Just Stay at Home

How does one design a travel poster for Apex City, home of the Martian Manhunter? How can you hope to capture the craziness? The bizarre landmarks, like the Statue of Atlas? The ludicrous weather, like the weekly meteor showers? The strange threats like the ubiquitous flying saucers? The seaside location and the Miami-like towering buildings? And if can you do all this, how do you then manage to subtly incorporate the city's hero, the Martian Manhunter himself, into the mix?

Well, I don't you know how you do it. But I do it like this....


Although I may have to do another version, just to see whether I can hang the Human Squirrel off the side of one of those buildings...

I had a delightful Christmas, and one of my the big gifts I received is the fantastic DC Comics: Year by Year, a "visual chronicle" that covers the entire seventy-five year history of DC Comics.

It's a beautiful book, and I'm slowly making my way through DC's history and learning something along the way. In the process I've come across something that will make somebody very happy.

I had just reached the entry for November, 1955 where Detective Comics #225 is discussed. The key point about Detective #225 is that it features the first appearance of Martian Manhunter. While reading the entry my mouth dropped open at these words:

"Now stuck on Earth, J'onn observed the culture and created the identity of John Jones, a crime fighter and investigator in Apex City."

The existence of an Apex City has previously been proposed. But now we have confirmation from an official DC publications proving that Martian Manhunter really did reside in Apex City.

Leave it to a tree to include nature imagery in its haiku! What haiku does the White Lantern inspire YOU to compose today? Share it with us now...

I'm particularly enjoying Martian Manhunter's story in Brightest Day. Part of that is the art; Patrick Gleason has done most of it I've seen and he's one of the more unique artists around these days.

But as with most comics it's the story that draws me to it. Martian Manhunter has never been able to hold a series for long, but he's a really intriguing character to look at as an individual. So I'm glad to see that they're taking advantage of a book like Brightest Day to give him some of the coverage he deserves.

I also like that Martian Manhunter is getting to flex his classic detective muscles. He's always been a fine detective (and until Bruce Wayne comes back he's probably the best detective currently active in the DCU) but too often it's his super-powers that get all the play. He does have a lot of them.

But Johns and Tomasi are using those powers in support of Martian Manhunter's detective abilities rather than in place of them. By doing this I think they're moving him to a unique place. It feels like they're moving him towards a character who works in the behind the scenes. As one of my one-shots put it -- paraphrasing here -- "Superman saves the world in the sun, Martian Manhunter saves it in the shadows." That's where J'onn J'onzz belongs.

This week's edition of War of the Supermen is billed as "The Battle for Mars." I'm not sure why they've gone out to Mars (though it looks like Superman may have forced Supergirl there at the end of issue #1). Whatever the reason, I imagine that means we're going to have some serious fighting in the skies over the red planet. Here's the one thing I want from War of the Supermen #2:

Martian Manhunter.

He's back and has set up shop on Mars. These Kryptonians (as always, the "assholes of space") think they are really tough. They don't think anyone can stand against them. So I want to see J'onn J'onzz absolutely devastate them.

We saw during Blackest Night how incredibly powerful Martian Manhunter is. So I want to see one Martian up against, oh, ten or twelve Kryptonians. And I want to see that Martian just take them apart without breaking a sweat. It's one of those "holy shit that's awesome" scenes that I just really want to see.

Now, it's probably not going to happen. Martian Manhunter hasn't shown up on any covers, of course. Still, that could be DC's attempt to keep his resurrection from being spoiled (after all, he was still dead when Return of the Supermen #2 was solicited). Even though he's probably staying confined to Brightest Day, I can still dream...

I don't know about you, but Green Lantern #44 scared the crap out of me.

Not in the most literal sense, of course. I didn't cower in fear at the sight of the book and run away screaming in the middle of reading it. No, it scared me in the sense that it was at its heart objectively frightening.

That's the thing about this whole Blackest Night event. Sinestro Corps War may have been about fear, but Blackest Night is the story that really has the potential to inspire fear.

The things going on here are just too terrible, too horrifying for anyone to honestly read it without admitting that it gives them that queasy fear feeling in the stomach. "Zombies" have been overdone. But the Black Lanterns aren't zombies. They are something far more sinister.

