ribbing from his fellow cops because of it.  Two bonus points for the conspiracy board.

What are we up to, like a million points or something?

Anyway.  I became an instant fan of the innocent-outsider-Martian-as-human "John Jones."  Later in the book, he winds up getting the crap scared out of him by Batman (welcome to Gotham City!) and then is captured by a government agent, King Faraday.  They play chess.  (Board games: ten points.)  And when a threat arrives J'onn decides he'll be a hero and join the fight, despite it nearly costing his life.  Again, true hero.

After reading New Frontier I started looking for that Martian guy and found out he was a bona fide superhero.  News to me.  Fast forward a little bit to me watching the Justice League: Unlimited cartoon, which I enjoyed, and then Alex Ross's: Justice, and Gerard Jones's American Secrets, Justice League International, and I was hooked.

What conclusions had I come to about the character?  In my own opinion, I thought at heart J'onn J'onzz was the "incorruptible one."  Meaning no matter what he always does the right thing.  Because he's a tad naive, he still believes in heroics and saving lives and goodness all that "corny comic book stuff" like Slam Bradley said.  He's kind of innocent, but very principled: he knows where his morals are.  Later on I realized he's the most patient member of the Justice League: he always could see things from each opposing viewpoint, and despite being an alien, he seemed accessible to any Leaguer who had a concern.  (One reason why his ignoring of Blue Beetle in Infinite Crisis bugged me...)  He's wise and mature and the elegant simplicity of just wanting to do good things is what drives him.  He seemed to be more passive than Superman, and willing to stop and think before acting, and much more humble than other League members.  (*coughHalJordancough*)  He carried around a lot of tragedy but didn't go whining about it or engage in self-punishing survivor's guilt like Batman.  To me, he was completely unique.  Plus he just seemed like a really nice, decent guy, and it's nice to see pleasant heroes for a change.  Like many heroes he was selfless, even though there was more working against him than other heroes: Superman was lauded, he was not (well, in modern continuity anyway) and he still decided to help us out.  Yeah, if my planet got wiped out and people were scared of me, do you know where I'd be?  Hiding out behind a rock somewhere.

Now, a lot of people see J'onn as just the outsider.  That's okay.  But looking back now at New Frontier, it was very clever of Darwyn Cooke to make J'onn the outsider not because of custom or culture, but because of morals.  In other words, J'onn's otherworldliness didn't come from pained observations on "your strange human custom of (fill in the blank with some everyday task)," but from believing that one could easily choose to do good and then put that into action without a second thought. I don't think we, as humans, really engage in that.  I mean, how many people wake up and say, "I'll do so such-and-such with my life" and then actually live it?  Not me, anyway.  We're all works in progress, we're all imperfect, we all hang on to the past, we hold grudges, we second guess ourselves, we're cynical, we're petty, and the Manhunter from Mars transcends all that self-serving behavior that tends to pull us down.

That's why I think the Martian Manhunter is a hero.  Your view may differ.  Deep down, I think we all agree on something about the character, though I'm not sure what, and I really wish DC would articulate even half of what the fans believe about J'onn J'onzz.  I hope Brightest Day delivers.

This wound up being endlessly long.  I hope you enjoyed it, and the rest of the countdown.  Because it went on forever, here's a little silliness.  No lie, this was my original reaction when J'onn first changed into his superhero duds:

Oh my God, that's the WORST costume ever!  Ha ha!  What great comic relief!  Now change into your REAL costume, J'onn!

(Ten seconds later....)

Crap.  That IS his real costume.

A Guide For Writing the Rebooted Martian Manhunter Part 9

Top Ten Things Writers Need To Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

So you don't miss one second of Martian appreciation goodness:  Number 10, Number 9, Number 8, Number 7, Number 6, Number 5, Number 4, and Number 3.


2.  Give the Martian Detective a few supporting characters, and give him a place to go "home" to.


Now, the first part of this, I will admit, I have trouble with.  It's a tricky line to walk when you're creating supporting characters for a main character who is the outsider.  You can't have a character sit alone in a room by himself and expect him to carry a series.  He needs to be around people--like what I was saying back in Number 8.  At the same time, I don't want to see him "saddled" with, say a love interest or a sidekick, because it dampens the "outsider" vibe.


