Silver Age (1950s–1960s) Martian Manhunter aka John (J'onn J'onzz) Jones debuted in the back-up story "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" in
Detective Comics #225 (November 1955), written by
Joseph Samachson and illustrated by Joe Certa. The character is a
green-skinned humanoid from
Mars, who is pulled to Earth by an experimental
teleportation beam constructed by Dr.
Saul Erdel. The
Martian tells Erdel where he is from, and Erdel tells him that to send him back will require the teleportation beam's robot brain to be recalibrated, and that this may take years. J'onzz then unexpectedly uses his shapeshifting to assume the guise of a human; the shock of seeing this kills Dr. Erdel and leaves J'onzz with no way of returning home. The character decides to fight crime while waiting for
Martian technology to advance to a stage that will enable his rescue. To that end, he
adopts the identity of
John Jones, a detective in the fictional Middletown, USA. During this period, the character and his backstory differ in some minor and some significant ways from modern treatments. Firstly, as with his counterpart, the
Silver Age Superman, J'onzz's power range is poorly defined, and his powers expand over time as the plot demands. The addition of
precognitive abilities (
Detective Comics #226) is quickly followed by telepathy and flight, "atomic vision", super-hearing, and many other powers. In addition, his customary weakness to fire is only manifested when he is in his native Martian form. A more significant difference is that in this version of him, there is no suggestion that Mars is a dead planet or that the character is the last of his kind. Many of the tales of the time feature either Martian technology or the appearance of other Martian characters such as his younger brother '''T'om J'onzz'
. Detective Comics'' #236 (October 1956), for example, features the character making contact with the planet Mars and his parents. J'onzz eventually reveals his existence to the world, after which he operates openly as a superhero and becomes a charter member of the
Justice League. During the character's initial few years as a member of the Justice League, he is often used as a substitute for Superman in stories (just as
Green Arrow was for Batman) as DC Comics were worried about using their flagship characters too often in Justice League stories, fearing overexposure. The Martian and the archer inaugurated the team-up format of
The Brave and the Bold. J'onzz appears there one other time, working with the
Flash. In some stories he is shown travelling through space at near-light speed or to other planets. The detective John Jones is ostensibly killed in action by the Idol Head of Diabolu, an artifact that generates supernatural monsters. J'onzz abandons the civilian identity as he decides fighting this new menace will take a great deal of his time. At this point his feature moves to
The House of Mystery, where J'onzz spends the next few years in battle against the Idol Head. Shortly after its defeat, he takes the persona of Marco Xavier to infiltrate the international crime cartel
Vulture, which he defeats in the final installment of his original series. As Superman was allowed by DC to become a fully active member of the Justice League, J'onzz's appearances there dwindled. He last participated in a mission in his original tenure in #61 (March 1968), shortly before his solo series was discontinued (
The House of Mystery #173, May–June 1968). In #71, his people finally came to Earth for him and he left with them to found and become leader of New Mars. Over the next 15 years, J'onzz appeared sporadically in various DC titles.
Bronze Age (1970s–mid-1980s) In 1972, Superman was teleported to New Mars. J'onzz briefly returned to Earth via spaceship in 1975. J'onzz made another trip to Earth shortly thereafter, leading to Superman and Batman fighting alongside him on New Mars. Three years later, he was discovered playing cosmic-level chess with
Despero, using JLA-ers as the pieces. The Martian again encountered Superman in outer space. He permanently resurfaced in the DC Universe in 1984. Shortly thereafter, the League had several members resign (among many other changes), leaving an opening for the Manhunter. While staying on Earth, he decided to revive his John Jones identity, this time as a private detective, but had to explain his 20-year "disappearance".
