Martian Manhunter created by Joe Samachson and Joe Certa.
"The Martian Language has twelve words for "husband"... fourteen for "father." Hearing their music again has been a siren's song" - - J'onn J'onzz (JLA: Midsummer's Nightmare).
Personal Details
Alter Ego: J'onn J'onzz (beetled browed alter ego), John Jones (human alter ego), his true name is beautiful but almost unpronounceable, Marco Xavier (an identity he used for a period after he retired from the police force), a number of other secret identities that he maintains across the world including Johann Johnson (Metropolis taxi cab driver).
Overview
Nobody truly knows how old J'onn J'onzz is or how long into the past Dr Erdel's machine reached to drag him to our world. These and many other facts about him are his knowledge only and few dare ask him. For much of his time on Earth J'onn has been a mystery to many - even himself. Despite his reserved and silent nature the Manhunter cares deeply for his adopted world and would lay his life down in an instance for it.
In his time the Manhunter has been a founding member of almost every incarnation of the League, he headed for a time the JLI's youth training division (the so called JL Task Force) and was the senior member active when Professor Ivo's androids succeeded in killing several League members. Close to the more vulnerable and younger members of the League (such as Gypsy, Ice and Kyle) he only really relaxes in very close company (such as L-ron, Oberon, Max, Beetle, Fire, etc.).
J'onn is a brilliant leader and tactician but normally defers to Superman in leadership. However in the southern hemisphere where J'onn spends most of his time (acting out of the ancient Martian outpost of Z'onn Z'orr) his recognition factor is even higher that the Kryptonian. He also maintains a number of cover identities around the world so that he might study humanity further.
Background
The fourth planet of the Terran system is known by the Humans that inhabit the third planet as Mars after one of their ancient war gods. To their science it is barren and devoid of life. An endless wasteland of red rocks beneath a pale sky that is wrapped in a tenuous atmosphere, a remote forbidden place. It was not always so!
The race that others would know as the Martians rose aeons ago evolving from glorious winged creatures that flew free in the skies of Mars, while life on Earth was still in its infancy, they survived the wars and other threats that seek to destroy civilisations and rose to be a complex and very open society. This was based on the very physical nature of the Martians, they displayed physical powers that placed them on a par with Kryptonians and Daximates but they also were in complete command of their bodies that allowed them to shift form and function with a very thought.
Battle for those ancient Martians was not like the brutal and brawling battle of other races but was more of the dance of Martial Arts where the Martians would shift from one "battle" form to another with standard forms with such names as the Flesh Vortex and the Storm of Hammers. As is the way for many civilisations a split formed within Martian society between the more philosophical Green Martians and the militaristic Pale Martians. In retrospective any differences between one Martian and another are purely philosophical such distinctions as race and gender have little true meaning for a race that can shape shift between male and female or pale and green, only the underlying psychological aspects truly remain.
Matters between the two factions came to a head when the Pale Martians while using Earth as a source of materials upset the natural evolution of the Human race towards being a seeming race of superbeing to rival the Martians the themselves. The effect was that only a fraction of humanity would ascend to the position of a superbeing. For this crime of destroying the evolutionary possibility of another race, the Pale Martians were sentenced to eternity in the Still Zone. The Still Zone, the Phantom Zone call it what you will, is a dimension that exists apart from our normal space time continuum that has been used in ancient days by long forgotten titanic races as a prison for things best forgotten - it was in this endless eternity that the Pale Martians were imprisoned until the day when they would one day escape as the Hyperclan.
The remaining Martians consolidated their civilisation into a utopian existence that lasted millennia. They were philosophers, artisans, performers and listeners. The gift of telepathy opened up their society so there were no secrets, on very level, every aspect took on a spiritual aspect and the worship of their gods played an integral part of their lives. Chief amongst their pantheon was H'ronmeer god of death and C'eridyall goddess of life, while behind all was the Unnameable One. They were a people at peace with each other, their gods and their environment. A peace that tragically would be shattered by the coming of the Great Plague...