So, the trick is to get the relationships right.


I'll jump out of the Silver Age for a moment and dip into the gooey goodness that was the late 1980's Justice League International series.  J'onn played the father figure to Guy Gardner, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold, and the straight man to their juvenile (read: hilarious) antics.  Not only was it comedy gold, but it was a good role for the wise and stoic Martian.  We saw him in the role of protector and father figure:

And occasionally he'd offer his own dry humor:

Oh, and Starbucks was on Mars first, too.

Now I'm not saying go back to the JLI silliness.  It wasn't my very favorite portrayal of the Manhunter from Mars (but it ranks pretty darn high), since J'onn rarely had any solo story arcs during the JLI run.  (One annual does come to mind, though.)  What I am saying is that DC needs to find a way for J'onn J'onzz to interact with people.  Otherwise his character will never be revealed.  One of the JLI's most endearing qualities was its characterization: well all felt we knew these characters, who weren't one-dimensional stereotypes or bogged down with the "Standard Generic Hero Personality."  So, DC, find some people J'onn can play off of and put them in a room with him and let's see what happens.


I don't think we have to go full out "Dynastic Centerpiece."  I know Scipio was a big believer in creating a "family" of sorts which revolved around a particular superhero.  He faulted J'onn for not having one, and therefore, offered this as a reason why he would get killed off.  I think there's some credence to the idea, but for some reason I balk at having J'onn be the center of a family of supporting cast.  Perhaps because of the reasons which I'll get to in the next installment.


Scipio did propose some characters to be part of J'onn's Dynastic Centerpiece.  I agree with a few of them: Slam Bradley, Gypsy (but not as a sidekick), King Faraday.  I could see the JLU version of The Question in there (even though he has zero connection to J'onn), only to act as a darker, paranoid foil to J'onn's more upright methods of crime-fighting and truth-seeking.  I would probably add Diane Meade in there to not only give a Silver Age flair to it all but I think there needs to be a strong female character in there somewhere.


In addition to that, J'onn needs a "home" to call his own.  And not the Watchtower.  Like an actual apartment, or a cool secret cave crimefighting hideout.  (And no, not the abandoned House of Lies, either.)  With some roots in a fictionopolis, it will only help J'onn's character development.  Can you have Batman without Gotham or The Question without Hub City?  Nope.  So give Middleton back to J'onn (or another fictionopolis), make it reflective of J'onn character, and use it to provide conflict for some solo stories.  (Preferably not the failing-meteors-every-other-week-and-Froot-Loops-From-Space kind, but the crimes-outside-the-norm kind.)  Make his fictionopolis a little noir, a little old-fashioned, a little mysterious, and a tad strange.


In short, give J'onn some friends, partners, and possibly surrogate children (when Ted Kord comes back to life, that is!), and a nice place to call home.  Perhaps an apartment with golf clubs and a Basset Hound.

Hurry!  Someone call PETA!

A Guide For Writing the Rebooted Martian Manhunter Part 8

Top Ten Things Writers Need to Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

You shook your head at Number 10, Number 9, and Number 8.  You'll always remember where you were when Number 7 went live.  Number 6 made you tear up just a little and say to yourself, "It's true.  It's all so true."  And Number 5 and Number 4 left you wanting only more Martian appreciation goodness.  So now here's what you've always wanted: Number 3.

3.  Give the Manhunter From Mars a proper nemesis.

Like it or not, superheroes are defined by the characters around them.  And no character can provide a better crucible for characterization than his or her nemesis.  A villain must attack the hero's various weaknesses, and in so doing, define who the hero essential is.  Part of Batman's success is due in part to his stellar Rogues Gallery: it's iconic, archetypal, and each villain, when contrasted with Batman, highlights a different aspect of Batman's fundamental nature: Joker his need for order above chaos, Two-Face his need for justice over revenge, Riddler to test his detective skills, and so on.  There's a reason Batman's Rogues Gallery bridged the gap to popular culture: great villains only make their heroes greater.