Post-Crisis (mid-1980s–mid-1990s) In early 1987, DC revamped its struggling
Justice League of America series by re-launching the title as
Justice League. This new series, written by
Keith Giffen and
J.M. DeMatteis with art by
Kevin Maguire (and later
Adam Hughes), added quirky humor to the team's stories. J'onzz is present from the first issue and within the stories is used as a
straight man for other characters in comical situations. The series also added a number of elements to his back story that have remained to the present (such as J'onzz's obsession with
Chocos cookies, due to Shazam's influence). The 1988 four-issue miniseries
Martian Manhunter by J.M. DeMatteis and
Mark Badger further redefined the character and changed a number of important aspects of both his character and his origin story. It is revealed that Dr. Erdel did not die and that the character's humanoid appearance was due to physiological trauma and attempts to block out the death of his race, his familiar appearance a "compromise" between his true form and a human appearance based upon Erdel's mental concept of what a Martian should look like. Later series use retroactive continuity (
retcon) to establish that his real form is private and that, even on Mars, his "public" appearance was the familiar version. The native name for Mars is said to be "Ma'aleca'andra" in his native language (a nod to "Malacandra", the name used by the inhabitants of Mars in
C. S. Lewis' novel
Out of the Silent Planet). The series also adds to
canon the idea that J'onzz was not only displaced in space but in time and the Martian race, including J'onzz's wife and daughter, has been dead for thousands of years. The 1990s saw the character continue to serve in many different versions of the Justice League of America. In addition to serving in the League under his own identity, he also joins (under duress) disguised as "
Bloodwynd," a mysterious and powerful
necromancer. J'onzz assumed the physical form, stand-offish mannerisms and magical powers of Bloodwynd, while Bloodwynd himself was transported and trapped inside of his "blood gem". It was during this time the JLA engaged
Doomsday in
The Death of Superman series. After being hurled by Doomsday into a burning building,
Blue Beetle discovers the merged identity of the two heroes. Soon after, it is revealed that J'onzz accidentally bonded with Bloodwynd prior to joining the League. The two are eventually separated and both continue their associations with the League. The 1992 miniseries
American Secrets is set in the character's past, exploring a previously unknown adventure against the backdrop of a changing America during the 1950s. Written by
Gerard Jones and with art by
Eduardo Barreto, the series finds the Manhunter drawn into a murder mystery that rapidly escalates into paranoia and alien invasion.
Post-Zero Hour (mid-1990s–mid-2000s) In 1997, J'onn J'onzz became a founding member of
Grant Morrison and
Howard Porter's new
JLA where the team fought a group of
White Martians, the
Hyperclan.
Martian Manhunter began as an ongoing series in 1998, written by
John Ostrander and illustrated by
Tom Mandrake (with fill-in art provided by
Bryan Hitch among others). The series lasted 38 issues before being canceled due to low sales. Ostrander established that Martian Manhunter is the most recognized hero in the Southern Hemisphere and that he maintains a number of different secret identities, many of them outside the United States, though his primary and first secret identity is still John Jones. However, after
Cameron Chase reveals some of his identities to the public, he begins to use fewer secret identities. In another incident, part of his psyche splits off from his main personality, taking on the identity of John Jones before dying; the experience leads J'onn to "retire" all of his other human identities aside from Jones to honor the part of him that died. J'onn J'onzz is a native of the planet
Mars, and his parents were influential figures in Martian society: his mother, J'ahrl J'onzz, and his father,
M'yrnn J'onzz. Also known as the Martian Manhunter, J'onn was the firstborn. Twins are rare on Mars, and Martian society believed that twins were meant to be a single amalgam, divided between light and darkness. His mother, a precognitive mystic, had a vision before their birth: one of her sons would become the savior of their people, while the other would bring about their destruction. J'onn grows up to become a respected law enforcement agent. Although his twin was seen as a pariah by Martian society, J'onn was the only one who loved and defended him — until the genocide of Mars, which turned the two brothers into enemies, fulfilling their mother's prophecy. The series establishes J'onzz's brother as
Ma'alefa'ak, who uses his shapeshifting abilities to pose as J'onzz, capturing and torturing
Jemm, Son of Saturn, and
terraforming part of Earth to resemble Mars (areoforming). This is all part of a grand plan designed to convince the rest of the Justice League that J'onzz has turned into a
sociopath. However, J'onzz is able to clear his name and defeat Ma'alefa'ak despite having most of his body destroyed in an exploding spaceship (he is able to regenerate his body from his severed hand after 'transplanting' his soul into his hand and sending it back to his home fortress so that it can regenerate). The series also further established the history of both the Manhunter and the Saturnian race. The first issue revealed that there was a "real" John Jones, a human police detective who was murdered by corrupt colleagues, and that J'onzz subsequently assumed his identity to complete an important court case. He kept Jones' form upon realizing that he could use his prior training in law enforcement as a means of blending in with humanity. In issues of
JLA written by
Joe Kelly, J'onzz attempts to conquer his fear of fire and makes a deal with a flame-wielding villainess named
Scorch, who wants J'onzz's telepathic help in dealing with her own mental issues, the two falling in love in the process. This effort results in J'onzz briefly transforming into the Burning Martian, Fernus, an ancient version of the Martian race that were modified by the Guardians of the Universe; the Guardians had recognized the danger that the Burning Martians posed to civilized life as they 'reproduced' through the psychic energy generated by suffering and grief, but had simply engineered the Martians into their new state rather than destroy them. As part of this engineering, the Martians had been 'programmed' with a new vulnerability to fire, with J'onzz breaking the genetic blocks against fire, also giving him access to race memories of the Burning Martians. Despite Fernus' power, the League were able to help J'onzz reassert himself over Fernus,
Manitou Raven helping key League members access J'onzz's mind and draw out his true self while
Plastic Man battled Fernus directly, allowing the true J'onzz to manifest when Fernus attempted to spawn using the psychic grief caused by the destruction of the city of
Chongjin, the sorrow enough for at least one spawning even if the Flash had saved the city's residents. With Fernus' physical form defeated, J'onzz's traditional aversion to fire was redefined, as he is now invulnerable to flames unless they are "flames of passion" or of some other "psychic significance". This change is forgotten about in later series and adventures .