Separated from the Martian race by both time and distance the self taught human scientist and dreamer Saul Erdel sought to create a machine that would reach across space and the dimensions to seek other intelligent life. He had more failures than success, but at some point in the 1950's he reached the point of no return and initiated the machine. Much to his surprise the machine finally worked, transporting alien life to him in the form of a male alien carrying the body of little alien girl. The alien collapsed, and regained conciseness after Erdel had buried the girl. In an instant the minds of Erdel and that terrified alien brushed against each other telepathically and all was laid before the stunned scientist.
The alien Erdel found was actually a Martian with the name J'onn J'onzz (or at least that is the closed that our non-telepathic language could get). After J'onzz was nursed back to physical health, Erdel offered to send him home but the Martian still broken inside by the memories of the plague and the death of his daughter destroyed the equipment rather than be sent back to the Great Plague. Afterwards J'onzz mind just shut down to protect him from any further emotional injury. In this catatonic state Erdel used the telepathic bond between the two to craft a new identity for J'onn, to paper over the cracks in his shattered mind and to craft the personality of the Martian Manhunter. A process that was to a part suggestion by Erdel and subconscious wanting by J'onn to leave behind the hurt of his past, even to the extent to morphing his physical form into the beetle browed humanoid that the would come to know.
J'onn now believed himself to by J'onn J'onzz military leader of the desert dwelling Martians in a civil war against the pole dwellers lead by General Blanx (imagery drawn from the ancient myths of the Pale Martians). Defeated underhandly in single combat by Blanx John was exiled from Mars, while in the intervening period Blanx destroyed the rest of the Martian race forcing J'onn to permanently adopt Earth as his new home. After leaving J'onn with a function grasp of language and custom Erdel staged his own death to force J'onn to build a new life form himself out in the wide human world.
Turning to his only source of information J'onn watched hours of television. He was fascinated by it with Martian telepathy you could peer into the mind of the story teller and experience the story first hand, but with the television he encountered a medium that brought back the element of surprise. In the endless police shows he found his calling, he wanted to fight for justice and after observing real police procedure and technique he assumed the form of John Jones police detective and waltzed straight into a police station. Careful telepathic suggestion and monitoring allowed him to create the identity in the minds of the others, some people had now known him for years while others actually went to the same high school.
John Jones had arrived. He became a one person crime fighting force as the fully fledged detective right down to the fashionable suits, the subconscious memories of the plague still lingered leaving him stern and unsmiling. For almost a decade J'onn maintained the identity of the detective only rarely using the form that be believed to be his true face to battle more powerful evils. As Erdel before him J'onn staged his own death from the police force in 1968 to protect his friends from the enemies of the Martian Manhunter after his police partner learnt the truth about him (J'onn also wiped the memory from the mans mind but would years later lift the wipe to renew the friendship).
From then on J'onn moved round for a time he took the identity of Marco Xavier and battled more powerful menaces, yet still he kept himself hidden from the world at large. This was to change when he became a founding member of the Justice League. Still believing that be was the Martian Warrior he stayed with the group thinking that it was his way to battle for justice. Over the years he became one of the longest serving members and the practical back bone of the group. Years later J'onn would return to the identity of John Jones when he became a private detective.
From the Justice League of America to the Justice League International, J'onn remained with the League, to him it became perhaps the only family he had and he became very protective of team mate Gypsy treating her like a daughter. In one of the first cases of the JLI J'onn battled a sentient virus and via the magic of Dr Fate is was held prisoner in J'onn's alien cells. For months he held it save inside himself unaware of the effect that he was having on him.
The strain of containing the virus started wearing away at the mental block about his true path, this was boosted by the intercession of H'ronmeer the Martian god of fire. The terrified J'onn ran from the fire god straight into the home of Erdel who revealed the truth of J'onn's passage to Earth. Then using his rebuilt machinery he sent J'onn back to Mars to fully confront H'ronmeer. In a game of cat and mouse J'onn came to understand that H'ronmeer was not the dark god of death that humans might imagine but rather was the protector of the dead who had sought J'onn out to remove the mental block and allow the dead of Mars to rest in peace without J'onn's subconscious mind hanging desperately onto them.
When he returned from Mars J'onn had changed, there was an inner peace to him, he truly knew who he was and where he was from. When the JLI dissolved during its period of Breakdowns, J'onn resigned and took the chance to leave planet and meditate on his future. When he returned J'onn encountered the magician Bloodwynd who was having trouble with his Bloodgem when J'onn tried to help him he found himself mentally dominated by the Gem as Bloodwynd was sucked inside.
