Why Comics Are Not More Popular, Part 3

Following along in my little "Comics Newbie Looks At Why Comics Aren't More Popular" series, I of course have to mention the obvious: price.

I once left out an invoice from my weekly comics shipment sitting on the kitchen table and got the reaction from someone of "You pay twenty dollars a week for that...?!"  To which my weak reply was, "Well, it's not twenty dollars EVERY week...."  I don't even want to do the math on what that equals per year (and don't any of you do the math for me and post it in the comments section), but it's a good chunk of dough.  And let's not even talk about the dozens upon dozens of trades and Showcase Presents that are overcrowding my bookshelf...

Anyway, the first crossover that happened when I was reading actual comics was Blackest Night.  Wanting not to miss anything I scooped up every tie-in series (except one issue).  Even though I had no idea who anyone was in Suicide Squad or Weird Western Tales, I bought those, too, becauase, well, they were on the checklist, and if I missed an issue, then I wouldn't understand what was going on, and I couldn't have that.  (I still don't completely understand it, anyway....)

Now, as overwhelming as it was to piece all of that together, especially for someone with a rough knowledge of DCU history, even more overwhelming was the price of all those comics, not to mention having to make room for them in my Tupperware O' Comics container.  In comparison to the multi-issue tie-in Blackest Night, there was this other "special event" during the Summer of '09 called Wednesday Comics.

Wednesday Comics was like getting a box of chocolate truffles in the mail every week: they looked good, I had no idea what was inside them, and when I found out, I was not disappointed.  At times, I was more psyched for the various stories in Wednesday Comics than I was the next issue of Green Lantern.

Looking at the description of Wednesday Comics in the catalog, I had no idea what I was in for, but I saw the words "Adam Strange" in the description, and I do like me some rocket packs, so I subscribed.  When it came in the mail, I unwrapped it and said, "Huh.  It's a little newspaper  Cute."  Then I opened it up and realized you had to unfold it.  "Wow.  It's a really big newspaper.  Full of comics.  Interesting."  And then I went out on the porch and read it and was very happy.  Almost as happy as I am when I eat a box of chocolate truffles.

Some guy, who is not me, reading Wednesday Comics.  But you get the idea.  He's on a porch.

I think Wednesday Comics was one of the biggest opportunities to introduce newbies to comics and DC completely missed out on captializing on it.  The format was different and yet familiar: it was like reading the funny pages in your Sunday paper, only with superheroes, so it piqued curiosity.  If you were reading it, there was no way anyone passing by could miss the gigantic word "COMICS" on the cover, and I was almost tempted to go read it in public to see if anyone would ask me what I was reading.  It was nostalgic, like an old daily newspaper Dick Tracy comic strip.  It was accessible: you didn't have to know who any of these characters were, becuase no assumptions of continuity were made upon the reader.  And it was far from overwhelming: a single page of each story was printed each week, and this left you wanting more.  Not only that, but any fan, newbie or otherwise, seeing the various art and writing styles side-by-side could have a little fun at armchair comics critiquing by comparing the different artists.  Because each style was so different, it was like a little kaliedascope peephole lens into the larger world of comics and it let the newbie understand that different art and writing styles exist in comics.

I would've liked to have seen Wednesday Comics in newsstands, bookstores, grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations, etc., and picked up and enjoyed by young and old, newbies and veterans, but unfortunately this was not to be.  The only non-newbie-friendly aspect of the whole thing was why it was called "Wednesday" Comics, because for a while there I didn't know comics were released on Wednesdays.  (But I figured it out.)  The price could've been a little lower; I would've liked to have seen it be $3 instead of $4.  But still, it's about the price of an average magazine, and I'm sure lots of people would've taken a chance on it, especially considering that parts were reprinted in USA Today.  Some might say the fact that it was printed in a newspaper is enough to initiate the non-initiated into the comics world, but that's not so: you're not really reading comics unless actively seek out an actual comic, not a newspaper.  It's a start, though.  (Unless you were out there buying USA Today for the comics, in which case, I'll give you some credit.)

Okay, so DC missed that opportunity to have an accessible weekly newsprint comics series in the hands of the general non-comics public.  Well, the trade is coming out soon.  Let's capitalize on that and introduce newbies to the medium!  Who-hoo!

So how much does DC charge for the Wednesday Comics trade?

Fifty bucks.

Yep.  FIFTY DOLLARS, plus tax, where applicable.  Now what non-comics reader is going to plunk down $50 for something called Wednesday Comics, even if Superman is on the cover?  (And I'm sure, like most expensive books, it's sealed in plastic, so one can't even flip through it.)  I'M not even going to buy it.  Hey, DC!  Wake up!  Stop catering to the collectors and start courting the noobs!  (Or better yet: make everyone happy: release a glossy expensive collector's edition, and also print a cheap newsprint trade for the newly-initiated.)