Now, our friend Frank over at The Idol-Head of Diabolu has undertaken a massive effort to compile a list of all Martian Manhunter villains in I-HoD's "Vile Menagerie."  There are all sorts of worthy villains listed, spanning the Silver Age to villains from Final Crisis.  Though Frank makes a strong case for many of the foes J'onn has battled, such as Professor Hugo, Commander Blanx, and Despero, I'm still holding out for "THE" Martian Manhunter villain.  You know, the guy whose name you can't help but mention when talking about the character: like Batman and the Joker or Superman and Lex Luthor, there really is no Martian Manhunter counterpart.

That's not to say that there isn't a proper villain hiding in J'onn's Vile Menagerie, it's just that no one in modern times bothered to take the idea and really run with it.  (And I don't mean a one-time villain like the Human Flame.  I mean a constant thorn in J'onn's side.)  And since most villains in his Vile Menagerie were also JLA villains, I think the strongest contenders for a proper nemesis are--you guessed it!--lying in the Silver Age.  Professor Hugo is at the top of my list.  Why?  Becuase you just can't go wrong with a megolomaniacal genius with aspirations of world domination and a real nasty streak:

Yeah, that's right: Kneel before Zod!  I mean, Hugo!

My second contender would be Commander Blanx.  Since Blanx is also a Martian, albeit an evil (white) one, he's uniquely positioned as the perfect foil for our good-hearted J'onn J'onzz.  Blanx is maybe even a better candidate for the role of Nemesis of the Martian Manhunter, considering that not only did Blanx have grand world-dominating desires, but when it came to the rivalry with J'onn, it was personal.  Blanx wanted to downright destroy him, and when it comes to arch-nemesi, there's nothing better than a guy who wants to destroy the hero and everything he stands for.  J'onn himself called Blanx his "arch-enemy."

It was J'onn's efforts to return home that brought Blanx to Earth.  Ouch, that's irony.

Whether it's a foe the Manhunter from Mars has faced before, or whether it's an entirely new creation, J'onn needs a nemesis.  Or two.  Or three.  Whoever it is who ultimately becomes his arch-enemy, though, they must take into account who J'onn J'onzz is.  Once you see our Martian friend battling a well-crafted villain, then you'll truely see him shine.

Forget Blanx.  The best part about JLA #144 is the fact J'onn's still wearing that same striped red tie he's been wearing for the past FIFTEEN years.  That is dedication.  Oh, and kudos to Dick Dillin for drawing the invisible Martian head while J'onn is traveling icognito--a nice homage to Joe Certa.

A Guide For Writing the Rebooted Martian Manhunter Part 7

Top Ten Things Writers Need to Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

In case you missed the previous entries in our riveting count down.  (Okay, it's not really a countdown because I'm making this up as I go.)  Here they are: Number 10, Number 9, Number 8, Number 7, Number 6, and Number 5.

Wow, that means I'm more than halfway through in my list of ways to return J'onn J'onzz to his Silver Age glory days.  (If there ever was such a thing...it's all subjective.)  Anyway!

4.  Get the ethics right.

[Intones in a grave voice]  With great power, comes great responsibility....whoops.

Hold on, let's start over.

J'onn is, no doubt, one of the most powerful and versatile characters in the DCU.  He's perhaps the only hero who could run around solving crimes and defeating bad guys by mentally controlling them, and then erasing their memories that any such mind-control ever took place.  Not to mention the shapeshifting, which is a whole other can of ethical worms.  Theroetically, there's no end to the kinds of damage (both psychological and emotional) he could do to a person.

Take for instance, this 90's appearance:

That's Private Eye Jones "mentally nudging" (a.k.a. mind controlling) a policeman friend to give up some information to help with his own case.  I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's all kinds of illegal, but let's ignore that for now.  How would you feel if your "friend" made you give up information that could jeopardize your job instead of just asking you for a favor?  I don't know about you, but I'd feel a little used.  I'm not sure I'd comply with that favor, though, and maybe that's J'onn's problem--he doesn't trust us.  Or, a third option, he's just plain lazy.  Either way, it makes our hero seem...gee, I don't know...not heroic?

Occasionally there were hints made at J'onn not wanting to pry into minds because of Martian ethics, and then there was that whole "mind rape" thing involving his brother, so it's not like creators hadn't thought about applying ethics to telepathy before.  It's just that some ad hoc ethics "code" tacked on by writers doesn't really sell it for me.  I'd rather see J'onn come to his own conclusions about his own personal ethics based on the kind of guy he is, not on some artificial law applied to him.  He's a principled guy, so let's see him act that way.