Crisis era (mid-2000s–early-2010s) Several weeks before
World War III, Martian Manhunter disguises himself as a young girl and tries to defeat
Black Adam telepathically in
Bialya. He is defeated by being exposed to Adam's darkest memories and flees Earth. The miniseries
World War III is told from his perspective. Using these events as a catalyst, DC Comics redesigned the appearance of the character to alter his costume, covering his chest, and giving him an appearance that more closely resembles that of his original Martian form. Those changes were further explored during a
Martian Manhunter miniseries that spun out of the
DCU: Brave New World one-shot. Written by A.J. Lieberman with art from Al Barrionuevo and Bit, the series portrayed Martian Manhunter as more mistrustful of humanity and their actions towards each other. The main narrative centered on J'onzz's search for other survivors of Mars. During the lead-up to the
Infinite Crisis miniseries, the character is feared to have been killed in an attack on the Justice League's HQ. He is later revealed to be alive and a captive of
Alexander Luthor Jr. After
Infinite Crisis, most of DC's series
jumped ahead one year, with the weekly series
52 revealing what happened during the timeskip. In
52 #24, it is revealed that Martian Manhunter has been working behind the scenes in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy
Checkmate for its role in the death of his colleague
Ted Kord. Following this miniseries, J'onzz was intended to be in
Outsiders. He appeared in the third issue of the
Outsiders: Five of a Kind series with
Thunder, and joined the team afterward. Due to the change of writers, he was quickly written out within the last two issues. He was next seen working undercover during the events of the limited series
Salvation Run. At the end of the series, J'onzz is left captured and alone on an alien planet. In
Final Crisis #1 (2008), written by
Grant Morrison the character is killed, with the death being further developed in the one-shot
Final Crisis: Requiem. The character next appears in the
Blackest Night storyline as a
Black Lantern. At the end of the miniseries, the character is resurrected. Following this, the character is featured in the weekly series
Brightest Day. During the series, J'onzz encounters another surviving Green Martian, D'kay D'razz, a scarred and warped psychopath who wants J'onzz to be her mate. In
Brightest Day, he is a very prominent character, finding a water source on Mars and meeting and talking with the daughter of Dr. Erdel, Melissa. J'onzz is depicted tucking her into bed in a retirement home, in the form of her father. He later appears at Erdel's old lab. However, plant life starts to die every time he gets near. Later still, J'onzz goes to see
M'gann M'orzz in Australia during her mediation search, but finds her beaten and tied up. While tending to her, he is contacted by the
Life Entity, who instructs him to burn down the newly formed forest. When J'onzz asks M'gann who did this to her, M'gann says she was attacked by a female Green Martian. After this, J'onzz senses something in
Star City. J'onzz arrives in Star City's new forest and attempts to complete his task; however, he is stopped from doing that by the Entity. The Entity reveals to him that the newly formed forest J'onzz is to burn down is on Mars. After J'onzz lashes out at Star City's forest, he returns home. During this same time period, J'onzz is found by
Green Arrow, who attacks J'onzz after mistaking him for some sort of monster. After being knocked unconscious and dragged out of the forest by Green Arrow, J'onzz explains that the forest somehow tampered with his shapeshifting abilities and temporarily drove him mad. When J'onzz arrives home, he sees his planet covered in a newly formed forest on Mars. When J'onzz enters his home, he is confronted by a female Green Martian named D'kay D'razz, the same Green Martian who attacked M'gann. D'kay explains her origins and wants to be J'onzz's mate. J'onzz refuses and learns that she is a psychopath when D'kay angrily lashes out to attack and enters his mind. J'onzz tries to resist influence from D'kay's mind, but her control over his mind tempts him with visions of a fantasy world where all the Martians and J'onzz's family are resurrected by the Entity. He then defeats D'kay by forcing her into the Sun, saved from the same fate by the Life Entity, who informs him that his mission has been accomplished, and returns his life to him. The Entity then tells J'onzz to choose between Mars and Earth. J'onzz chooses Earth and returns to his adopted homeworld only to be absorbed into the earth by the Entity as "part of the plan". When the "Dark Avatar" makes his presence known, J'onzz is revealed to be one of the Elementals. Martian Manhunter is transformed by the Entity to become the element of Earth to protect the Star City forest from the "Dark Avatar", which appears to be the Black Lantern version of the
Swamp Thing. The Elementals are then fused with the body of Alec Holland to transform him into Swamp Thing and battle the Dark Avatar. After the Dark Avatar is defeated, Swamp Thing restores J'onzz to normal. Afterward, J'onzz helps Melissa Erdel remove the piece from her head after she loses her mind.