Opportunity missed.

So would comics sell if they were cheaper?  Heck yeah.  Did you hear what happened at Amazon about a month ago?  Comics trades were selling like crazy because of a pricing glitch.  No one knows how it happened, though there is semi-serious speculation that it was a hack has been raised.  Now, I know comics are expensive to produce.  You've got to pay the talent, plus all that paper adds up, and anyone who owns an inkjet printer knows ink is more expensive than Type O Negative blood.  But still...maybe there's a way to cheaply produce some "beginner-level" comics that aren't meant to be pretty, glossy collector's items.  You know, comics that are made to be read and enjoyed and borrowed and loaned and talked over with friends rather than be bagged and boarded.  You know, kinda like Showcase Presents, only current.

Just a thought.

Short Reviews That Are Over A Week Old

In lieu of an actual blog post, and since I didn't get any comics this week, I thought I'd post "reviews" on last's weeks reading.  Really, just a list of what I liked and didn't like, just to keep it brief.

Blackest Night #8


Liked:

• All the rings on the cover.
• As soon as everyone started clutching their heads, I knew it was Black Lantern J'onn coming.
• Larfleeze's little blob pet.
• Hal's brother and family makes an appearnce.  Good to see that actual citizens DO exist in this whole Blackest Night thing.
• Sensory overload splash pages work for the Green Lantern Corps, but no one else.
• And on that note: foldout splash pages = even more fun.
• Even though I'm not really a fan, seeing Aquaman sans beard/hook hand/long hair is a thing of beauty.
• While all the resurrected heroes get to make out with their significant others, J'onn J'onzz is stuck with Superman.
• Maxwell Lord gets a nosebleed.  Heh.
• Deadman?  Alive?  Most emotional resurrection, but I'm not sure this will work for the character.
• Black Hand's fate.

Disliked:

• An open-mouthed Sinestro on the cover.  Reminds me of the Joker.
• Osiris.
• Where are the Dibnys?
• Not sure I like Jade coming back.  I don't know enough about her to really judge, though.
• Where the hell is Ted Kord?!

Huh?

• What exactly did Larfleeze do for Luthor?
• Is Black Hand an Indigo Lantern now because of the Indigo symbol in his eyes?
• Where'd the White Lantern Battery come from?  Where is it now?
• Why does Deadman have a White Lantern ring?  (I wouldn't have noticed this is someone else pointed it out first.)
• What exactly did Larfleeze and Luthor do, if anything?

Green Hornet #2

Liked:

• "Dragon Lady's" weaponized dress.
• Monthly "lunch with son" consists of just French Fries.
• Very clever uses of high heels during fight scenes.

Disliked:

• Bad coloring that makes everyone's face look greasy.
• EDTIORS WHO DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "IT'S" AND "ITS"!  @#$#)$(*&!
• Stereotyped Asian "family shame."  C'mon, Mr. Smith, you can do better than that.  I think.
• Britt Reid, Jr. = Bruce Wayne.  Again, can't you do better, Mr. Smith?
• Good-looking rich boy with daddy and relationship problems.  Hollywood, much?

Huh?

• Britt Reid's son is named Britt Reid, too?  Okay, now I need to re-read the first issue because I don't know who which Britt Reid it was about.
• What's all this back room dealing with the mayorial candidate and should I care?

Why Comics Are Not More Popular, Part 2

Now, I may be going out on a limb by saying this, but I think comics may be a bit of anacronism.  Let's see if I can back that claim up with some facts...

A few weeks ago, during my lunch break, I was looking up some noir/hardboiled fiction authors since I felt the need to read a good detective story.  That of course wound up into me doing a little research about Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and so forth.  I added The Maltese Falcon to my list of Books to Read Which I Probably Won't Have Time To, and while reading up on it, noticed this:

With the following blurb underneath: "Cover of seminal hardboiled magazine Black Mask, September 1929, featuring part 1 of its serialization of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. Illustration of private eye Sam Spade by Henry C. Murphy, Jr."

Whoa.  Stop the presses.  Wikipedia, are you telling me that The Maltese Falcon, one of THE most influential hardboiled detective novels ever, was originally published as serialized story in a magazine?

Raise your hand if you've ever read a serialized novel in your lifetime.  No one?  Didn't think so.

