RELATED: No Justice Confirms Martian Manhunter is the League's Most Important Member Whether it’s Jon Ostrander, Grant Morrison or even the recent run by Rob Williams, J’onn’s history represents the best things about superhero comics in a shared universe. He's not American he is fundamentally alien – a Martian.While a lot of characters are stuck in the status quo that they first found themselves in in the Golden Age, Martian Manhunter is - fittingly, given his shapeshifting powers - more adaptable. J'Onn came to earth as an adult he was raised in a Martian culture. The principal one was that, while born an alien, Kal-El came to earth as an infant and was raised as a human. When Tom and I did our series, we wanted to focus on what made him and Superman different. 'He had most of the same powers and, instead of Kryptonite, his weakness was fire.

'Goyer and I are in small agreement: I also felt that in many ways the Martian Manhunter was a green clone of Superman,' wrote Ostrander.

We discover one of those Earth-like planets… So maybe like… we get the DNA code from that planet and then grow him in a petri dish here… He's like in Area 51 or something and we're just basically… doing biopsies on him.'Īnd here's a bit of Ostrander's reaction, which you can read in full at the ComicMix link above. 'I would set it up like The Day After Tomorrow. … So instead of using superpowers and mind-reading and like, 'Oh, I could figure out if the President's lying or whatever,' he just decides to disguise himself as a human homicide detective. So here's the best part: So he comes down to Earth and decides, unlike Superman who already exists in the world now, that he's just going to be a homicide detective, and pretend to be a human homicide guy. He came out in the '50s, and he had basically all the powers of Superman, except he didn't like fire, and he could read your mind. He could be called 'Manhunter.' … The whole deal with Martian Manhunter is he's an alien living amongst us, that's the deal. 'Well, he can't be f****** called 'The Martian Manhunter' because that's goofy. 'How many people in the audience have heard of Martian Manhunter?'įollowing some applause from the audience, Goyer joked, 'How many people that raised their hands have ever been laid?'

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