Okay, as previously mentioned, the Martian Manhunter went from weird to weirder when he left Detective Comics for House of Mystery.

Now, I know you all think I'm INSANE ("Mad! So, my colleagues think me mad, eh...?!") for harping on the insidious evil of SURREALISM lurking with comic books, yet surrealism is exactly the new foe that J'onn was pitted against.

There was a certain bizarre logic to it. No one ever had any idea what to do with this ridiculous Martian character they'd cobbled together out of breakfast martinis, deadlines, and old pulp sci fi mags. For that matter, no one ever has. Might as well have him fight equally bizarre and ridiculous 'foes', in a symbolic struggle of classic art versus surrealism, or as a metaphor for humanity's never-ending efforts to impose meaning on a chaotic world. Who better to thrust in unknown and nonsensical territory?


J'onn was no longer fighting crooks in ties or even crooks in stupid costumes.

Now he fought things like...

evil sentient orchestras.



Or bank-robbing genies.


Or really peevish, bioelectric Fruit Loops



Or presidential candidate Pat Paulsen.



But it was all a battle against SURREALISM, in a vain attempt to keep its madness confined to the canvas...


See? And you think I make these things up...!

Let's talk about something vital to the type of fiction we all enjoy. Let's talk about suspension of disbelief.

Suspension of disbelief -- as Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it -- is a method "to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

Put more simply, that means that the author (or director) of a work must infuse it with enough humanity and interest in order for the reader (or viewer) to willingly ignore the fanciful elements of the story.

This is not necessarily an easy thing to do, and it requires an audience that is willing to suspend their disbelief. This isn't hard to find in the world of comic books. We're willing to ignore a lot of things that are pretty fantastic. We know that men can't fly and that a man who dresses up as a bat couldn't really stop crime effectively. But we are willing to forget about that because it makes a good story.

But it's not entirely the reader's job to suspend disbelief. In fact, traditionally -- and in my view appropriately -- it's largely the job of the creator. The author has to know their audience and tread a thin line when it comes to suspension of disbelief.

This concept came to a head for me when I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen this past weekend. Yes yes, I know. It's a movie about giant transforming space robots. And I am willing to believe that for the purposes of the movie. Because, you see, there might be giant transforming space robots out there. It's exceedingly unlikely, but not impossible.

The moment in the movie when my wall of suspension came crashing down was from a very small thing in the scheme of things. Though I am willing to believe that such robots might exist, I cannot for a moment believe that there might be an alien weapon inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. Why not? Because I know for a fact that there isn't one.

I have seen photos of the inside of the Great Pyramid. Egyptologists have combed every inch of the structure. Not only isn't there an alien weapon inside but there can't be. That was the moment that suspension of disbelief was taken too far.

A good example can also be found within the pages of comics. Scipio over at the Absorbascon has talked about it before in regard to Martian Manhunter. Scipio notes that "the Martian Manhunter's origin requires too much suspension of disbelief." And he's right. We know there aren't cities on Mars. We've got photographs. We know that there wasn't an advanced civilization there at any time in the immediate past. We know this.

These kinds of problems truly aren't hard to fix. They require little more than a modicum of effort, some planning, and common sense. Setting aside Transformers, it wouldn't take much effort to make the Martian Manhunter's origin a little easier to swallow. In fact, I think this very point might have been done before. What if we say that J'onn J'onzz was not just pulled through space when he was sent to Earth, but through time?

J'onn J'onzz is not from the Mars of the present or even the immediate past. He is from a past so far removed from the present that all trace of his civilization has been wiped away. It doesn't remove all the problems, but it lessens them, makes suspension of disbelief a lot easier, and adds additional pathos to the character.

But again, it's not my job (except in the stuff I have written) to secure the suspension of disbelief. All too often writers and directors in this age are trying to pan that job off to the reader. But it doesn't work that way. If you're a writer or an artist, remember that. It's up to you to make it work. There are literally no limits in fiction. But there boundaries of a sort. They are the ones you set for yourself. And you must set them. Or everything will come tumbling down.