As always, I seem to choose the Timmverse version of characters over many of their comic book interpretations.  Bruce Timm just gets it right with characterization (except for one of my other favorite characters) usually by simplification.  The recent Crisis on Two Earths DVD handled the ethics of telepathy rather elegantly: J'onn is standing next to a young woman and accidentally "overhears" her thoughts, answers her own question and then immediately apologizes and explains how he knew what she was thinking: occasionally he'll overhear thoughts when they are unusually strong.  He managed to wipe his conscience clean and not look like an eavesdropper all at the same time.  (Did I happen to mention that Martians are smooth operators?)  Also, he doesn't go around in the movie mind controlling anyone.

But what about crime fighting?  When I was watching SciFi Science last night, Michio Kaku asked some policemen if telepathy would be helpful in solving crime.  Well sure, they said: we can read images from witnesses to get a better mental picture of the suspect, and then we can read the suspect's mind.  It's a little Orwellian.  But should J'onn probe someone's mind if it means helping someone?  I don't know.  It depends.  DC needs to set some ground rules on how telepathy should be used and what J'onn's own opinions of having that kind of power amidst us non-telepaths are.  I would want him to use telepathy if it was important, and only if he couldn't get the information any other way (unlike in the above example), or if lives were directly on the line.  (i.e. there's a bomb about to go off in Middleton and the suspect isn't talking.)  Reading a guy's mind would be less dangerous than dangling him off a building.  (Or would it....?  That's for you to think about.)

Anyway, get crackin' DC.  Let J'onn examine the ethics of his situation and come to a conclusion, and then stick to it.

A Guide For Writing the Rebooted Martian Manhunter Part 6

Top Ten Things Writers Need to Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

Here's Number 10, Number 9, Number 8, Number 7, and Number 6.

5.  Develop (and stick with) a unique Martian fighting style.

Part of what makes a hero exciting is his or her fighting style.  Now, the Martian Manhunter is uniquely poised in the DC universe to have a very unusual fighting style, which has the potential to be visually striking.

J'onn has the powers of intangibility, shapeshifting, and telepathy (amongst others), so let's give some thought to how that would play out.  Possessing intangibility (passing through solid objects and likewise having them pass through him) means that bullets, fists, anvils, and anything else lobbed at our hero will go right through him.  Throughout the new Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths DVD, J'onn's fight sequences really shined and took advantage of his powers.  One sequence relied on my favorite Timmverse move--a villain smashes J'onn with a heavy object, he disappears, and comes up through the floor behind the guy and knocks him out.  It's something that (to an extent) showed up in his Silver Age appearances:

Imagine how much the sight of a big green guy bursting through the floor would scare the crap out of criminals?  It's so cool and visual exciting it just never gets old.  (Though I prefer he would do it without the property damage...) It's something the writers should stick with and exploit to its fullest.

As for the shapeshifting, it hasn't been handled in comics too well because it often descends into cheesiness--like J'onn taking the form of a saxaphone-playing Bill Clinton (I am not making this up) to scare villains.  It's got to be more than just taking the form of scary Martian "monsters" to instill fear--it's got to be a little more organic and practical (e.g., Alex Ross's Martian sea creature to make swimming easier) or something that lets us peak behind the curtain into J'onn's psyche and cultural memory (e.g., J'onn's shapeshifting sequence as he chases Earth-2 "Green" Arrow down an embankment in the Crisis on Two Earths DVD, where the terrifying forms he takes seem to be expressive of anger.)

Also, we've got the telepathy, which I've complained about before.  Telepathy would probably give him enhanced awareness of his enemy.  Meaning, if someone's behind him they shouldn't be able to sneak up on him and punch him because he should know they're coming.  I'm not really hard-set on the telepathy staying around anymore, and if we have a hero who never can get hit, well, that's going to get boring fast.  (At least we've got the common weakness of fire to balance out all that insane power.)  He definitely shouldn't get hit as much as he does just because of the intangibility.  (Unless the writers want to add some more rules to that superpower as well--it takes concentration, etc.)