Now, I haven't done a lot of reading into the history of comics and pulps, but just from looking at this picture, I'm guessing both pulp magazines and comics where everywhere:

Pulp magazines seemed to be a part of daily life, just like buying milk and bread was.  Which is why you could get both at the same store.  It's a shame that they died out, really, becuase if you look at the list of authors who wrote for pulp magazines, it's staggering.

Now, no one reads serial novels anymore.  Why?  Well, maybe it's because we've all gotten impatient over the years.  Who wants to wait six months to finish reading a book?  I, mean, I'm too impatient to unplug the toaster oven before I start sticking a knife in it, and I have the attention span of an over-caffeinated mosquito.  But despite all that, I think I'd rather read a book in serial form than have to spend two weeks slodging through 400 pages of the same thing.  If anything, a magazine with multiple short exerpts of continuing stories would better fit our cultural ADD even better than our current method of novel reading.

So why no serial fiction?  I really don't know.  Maybe it's too much of a commitment for some folks to wait that long.  Maybe it's because people want the experience of browsing through an actual bookstore and holding one book in their hands instead of twelve magazines.  We seem to have no patience and yet most folks don't mind reading 800-page behemoths like Harry Potter--in fact, they feel like they are getting more for their money the longer the book is.  It just doesn't make sense.  In my mind, there's no reason for a book to be over 350 pages let alone over 500.  And most famous serial novels born in the pulps of the 30's and 40's (heck, even famous "regular" novels from that time period) are short.  Somewhere along the line we mistook depth of material for depth of quality, but that's a debate for a different post.  My point being: if you have the patience to read a gigantic novel (which I don't), then you should be able to handle a serialized novel.  Or maybe waiting a month between chapters really is just too much of a wait.

But think of the upside: a really good story lasts longer.  A novel stretched over months could make a story's timeline seem to unfold in real time.  It's more readable because it's in manageable sections which get their point across, then leave you wanting more, rather than current novels which, at least to me, seem to drag on forever to get to the point and make me want less.  No only that, but short stories could get some visibility in pulps that they can't get today.  And you can read more than one story at a time--how's that for multitasking?  You're always looking forward, wondering what's going to happen next, and because you stay with the story longer, the characters seem to be more alive.  Not to mention, having a month-long pause between chapters gives you a chance to think, and even better, talk about the story with other readers about what will happen next, which characters you liked/didn't like, and so on.  You know, kind of how the comics community operates today.  Wouldn't it be great if we could all talk about what's going to happen in the next chapter of a book?  I think that would be fun.

Why serialized prose isn't as popular as it was is a mystery to me.  Yes, there are a few stragglers like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (which just moved to bimonthly), but really, are those flying off the shelves?  Serial fiction is quite dead.  Yes, there are online markets for genre short stories, but hardly any of them would publish a serialized novel.  Serial stories are just dead or dying in any format: radio, movies, and print.

Except comics.  Though they have diverted from the days when "Detective Comics" actually meant a sizeable magazine of, well, detective comics, comics have hung on, in pretty much the same form as they did in the 1930's.  (Though shorter and without multiple stories, the fun ads for BB guns and seed packets, columns about unsolved mysteries and science "facts," and my personal favorite, Letters to the Editor.)  Why have comics hung on where prose died?  Maybe it's becuase comic book characters themselves never die, so an ongoing medium works well.  But guess what, comics aren't that popular with the general public from what I can see.  Certainly nothing like that old black-and-white photo.  If people today want to read comics they read "graphic novels."  No one besides the Library of Congress considers comics "magazines" anymore, but that's what they were: magazines with stories in them, that happened to be told via illustrations.

The general public gave up on serialized fiction for reasons unknown to me.  Though they are still hanging on, something happened to comics somewhere along the line where the idea of the average Joe casually picking up a copy of Action Comics or Detective Comics went by the wayside, perhaps because there are no "action" comics in Action Comics, just Superman, and no "detective" comics in Detective Comics, just Batman and/or Batwoman.  Maybe that's a key to the whole mystery.  I don't know.  I hate to conclude a lengthy post with "pulps died, I don't know why, and I think it's going to happen to comics somewhere down the line," but lacking any further insights, I'm left with no choice.

To be continued....

Why Comics Are Not More Popular, Part 1

As I look forward past my recent Martian Manhunter-themed posts, I'm trying to figure out where to go from here.  Some comments posted by Tom in the final installment of my Martian Manhunter countdown got me thinking.  Plus, a few things mentioned on DC's forums got me thinking as well.  See, I'm rather new to comics.  (Outside of reading The Long Halloween in 2005), I only started reading trades in the Fall of '08, and started subscribing to actual issues around May '09.  I covered a deal of ground in eighteen months, both reading-wise and research-wise (there is an upside to being obsessive-compulsive, let me tell you), but compared to people who've been reading comics their whole lives, my perspective on things is rather different.