Okay, as mentioned, Vol. 2 of the Martian Manhunter Showcase is in some ways even crazier than the first one; but why?

It's clear that the editorial/authorial powers realized they'd painted themselves into an uncomfortable corner. They'd created a nearly infallible character whose powers were a mash-up of Amazo, the Composite Superman, and the Phantom Stranger. His only weakness was the most absurd one any character has ever had. Yellow? Wood? Those at least had some sort of ad hoc logic to them. But the Martian Manhunter's vulnerability to fire defied not just physics, but sociology and common sense. Fire has no radiation-like "emanations"; at a distance, there's no difference between fire and any other heat source. The Martians built a high-tech society without... fire? Maybe they used "Martian vision" to melt metals or just finger-snapped machines out of thin air, like they do ice cream cones?

PLUS, this super-scientific society has no way of rescuing one of its people, even when it's established early on that they know he's on earth? No, it's obvious that the Martian Manhunter was a rather hastily cobbled together character, and a difficult one to write. Despite J'onn's godlike powers he spent most of his time fighting crooks in hats, and laughable losers like the Human Flame, Mr. Moth, and the Human Squirrel. His only substantial challenges would come from other planets like the Venusians or the Martian Mandrills (yes, really). Something had to be done.

The recognition that J'onn's powers were out of literary control led to one early limitation: exposed to a chemical by a Martian bad guy (B'rett, as I recall), the Manhunter could no longer use his powers while he was invisible. Not only did this prevent the obvious question ("Why doesn't he always remain invisible as matter of course during combat?"), it forced him to 'come out' and become a public hero.

In Vol. 2, the Martian Manhunter even started to fly as a pure and simple power, whereas before he always had to suck or blow himself into the sky. And now he even had a superpowered sidekick (more on that subject later) to help him.. Something beyond the 'invisibility limit' was required.

The writers (well... writer, really) came up with an idea: J'onn's 'Martian powers' worked only when he was in his "Martian form" (although this was in direct and stark conflict with every previous Martian Manhunter story). Now, when in any other form, he had only the powers of that other form (and, of course, his power to shape-shift!). This helped a bit at first... JJ kept having to disguise himself as humans, and in so doing became as vulnerable as they are.

Unfortunately, the concept kind of backfired; when face with a superior adversary, the Martian Manhunter could simply assume the form of his opponent... and did.

So they killed him off. Not the Martian Manhunter, but John Jones, his civilian ID. He was "killed" when he and a car were eaten by corrosive cloud being. Things like that happen in Apex City.

Rather than concoct an escape story or one of those Clark Kent-style "Superman saved me when you weren't looking, Lois!" yarns, the Martian Manhunter simply said, "Huh, oh well. So much for my carefully constructed private life, my friends, and my job. What's for lunch?"

But this coincided with a move for MM. He no longer needed his job as a detective because he was no longer in Detective Comics. Now he'd be the back-up in House of Mystery (which was, at that time, a sci-fi title, not a horror title), so his adventures became more mysterious and less detective-y. Enter the Idol Head of Diabolu, a magical Pandora's box that spit out a different, crazy magical threat like clockwork once a month....

to be continued.

We all know that J'onn J'onzz's Justice League Detroit had repeated trouble with bears.

I think it was J'onn's fault;


Bears do not like J'onn, and vice versa.

Let's see.... at this point each of those thousand dollar bills is worth an equivalent $6500 current dollars, each of which will then feed a homeless person (or, as we called them then, a "bum") for at least-- well, let's just say J'onn's impromptu wealth distribution scheme here is going make for a lot of happy hoboes in Apex.

Ordinarily, I'd guess that this is just Mother Earth rejecting the presence of an extraterrestial alien like the Martian Manhunter, hoping to destroy him by spewing forth chthonic monstrous ursines to attack him (under the guise of a bank robbery). But, sadly, this is no uprising of Nature against the Unnatural; it's just another average bank robbery in Apex:
Wouldn't you like to have been at that gang meeting? "Well, yes... we could knock over that filling station while wearing stocking caps... or we could.. build a giant mechanical bear and use it to rob the bank while we're inside it wearing suits and ties! All in favor...?" I'll say this for the denizens of Apex's underworld; they've got a zest for fun and clearly think of crime as some sort of avant garde performance art.