Anyway, my personal favorite fight sequences of J'onn always seem to come from the Timmverse, both the JLU cartoon and the new DVD.  They always seem to get it right, with few exceptions, and I think comic writers should take note.

A Guide For Writing the Modern Martian Manhunter, Part 5

Top Ten Things Writers Needs to Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

Here's Number 10, Number 9, Number 8, and Number 7.

6.  The non-question of J'onn's costume.

Trying to decide what the Modern, post-Blackest Night Martian Manhunter will look like will be easy.  The question of "what should he look like?" shouldn't even enter your minds.

Just go back to what works.

Here's what works:

And here's the modern version of what works:

For the costume: navy blue cape, red cross-straps, blue boots, gold medallions, popped collar or folded collar (artist's choice), and the "pie" belt buckle.  As for our Martian friend himself, he's got a superhero physique, a prominent brow, and green skin.  He looks different enough to be recognized as an alien, but not too far removed from a humanoid form to be relatable.

Edited to add: I'm not hard-set on the costume's color scheme per se, and as long as there are no bodysuits involved, I'll probably be happy.  But I am dead-set on how J'onn himself looks.  Keep the beetle brow, of course, but by all means, get rid of the conehead.

And when going icognito in his secret identity of John Jones?  Then J'onn wears a suit, a trenchcoat (with popped collar--isn't he stylish?), and like all proper noir detectives, a Fedora.  Let's not forget the tie.

A classic never goes out of style.

Jaunting about town?  J'onn still wears a suit, sans overcoat.  It doesn't matter what color, really.  Usually it's blue, but I've seen him take a chance and wear the occasional burgundy suit.

As you can see, he rotates his ties in addition to his suits.  And the pocket hanky?  A must.

Now.  Let's look at a modern mishap, shall we?  This is what J'onn looks like after he decided he'd parade his natural Martian form in public:

Is he supposed to be Nosferatu?!

What IS this?  What is this saying to the reader?  I believe in intuitive character design: at first glance, you should get a pretty good handle on what a character is all about.  Is he good or bad?  Can you tell by looking at him?!  Why is he so angry?  What's with the grabbing hands?  The dark bodysuit?  Is he an assassin?  What's with the conehead?  Does he use it for sonar reception?  I know J'onn was off "finding himself" during this period and wanted to stop compromising his appearance based on satisfying the public conception of what a Martian looks like.  But J'onn never harbored dislike for humanity--he was distant, yes, but never unapproachable, and his looks reflected that.  Changing his look to the alien conehead look throws out the unapproachable bit right out the window and gives our hero an air of "I don't care what you think about me," and I don't think that's who J'onn is deep down.  The conehead looks just looks sinister to me, and if there's a shapeshifting telepath from Mars running around, the last thing I'd want is for him to look unfriendly.  Not to mention that it also throws the sanctity of the true Martian form right out the window--something that used to be private, even back on Mars.

Really, he looks like Nosferatu:

I found your reference photo!

And by no means should J'onn ever been seeing wearing a T-shirt and jeans while barbecuing/spooning with Scorch.  (T-shirt + bald = Mr. Clean!)

Don't ask.  You don't want to know.  Trust me.

Why is all this important?  Clothes make the man...or Martian.  J'onn is a classy kind of character, he's formal and probably a traditional kind of guy.  So he should dress that way: a nice sharp suit (not striped), with a Fedora to clue the reader in to his being a detective.  Just like I think all comic book journalists should wear press passes in their hatbands, all detectives should wear Fedoras.

As for his superhero costume, J'onn is the gentle giant of the Justice League.  His costume should represent that.  He shouldn't look angry or distant or emo or too alien--in post-Crisis continuity he choose his traditional look as an amalgam of his true Martian form and what humans expected Martians too look like.  (Pre-Crisis, well, that's what Martians looked like and how they dressed.)  The Martian Manhunter should never look pissed off unless he has a REALLY GOOD reason to be, and that coneheaded guy up there looks like he'd rip your lungs out if you so much as looked at him crossed-eyed.  I suspect that's why he's reaching out like that....

In short: to return J'onn to his classic roots, return him to his classic duds.  Classic superhero costume, and a sensible suit (with hat) while in human form.