Case in point: there was a conversation on DC's message boards about whether or not Dick Grayson is a househould name outside of comics fandom.  The majority of the fans were saying, "Of COURSE everyone knows who Dick Grayson is.  Duh!", with a small minority saying, "Um, no."  I shook my head and decided not to get involved, but let me tell you, a year and a half ago, I had no idea who the heck Dick Grayson was.  (Obviously I knew who (the original) Robin was, but I didn't know his name.) And no, I didn't know who Nightwing was, either.

Which lead me to the conclusion: at least half of what comic fans think non-comics fans know about comics is completely, utterly wrong.

Pre-Batman Begins, here's a list of all the comics characters I knew existed, in no particular order:

1. Superman
2. Batman
3. Robin (though I didn't know his name)
4. The Joker
5. Catwoman
6. The Penguin
7. Two-Face
8. The Riddler
9. Jor-El
10. General Zod and his two minions
11. Lex Luthor
12. The Hulk
13. Wonder Woman
14. Spiderman
15. Wolverine
16. Green Lantern (though I didn't know his name was Hal Jordan or that there was more than one, or even what he looked like)
17. Bizzarro (only because of that "Seinfeld" episode.)
18. Green Arrow (again, only becuase of "Seinfeld.")
19. The Phantom
20. Dick Tracy
21. The Rocketeer
22. And perhaps a vague notion of "Aquaman."  (I can't really remember for sure.)

The knowledge of all of these characters came from movies, TV, and pop culture.  Harley Quinn doesn't even make the list becuase I only have vague memories of watching the Batman Animated Series when it originally aired, though looking back I do remember her...I just didn't know her character's name.

I'd say up everybody up to number 15 are bona fide Household Names.  If my mother knows who a character is, then I consider him or her a household name.  (Amazingly she knows who Green Lantern is, which leads me to believe my uncle liked him when he was a kid in the 50's.)

As far as teams go, I had never heard of The Justice League, the Justice Society, or the Teen Titans.  Let's not even think of Marvel's teams (besides the X-Men), becuase I still know next-to-nothing about them.

Where am I going with this?  Well, for one, assume that non-comics fans know nothing, becuase it's pretty much the truth.  Even if I did know who Superman was (I grew up with the Christopher Reeve films and watched the old George Reeves show on Nick at Nite), who Superman is on film is different than he is in the comics.  When I cracked open a Superman comic not too long ago and found out he doesn't go around fighting with General Zod in Metropolis and saving cats out of trees all the time and telling Lois how many s's are in "Mississippi," I realized I had some misconceptions.

Now, for the longest time (okay, only a year or so, not that long), I figured that in order to enjoy my comics, I better shape up and start conforming to a certain "comic book reading demographic."  If I wasn't understanding what was going on, or if I didn't like the book I was reading, it was my fault, and I would read synopses or reviews online to "tell" me whether or not I should like a book.  Hey, I figured, if the reviewer at IGN says it's good, and I don't like it, there's something wrong with me.  I'm not a Real Comics Fan if I don't like Hush, because everyone else seems to.  Tom's comments made me think that perhaps I should give my own opinions a little more credit, considering that being an outsider to comics isn't necessarily a bad thing.

To be continued...

Happy Easter, Comics Style

Okay, I was sitting around watching the yearly broadcast of The Ten Commandments while dyeing Easter eggs, which is the closest thing I've got to an Easter family tradition.  (The egg-dyeing part is all me, however.)

So, I measure out three tablespoons of white vinegar and pour it into a set of thirty-year old free promotional coffee mugs that came from the A & P.  (Or was it Woolworth's?)  Watching the little dye tablets fizz (my favorite part, actually), I'm planning out my egg-dyeing strategy.  I always go with a purple egg first, and it never comes out looking good, ever, because the purple dye tablet is not actually purple but some weird red/blue hybrid, and I always wind up with a splotchy magenta-spotted-blue mess of an egg.  (Back in the day, you always had to use extra vinegar on the purple tablet.  I never knew why.)

Okay, the rubber band egg next.  My old standard, but still fun.  Then I start playing with the little invisible crayon I had hanging around from a previous kit.  (The good folks at Paas didn't provide one in the kit I just bought...they're getting cheap.)

Then it dawns on me.  Of course!  I'll do a comic-themed egg.

And what comic book character looks most like an egg?

Yep.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Egg-o, the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps, and little brother to big planet Green Lantern Mogo:

My family isn't going to know what the heck that thing is when they open up the egg carton.  And I'm going to feel bad eating it, too.

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.