By Koppy McFad
September 21, 2006 - 06:13
For years, the Martian Manhunter has remained mired in obscurity, considered too alien and uninteresting to get a wide following. All his titles have died quick deaths. Yet amazingly, the "Justice League" cartoon has actually given J'onn J'onzz some popularity, making this bald, half-naked, green-skinned creature more recognizable to the general public. So what does DC do? It revamps his look, his costume, his origins and background so no one can recognize him. In this miniseries, J'onn's origins are once again re-written as we discover he is not the last of the green Martians. So he infiltrates a secret laboratory and learns that some of his fellow Martians are being subjected to alien autopsies. It is hard to care about the Martian Manhunter's plight in this story as he is a Superman-level being who is fighting against ordinary soldiers. There is a mystery about who is behind these abductions of aliens but the writer fails to build this up sufficiently. Frankly it looks like another one of those stories where Humans-Are-Bad and the Aliens/Outsiders-Are-Good. The art is adequate for the story but does little to help build up suspense or to interest the reader.
Martian Manhunter #1 Review