A Guide For Writing the Modern Martian Manhunter, Part 4

Top Ten Things Writers Need to Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

Here's Number 10, Number 9, and Number 8.  Onward to Number 7!

7.  J'onn J'onzz likes Earth.

For a minute, put aside all that cone-headed post-52 full-body-suited goth version of the Martian Manhunter.  Clear your mind of all that angsty "why should I help humans" nonsense.

Are we clear?  Good.

On more than one occasion in his Silver Age appearances, J'onn had the opportunity to leave Earth.  And he always chose to stay, either because he wanted to keep helping us, or because he remembered his Earth friends, or because he just wanted to do the right thing.  You know, heroes did that back in the day: sacrificed their own needs to serve the greater good.  It's kind of the definition of the word "hero."

Exhibit A:

Detective Comics #228

J'onn chooses to apprehend a criminal rather than escape back to Mars.  What makes this even more impressive is that this is from an early appearance, where no one even knew who the "Martian Manhunter" was--he hadn't yet gone public as a superhero, just used his powers covertly to solve crime.  He hadn't gotten any public adulation, just everyday human decency and friendship, yet he still considers Earth a welcoming (albeit lonely) place.

Exhibit B:

Detective Comics #267

Whereas I would've been like, "Screw it, I'm going home to my family and my dog," J'onn takes the high road because he's a class act.

Bottom line: he likes Earth.  He likes Earthlings.  He considers Earthlings his friends.  He wants to help Earthlings.  Got it?  Good.  Now don't forget that.  And don't let any emo-body-suited Martian Manhunter impostors tell you otherwise.

A Guide For Writing the Modern Martian Manhunter, Part 3

Top Ten Things Writers Need to Remember When Writing the Martian Manhunter

We've already covered Number 10 and Number 9.  Onward with the Top Ten:

8.  Give him back his secret identity.

Why?  Well, I'm glad you asked, and if you didn't, I'll tell you anyway.

Giving J'onn J'onzz his secret identity of human John Jones accomplishes several things.  First of all, it's the easiest way for him to observe humanity directly, and by assuming the guise of a human, it's the best way to show the differences between humans and a lone Martian.  Whenever I hear J'onn waxing tragic about feeling alienated from humanity when he's in fact sitting far above Earth on the Watchtower, I feel the need to roll my eyes.  How can you feel alienated from something if you never spend any time with it?  It just rings hollow.  To feel truly alone, you need to be around lots of people different than you.

Second, having J'onn assume a secret identity of a human opens the door to all sorts of juicy story conflict. Now, besides having to save the day, he's also got to keep a lid on his secret--that's more to juggle, and therefore, more interesting.  The constant threat of having his identity exposed is a wellspring of conflict and keeps the reader in a constant state of suspense.  There might be people threatening to give away that secret:

Detective Comics #243

Or J'onn might be tempted to give away that secret himself:

Detective Comics #246

It's a very classic conflict, and there's a reason it's stuck around for so long: from a storytelling standpoint, it just plain works, and it never gets old.  That's why Clark Kent is still around.  It also works wonders for effectively showing his alienation.  It's so efficient that it only takes two panels for us to understand his dilemma.  (You learn efficiency pretty quickly when you only have six pages to work with, I suppose.)

Third, having J'onn live amongst humans will deepen the character by allowing (or not allowing, depending on who it is) him to connect personally and professionally with humans.  Letting him have some acquaintances and deal with the quirks of daily life on Earth will only help readers identify with him.  Plus, it's another source of conflict: how close will he allow himself to get to his human friends?  What will happen if he loses one?  Also, seeing the people he cares about threatened by a villain is a classic weakness to be exploited, and J'onn J'onzz is the type of character who is defined by his weaknesses, not his strengths.  Just don't have him do anything stupid and pointless while he's down on Earth, like, you know, live as a cat or something.  (Wait, what?  That actually happened?)

Finally, having J'onn live among humans will show how much he cares about us Earthlings.  I mean, he's always going on about how he loves his adopted world, and he genuinely does.  Well, let's see him put those words in action and get down in the thick of it, rather than stand off in the corner and watch everything from afar.  Watching things from afar gets kinda dull after a while, both for you, and the reader.

In short, let's see John Jones come back.  After all, in his early appearances, that's how he was billed: John Jones, Manhunter from Mars.