Even JJ himself is overwhelmed by the Silver Age lunacy of it all...


The Apexians, being more used to stupidity than J'onn, observe it all with a placidity that still leaves them able to comment on it in haiku:

Why haiku can you compose to celebrate the madness of the giant mechanical bear?

Zook gets no love.

Krypto, the original dog with cape, gets boatloads of love. Ace the Bathound and Bat-Mite are still cult faves. Proty the Martyr and Proty II have legions of fans. Even Itty the Plasmid is thought of fondly.

But not Zook. Zook gets no love.

Really, it's not Zook's fault. As a character, Zook was never anything but helpful, respectful, thrifty, and clean. Except for the time he had amnesia and worked with crooks and almost killed J'onn. But that sort of thing happens to everyone in comics.

But then again, it's not our fault, either. Something there is that doesn't love a Zook. It could be the Space Monkey Perseverative Phenomenon. Human beings naturally hate space-monkeys, like Debbie or Gleek. It's not a frontal-lobe thing, it goes right to the basal ganglia, and you see one of these things and your body just autonomically reaches for the nearest club-like object and you start swinging your arm down again and again, like George Segal in Terminal Man. Only television producers are immune to the Space Monkey Perseverative Phenomenon, contributing to the theory that they are only partially human.

[The Space Monkey Perseverative Phenomenon, to be clear, does not apply to monkeys-in-space, like Blip. People like monkeys-in-space, but we hate space-monkeys.]

But Zook isn't even a real Space Monkey, because he's got no ears, has the wrong number of fingers, and has a cleft palate like a teddy bear. Zook is always addressed as a "he" but has no visible genitalia. Zook is some sort of hideous hybrid, the illegitimate offspring of a three-way between a teletubby, a Care Bear, and Bill Keane. Compared to Zook, Space Monkeys are beautiful butterflies and Zook is a monstrous hairy tarantula of "cuteness".

Yet, as if Zook's mere appearance weren't enough to make you doubt the existence of God, they saddle him with DC's characteristic baby-talk, all confused pronoun cases, omitted articles, conjugational oversimplification, and intermittent copulative verbs. It's maddening.

Zook wasn't drawn consistently (the palate, for example, comes and goes) and even his baby talk was inconsistent, too. Inconsistency? In a Martian Manhunter character? Unacceptable!

And his power set. Also maddening. Zook could radiate intense heat or cold. Radiating cold. Forget about perverting the minds our youngsters toward toward crime, drugs, and sex; comics should be sued for inculcating young minds with the idea that "cold" is some sort of indepedent energy that can be "radiated". And, of course, it was always described with terms like "10,000 degrees below zero". Yeah? On what scale is THAT?

Zook was also sort of ... elastic. He wasn't a shape-changer, but he could, er, change his shape. Mostly he used that power to squeeze through the mail-slot that was the only opening to J'onn's secret mountain hideout. And, no, I didn't make that up.

Oh, and his antennae allowed him to 'remember' and identify anyone who he'd been near, making him like a bloodhound when crooks fled or were in disguise. But this power was applied --you guessed it-- inconsistently, because sometimes Zook could recognize J'onn in disguise and many other times, J'onn would fool him, just as a joke. Wacky Martian sense of humor.

So, criminals, whose only chance against J'onn was fire or escape, now had to deal with a sidekick who could put out fires by 'radiating cold' and could track them down when they escaped. Sigh. Just what J'onn needed; more powers at his disposal.

His appearance, his speech, his powers; no wonder Zook got no love. But you know who would love Zook...?

The Japanese; he's got 'mangaverse' written all over him.

Well, Showcase Volumes do not let themselves readily to be scanned, but see if you can make out this haiku entitled, "At Time Like This!"