The New 52 (2011–2016) In 2011, DC relaunched its continuity following its
Flashpoint company-wide crossover as part of its
The New 52 publishing event, which saw the cancellation and relaunch of all DC titles. In the new continuity, J'onzz is reintroduced as a member of the covert
Stormwatch organization, which had previously appeared exclusively in comics set in DC's
Wildstorm Comics imprint. J'onzz is initially stated as being an ex-Justice League member in
Stormwatch #1, before the phrase "with the Justice League" is
retconned as
shorthand for being a public superhero, with J'onzz saying he never tried to join the League due to his commitments to Stormwatch. This same position is stated by J'onzz again in
Legion Lost (vol. 2) #6. However, later
Justice League comics show that J'onzz was indeed a member of the League for a time. Later, DC chose to move Martian Manhunter to its
Justice League of America title, a spin-off from
Justice League. In
Stormwatch (vol. 3) #12, J'onzz quits the team and uses his telepathy to erase his existence from the minds of his Stormwatch teammates. In
Justice League of America, Martian Manhunter is a member of the U.S. government-sponsored Justice League, taking orders from
Amanda Waller and
Steve Trevor. Like other members of the team, he has been selected as a counterpart for a member of the independent Justice League, should they ever go rogue; J'onzz is Superman's counterpart. and along with Green Arrow go on to form the core of a new successor Justice League based out of Canada, in
Justice League United. J'onn's new origin is revealed in vol. 4 of
Martian Manhunter (2015–2016). When he lived there, Mars was originally a living, thriving world millions of years ago. After received a psychic warning, a young J'onn was recruited along with others by the Martian government to investigate a potential threat. He was eventually betrayed by Ma'alefa'ak, who murdered all of the subjects except J'onn. He was then subjected to a magic blood ritual that gave him his powers. After escaping, he began to hunt down Ma'alefa'ak, only to discover a monster which was the cause of the psychic warning. The monster, taking the shape of J'onn J'onzz's son, revealed that it was the physical manifestation of Mars, saying that it needed help, only to believe that the Martians were unworthy of life. As a result, Mars and all of its inhabitants died and J'onn was sent to Earth. Before he landed, he split himself into multiply identities that would not reunite until millions of years later but with no memories of his origins. Martian Manhunter seemingly died while trying to stop a series of bombings. However, it was revealed that there were still pieces of him that lived on after he landed on Earth, and they began to bring him back together. After being teleported to an alternate Mars, Ma'alefa'ak, revealed to be another construct of J'onn's memories, plans to use them in another ritual to bring back the actual Mars with himself as its ruler. After this plan was foiled, J'onn is revived with all of the remaining constructs merging back with him, finally coming to accept that he truly is the last Martian.
DC Rebirth (2016–present) Prior to the events of
Dark Nights: Metal, Martian Manhunter leaves
Thanagar looking for
Nth Metal. After freeing an imprisoned
Mister Terrific,
Green Lantern, and
Plastic Man, three Dark Knights appear and use Thanagar's Phoenix Cannon to fire Plastic Man at Earth's core, causing a chain reaction that will drag everything into the
Dark Multiverse. He is imprisoned by the Dark Knights along with other heroes before being rescued by
Wonder Woman. Following the conclusion of
No Justice, he rejoins the Justice League as its new chairman. ==Powers and abilities==