4 issue Test #11 - Martian Manhunter

I know, I'm using issue 2, but my photo-editing skills are limited and this one was easier, kay?

Martian Manhunter is one of the characters most shafted in the New52. Once a high profile member of the Justice League, he was initially reduced to a member of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm team, Stormwatch which had been integrated into the regular DC Universe with very limited success. He then became a member of Amanda Waller’s JLA until the Trinity War and subsequent Forever Evil lead to the team being disbanded.

He then joined the JLU and has been part of their adventures. I believe they’re still ongoing but this title is his first solo outing since the New52 and another part of the DCYou lineup. How does it hold up? Well, let’s take a look.

This cover looks good, if a bit sketchy. Not really anything to do with the book and could do without the purple tint on J'onn's costume but otherwise ok

We open with a look at Mr Biscuits, one of the supporting characters of the book. He’s wearing a sign that says he’s only to awoken in an emergency. Some kids are outside his house, debating about who’s going to deliver a bag of biscuits to him. A girl named Alicia dares to do it. He snatches the bag away, Mr Biscuits reads her mind and realises she’s a good person whilst doing that coin trick where you produce a coin out of someone’s ear. She asks whether he’s a good person, he says he isn’t sure.

We cut to Martian Manhunter having returned from the moon in the divergence chapter sending out a telepathic message to help save lives as a passenger jet is crashing down. Unable to lift it he phases inside and knocks the passengers unconscious to stop them running out of air. He bumps into a passenger who says they need his help to ‘turn the planet red’ he claims that J’onn was created as a weapon. As J’onn turns into a monster to rescue the plane his narration confirms that everything we knew was a lie. The martians have come for Earth.

On the Justice League watchtower The Flash, Cyborg and Superman (now in his dude-bro uniform thanks to events in the Superman books) debate what to do about the psychic message. The computer monitor then confirms that there are attacks like the plane happening across the planet (which is why they're in the watchtower, not doing anything)

We cut to Dubai where an Arabic cat-burgular tries to break into a room belonging to a ‘Prince.’ One of the prince’s advisers comes in and reveals himself to be a White Martian. The next thing we see is the window covered in blood. The martian wipes the blood from the window and says to the burgular that he knows who she really is and tells her to run.

Back with the plane, J’onn has ensured it landed safely but had passed out. A kid comes to see but thinks that J’onn is a monster who made the plane crash (J’onn has been in 3 high-profile super-teams, you’re an idiot) J’onn flies away.

We cut to Washington DC with some cops and Agent Wessel of the FBI. A kid, Leo was taken from a care home in Pensylvania and the kid strangled her to death, only with his Motor Neuron Disease that should be impossible. Agent Wessel confronts the kid who says that she wasn’t really her mother and records were altered to make that seem the case. Outside some explosions happen as more terrorist attacks happen. Leo basically says that all terrorist attacks have committed by Martians in disguise (ah... BULLSH*T)

We see a news reporter talk to US security correspondent Lincoln Brahn who seems to think that these simultaneous attacks couldn’t have been done by different groups. His eyes turn red confirming him to be a martian too. J’onn confronts Helen Demoff and says he needs her help to kill him

Mr Biscuits gives Alicia the coin as payment for the biscuits and begins eating them (seriously, that’s how they choose to end this chapter)

Just FYI: I hate this new Superman design, whatever happened to bright colours, same goes for J'onn actually but otherwise it looks good

Issue 2 opens with an unnecessary flashback to 15 minutes ago. In the present we learn that Helen has built a ‘Trans-warp’ engine to try and create wormholes for intergalactic travel (because of course a human can do that) but it tends to annihilate 94% of any object they send through. J’onn says this it could be a formidable weapon if it fell into the wrong hands before phasing inside of it. Helen refuses to help him die before Superman arrives.

Superman demands to know how J’onn knew about the terrorist attacks before they happened, J’onn responds that they used him to plan them. We cut to Washington as Mr Biscuits rushes through an icy square where people are seemingly oblivious to the terrorist attacks that happened in the last issue. Alicia follows for some reason. He demands to know where the train is saying he wants to eat it. He arrives at the track and jumps down as a train approaches.

We cut to Dubai where the thief from the last issue is running from the Martians who seemingly can’t fly. One of them converts their hand into a blaster (because they can do that) and shoots her down, she crashes through some old wood and is confronted by the 3 martian pursuers.

As Superman makes the most stupid stance I’ve ever seen J’onn explains that the martians know he hasn’t activated and are coming for him. He takes the knowledge of how to operate the machine from Helen’s mind and knocks her out. Superman tries to stop him but impatient, J’onn attacks. With Superman knocked back Wonder Woman, Cyborg and the Flash arrive (shouldn't you three be dealing with the aftermath of terrorist attacks, for that matter, shouldn't Superman)

In Dubai the thief gets a telepathic message from Martian Manhunter telling her to run. She jumps, landing on a cargo ship several hundred yards away having survived a 70 foot drop. The battle between the 4 of them is stopped when Superman realises it was just image implanted in their heads, the real J’onn has activated the machine, killing him (yeah, right…)

Back in DC we see that Mr Biscuits was able to stop the train with one hand. As the authorities arrive Mr Biscuits grabs Alicia and runs down the track. He says that the martians will take their biscuits and kill every human on the planet unless they’re stopped.

