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The Silver Age of comics is said to have begun with
the introduction of the second Flash, Barry Allen, in
October, 1956. But, one of the mainstays of Silver Age
DC comics actually appeared almost a year earlier, in
the pages of Detective Comics. The only reason J'onn
J'onzz-The Manhunter from Mars, doesn't get the glory
of being the first Silver Age super-hero is because he
did most of his "super" stuff behind the scenes, in
the early stories.
There are several versions of the origin for the
Martian Manhunter, usually involving a Professor
Erdel, whose malfunctioning computer, or experimental
teleporter (depending on the version) brought J'onn
across the interplanetary void by accident.
Originally, Mars was a populated world in our era, but
later versions had J'onn being transported across
time, as well as space.
In his earliest form, J'onn was nearly human-looking,
apart from his green skin and overhanging brow. Later
versions gave Martians a less human-looking, though
still humanoid, look. J'onn took the name John Jones
when he used his shape-shifting abilities to disguise
himself as human and became a police officer, secretly
using his alien abilities to solve crimes.
One of my favorite origins for the Martian Manhunter
comes from the Justice League animated series. By
combining elements of H. G. Welles's "The War of the
Worlds" with elements from a 1970s Justice League of
America story involving a thwarted invasion by the
white Martians, prior to the official formation of the
Justice League during the Appelax invasion.
In this story, Mars was invaded millenia ago by a
highly adaptive parasitic race which fills the role of
the white Martians from the comics. During their long
war with J'onn's people, the invaders were able to
adapt the Martians' shape-shifting abilities to their
own use. This allowed them to impersonate returning
astronauts when earth men accidentally unlocked the
prison holding the invaders. J'onn stowed away on
board the returning ship to help fight the invaders,
whose intentions were now set on turning Earth into an
ideal habitat for their kind. J'onn was captured by
the military and held captive for some time, while the
white "martians" wormed their way into sensitive
positions, allowing them to sabotage Earth's deep
space monitoring system. When meteor-like space
vessels begin crashing to earth, releasing walking
tripod machines, complete with laser-like death rays,
the superheroes get involved.
Captive, J'onn can only reach out telepathically for
help. He finds earth's most famous illegal alien to
help him, Superman.
This is the origin I'd like to see adapted for a
Manhunter from Mars movie or TV series. I think it
would be ideal for series television, if we took J'onn
back to his sci-fi noir roots. I always liked the idea
that J'onn was a "manhunter" before he ever left Mars.
This is my idea for the "uniform" of Mars's
manhunters.
For the villains of the series, we'd have your every
day criminals who have somehow managed to skirt the
law, whose crimes can only be revealed by the ultimate
undercover cop and, of course, the pigment-challenged
martians, who use their shape-shifting powers to
conceal their true origins while they infiltrate the
underworld and spread their corrupting influence
across the Earth.
I borrowed from John Dell's version of the white
Martians from the JLA "Hyperclan" story. I like the
sinister look and I think it would translate to latex
and silicone very well while still allowing you to use
actors for the roles.
For J'onn, himself, I borrowed from the most recent
costume, a departure from J'onn's usual look, which is
heavily influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs ideas of
Martian sensibilities, I think.
Of course, you need an actor to play the character
and I think there's a perfect guy already familiar
with the character and the role. And, he's played a
super-hero on TV, before. Carl Lumbly, a regular on
"Alias" and star of the Fox super-hero series
M.A.N.T.I.S., was the voice of J'onn J'onzz for the
entire run of the Justice League and Justice League
Unlimited animated series. He's 6'1" and got that
great, commanding voice, and I think he'd make an
excellent detective and with a little makeup and some
reasonably inexpensive CGI, he could make a fantastic
Manhunter from Mars.
Carl Lumbly's IMDb page.
Detective stories work very well for episodic
television and with the added Martian twist, it could
make for an excellent series. Consider this my pitch!
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