This one's got it all. Zook, the mysterious talking pet whom we'll discuss later; the Angry Freedom Rings of Doom (they are multicolored, by the way; it's a major plot point!); the people of Apex wasting a great deal of electricity; and Martian Manhunter sky-jogging. Or, apparently, sky-JIGging. Manhunter getting jiggy with angry freedon rings in the sky. Top that, Grant Morrison.

This is the "new Martian Manhunter" of House of Mystery. Zany, anthropomorphic objects/forces emanated by the Idol Head of Diabolu; Zook, the pidgin-spouting space-monkey; and zero dignity for the godlike Martian Manhunter.

What haiku dare you compose to comment on the situation or to praise or condemn the evolution of the mighty Martian Manhunter...?

So, after all the lunacy we went through in Volume 1 of the Martian Manhunter Showcase, what happens in the second Volume?


Everything gets stranger. Much stranger.

You think that's not possible?

How is it possible? In Volume 1, J'onn J'onnz had cars driving across his giant butt, used Martian finger snapping to cure cancer and square the circle, fought the Human Squirrel, and created ice cream cones out of thin air with his mind. Really, where can you go from there?

Well. I guess we'll see. One thing, I'll say; you do NOT go to "Middleton".

I reject the false doctrine of the Middletonites, and I hew to the Apex Creed:

I believe in one city, Apex City, home of the Martian Manhunter, and at all times, whether he's visible or invisible.

And in one J'onn J'onnz, the only-remaining son Mars, created in the Silver Age before all heroes; J'onn of J'onnz, lighted by firelight, very Silver of the Silver Age; written, not edited, being of one substance with the Schwartz, by whom all comics were made.

I've read both Volumes of Martian Manhunter Showcases, and there is only ONE mentioned of the putative "Middleton" as the home of the Martian Manhunter. And here it is:

Okay, in case you don't recognize my megalocranial friend there, that's Prof. Arnold Hugo, a one-off Batman foe (Detective Comics #306, August 1962, "The Wizard of a Thousand Menaces!"), whose biggest accomplishment was failing to create an artificial moon. Hugo's debut against Batman was in the same issue of Tec where Detective John Jones died (more on that later!). Arnold Hugo became the Martian Manhunter *snicker* arch-enemy. Sigh. I guess it was a step up from the Human Squirrel and the Human Flame.

Anyway, it's Arnold Hugo who identifies MM's town as "Middleton", and it's never mentioned again. A hapax legomenon uttered by a notorious lunatic, liar, and loser is nothing to base continuity on! I think Arnold's just raving. Or perhaps Middleton is a suburb or or neighborhood within Apex City.

Regardless... it's still clear we're in Apex City:

Oh, we all know what it's like. Your ex shows up, and he needs your help, and even though all the bitterness and pain is still there, so is the sense of obligation from shared experience, so you help him out.

Then you find yourself shot to death by Kyrgystani mobsters and lying face up in a ball bin at a children's restaurant play area.

Well, that's just what happened to poor Joey, the Human Flame's original, um, "partner in crime".

Still, the old magic was there between them! They composed as their final joint endeavor this delightful haiku of defiance entitled, "You think I'm scared of you?"

Of course, this is from the first issue of the already-legendary Human Flame miniseries "Run", so you've all probably seen it already.

What haiku can you compose to celebrate the return of the Human Flame, mourn the loss of Joey, or ponder the ignominy of finding yourself shot to death by Kyrgystani mobsters and lying face up in a ball bin at a children's restaurant play area?

Why?

Because you can't handle it.

Remember how at the end of Time Bandits, there's that chunk of Pure Evil that evaporates the parents when they touch it? Well, the Showcase Presents Martian Manhunter Vol. 2 is Pure Lunacy. If you buy a copy and drop it in your local reservoir, your city will look like a mass break-out at Arkham Asylum within 72 hours.

• Giant squirrels?
• Flying meter maids?
• Holes in the sky?
• Snakes fighting ferris wheels?
• Bank-robbing genies?
• A tank disguised as a fruit salad?
• Dinosaur gargoyles?
• Mechanical bear weapons?
• The freedom rings of doom?
• The evil, sentient orchestra instruments?

You are not ready for the Showcase Presents Martian Manhunter Vol. 2.

But you may need to get ready...