I've got to admit, I love the imagery in this cover, and weird muscular structure from a shape shifter is forgiveable. So Kudos

So after 2 pages of nothing happening, we cut back to the lab. With the League and Helen both upset about J’onn’s death we cut to the Martians' psychic war room. They talk about how J’onn has betrayed them, they lament this loss until they get a visitor, Ma’alefa’ak. He claims that J’onn isn’t gone, only dispersed so he can stop it more easily. Ma’alefa’ak intends to stop them. He forces the 4 members of the council to merge into a single being, the Martian Man-eater.

We cut to Washington where Agent Wessel is talking to the kid. Leo says that his dead mother was a Martian and Wessel should check this by burning her body. He leaves the room and calls his superior, Bolen to try and get transferred. The guy agrees but Wessel is soon contacted by Martian Manhunter who says that that Bolen is not human, has recently discovered who Wessel is and plans to use him to commit genocide. After that scene he goes down and burns the mother’s body.

4 Martian agents including Bohen are told to move their vehicles. Wessel smashes through them with his ambulance, he has Leo on board. The martians pursue with Leo complaining that he wasn’t tied down when the Martian Man-eater erupts from the ground and attacks. Thankfully Mr Biscuits arrives to help. He attacks with his can, telling Alicia to run into the ambulance. Mr Biscuits stuns Martian Man-eater and levitates the ambulance into the air. He reveals to Agent Wessel that he is J’onn, and so is Wessel.

Ah covers without backgrounds, I hate them, so I hate this one

After a page further confirming that there are martians at the White House we cut to the thief as the boat she was on is attacked by pirates. She is confronted by Martian Manhunter (I assume a psychic image of him) who tells her to jump into the ocean and she’ll be saved. She’s not keen on this idea as some pirates confront her. They turn into Martians and try to kill her. She kicks one of them in the stomach, somehow going right through them before, under the instruction of J’onn makes their internal systems explode (well actually she hit their heads but she was aiming for internal systems) more martians arrive and throw a grenade, she phases out of the ship and dives into the water to evade it

On the bus Mr Biscuits is trying to fend off the Martian Man-eater. Mr Biscuits tries to make Wessel head faster but he’s still stunned by the revelation. Leo tells him that J’onn isn’t human and neither is he and he should expand his scope. (Which amounts to – this makes sense because he’s alien, don’t question it!) Mr Biscuits loses his left arm before flashing into Mars

He sees a Moon, Phobos which he says might be a future enemy if it gained sentience, he soon realises this is a psychic attack from the Man-eater who cuts him in half, and we see he’s cut in half on the bus. Wessel tells Alicia to take the wheel, despite her protests that she can’t drive.  Leo says that as a fully formed martian he might be able to stop the creature. Mr Biscuits talks to Leo inside the bus. Leo deduces that Martian Manhunter is his deep-rooted subconscious. Mr Buiscuits cannot read Leo’s mind at all. Alicia calls as she’s about to crash into an oil truck but Wessel is stabbed through the heart and the oil tanker explodes.

Now fully martian he phases out of the sword and grabs the ambulance to protect it from the explosion. He places the ambulance back on the road and defeats the man-eater by forcing them to separate. He takes back the wheel but is sad. He’s no longer alive as he once was. We cut back to the thief (we’re 4 issues in and I don’t know her name yet, FAIL!) she begins to pass out but is rescued by Aquaman. In the final pages of the comics we see that Phobos is moving toward earth.

So that was the first 4 issues of Martian Manhunter, but did it shift into the right gear, let’s take a look.

I’m honestly not this book’s greatest fan but I’ll admit I like a fair bit about it. First the artwork is fantastic. Far fewer borders around pages that I’m really starting to hate in other titles. Credit to Eddy Barrows, Ebar Ferreura and Gabe Eltaeb for the great works they’ve done here. There are some characters I like. Leo’s distrubingingly creepy vibe is captured brilliantly. The title presents a lot of mystery and intrigue.

The problem is the idea of a martian invasion. As a guy who liked the old continuity their entire reshift of Mars’ political ideals (the white martains being treated like a separate species for example) doesn’t sit well with me. Even less does Ma’alefa’ak, I’m not 100% familiar with the character, having only really seen him before on JL Doom, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t red before the reboot (Red is their favourite colour in the reboot) and was more a solo-agent. Having him be a part of this weird invasion stuff is kinda annoying.

I struggle with the logic of this invasion. They plant people to commit terrorist acts across the globe as what, a pre-curser to the invasion? Are they just the discount skrulls now? I also don’t see why they’re invading. Earth had not attacked them in any way, they don’t need the Earth to survive, Mars is still a planet last I checked and if they’re trying to conquer the galaxy, their method is very slow burn and with heavy chance of failure.

Then there’s J’onn himself. I really don’t understand what the hell is going on with him. Best I can tell his essence was spread across multiple humans. I’m not sure whether this is as a result of his death or whether that was preplanned with him also serving the hero community. The former seems most likely in concept but the lack of any timing to the events means it’s confusing in that respect, especially Mr Biscuits who is supposedly his subconscious (???) who serves as more a comic relief character which really contrasts with the dark tone.

Rating:

#1 5/10

#2 5/10

#3 5/10

#4 5/10

Overall 5/10

Recommendation: With regret, this is another book I will not be continuing to pick up. This might be more my personal preference, but this book is really not for me. There may be some of you looking for this story, I recommend picking up the first trade before committing to it.  

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Images/clips used in this review are from Martian Manhunter and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use