Under the control of the Gem. J'onn masqueraded as Bloodwynd for months even to the point of joining the League as Bloodwynd it was only the suspicions of the Blue Beetle and the help of the Atom and Ray that eventually freed Bloodwynd and J'onn from the mutual trap. Shortly afterwards J'onn was recruited by the UN to head up the Justice League Task Force.
The Task Force was initially conceived as a group of superheroes from the Leagues roster's hand picked for each mission on a rotating basis. J'onn was reunited with Gypsy during this time and later when the Task Force became the youth training arm of the League he adopted a sterner facade in order to better deal with the rebellious charges under him.
When the villain Dr Destiny and the entity Know Man tried to blanket the Earth in a form of dream reality J'onn found himself in an artificial recreation of Mars with his wife and daughter. Yet to him it was as real as the original when his friends tried to persuade them otherwise he signalled his intentions to remain in the dream paradise until it was destroyed by a gang of Know Man's agents. The strain of loosing his family (even and illusionary family) a second time took a large toll on the Martian Manhunter alienating from those that had been his friends and slightly undermining the peace that he had previously obtained.
Recently J'onn had to battle the Hyperclan, letting them think that he had betrayed the JLA and then attacking from within, this combined with the battle with the forces of Heaven has also taken a strong toll on J'onn who finds himself under more pressure that ever from the world and his team-mates, his reaction to this has been to pull back slightly, making him seem more alien than ever to those that do not truly know him.
Powers and Abilities
The powers and abilities of the Martian Manhunter are a mystery to most people and to extent even his friends. He has the ability to totally control his physical structure allowing him to shape shift, morph fluidly, and even turn invisible or intangible briefly. Physically he is Superman's league in terms of strength and endurance, the only thing that can harm him is an intense fear of fire (inborn in all Martians it is the basis of the god H'ronmeer who as well as being the object of fear as a fire god is the god of death via association). The effect of the fear is to strip any Martian of their super abilities via the psychosomatic effect of their own body control working involuntary against them.
Martians also possess a range of undefined mental abilities, primary among these is the telekinetic ability to fly. They also seem to have a range of telepathic powers including mind reading and to an extent active telepathy. The extent and true limitations of these powers are not known. One of the most prised abilities of the Martians is the ability Mayavana, it is the gift to reach into another mind and create a mental reality as real as any normal reality. The strain of Mayavana is such that it can only be used once a life time and so is normally used on the one that a Martian loves the most, J'onn used it on the rampaging Despero so that he thought that he had destroyed the JLI (subsequently he reverted to a an embryonic state) and therefore save his friends.
Recommened Reading
Overpower Cards
Martian Manhunter - Uncommon - Sal Velluto/Ken Branch
Alien Physique - Very Rare - Sal Velluto/Ken Branch
Allies
Dr Erdel - The scientist that brought the startled Martian to Earth. He faked his own death to force J'onn to go out into the world. He has recently been revealed as being alive.
Gypsy - A young heroine that was a member of the Detroit phase of the League, later the Conglomerate and the JL: Task Force. J'onn is very protective of her and keeps in regular communication.
Major Enemies
J'onn lacks a rogue's gallery as such, his enemies are normally the enemies of the League but he has personal conflicts with Despero and Vandal Savage.
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Occupation: Depends on cover identity used, formally a police detective then a private investigator
Known Relatives: Father, daughter and wife all deceased
Group Affiliation: Founding member of all incarnations of the Justice League of America, formally head of the Justice League Task Force.
Base of Operations: Z'onn Z'orr, Antarctica.
First Appearance: DETECTIVE COMICS #225 (November, 1955)
Height: 6' 7"
Weight: 300 lb.
Eyes: Black
Hair: None
Energy: 4 Fighting: 4 Strength: 7 Intellect: 5
Malleable Form - Uncommon - Sal Velluto/Ken Branch
Martian Strength - Rare - Sal Velluto/Ken Branch
Martian Vision - Very Rare - Sal Velluto/Ken Branch
Telepathic Probe - Uncommon - Sal Velluto/Ken Branch
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