Still sporting a 1960's "big boots and cape" look, he's been a supporting cast member in the JLA titles for decades. Basically his "powers" mimic those of Superman: he can fly, he's got "Martian vision" (heat vision), he's super-strong, super-fast, has super-hearing and is virtually indestructible. Like "The Big Blue Boyscout", he's the last son of a dead race, come to Earth to seek shelter and Uphold the Right, etc.

Unlike Superman, his powers abandon him when he'd confronted by fire (or terribly intense heat), and his people died out 10, 000 years ago in a planet-wide plague. His mental telepathy allows him to manipulate the thoughts of others, but also to empathize with both victim and perpetrator alike. Unlike Supes, he has scores of "secret identities", traveling unseen amongst humanity all over the world.

Even his JLA "business suit" isn't his real "self". In Martian Manhunter form, he's quiet, unemotional, logical to a fault, and dangerous in combat. It's all part of the act. In his natural form, his personality changes: he's highly empathic, gentle and good natured, with a weird sense of humour (he likes to collect cheap B-grade science fiction movies, has a vast library of pulp sci-fi books about "Mars") and favors boat-sized gas-guzzling cars. He was fairly upset when his last car was "killed" in the line of duty - an ill-tempered, battered and virtually muffler-less Chevy Impala. It looks like his favorite colour is red (but that's just my personal observation). But when he's on duty, he's all business. Sometimes the "Green" part of him peeks out through the Manhunter mask, but not too often.

Personally, I'd rather see him more often in his natural state. Then again, I like Greens.

And I'm a goon. There you are.

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We know that he was born over 10,000 (terrestrial) years ago (5,000 years as the Martians count them). His Father was a "Singer" by trade, gathering with other Greens in the desert to lead them in communal songs and group-thought. His mother, I believe, was a Priestess (although I could be wrong on this last point).

He grew up during a particularly peaceful age. Pale Martians were almost mythical animals, and violence was virtually unknown amongst the Greens. Most were content to live lives of deep contemplation and philosophical debate. Feelings, rather than facts, were the stock in trade. J'onn was considered a bit "odd" by his peers, as he preferred to spend his time dabbling in "scientific" investigations and the exploration of fact over legend.

What his parents thought of all this I don't know.

In time he fell in love and married a Green female that apparently tolerated his behavior, or loved him in spite of it (or perhaps for it). We do know that she was the one true love of his life, and that they had a child together: a daughter.

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The Greens were abstract thinkers, not biologists, and the Plague caught them without the means to fight it. The Plague spread unchecked. A painful and always terminal illness, it left the bodies of its victims horribly distorted. The Greens cremated their dead, first respectfully, then hurriedly, until the dead outnumbered the living and bodies were left rotting in the streets.

J'onn's father died first. Then his wife.

By the time J'onn's daughter began to show signs that she too had contracted the disease, there were virtually no Greens left alive.

J'onn himself was beginning to feel the first signs of fever and delirium, and the next sequence of events are naturally unclear. One version says that he refused to hand over his daughter's body to the priests, unable to bear the thought of burning her. Another says that there was no one left to stop him, as funeral pyres spilled over into the streets.

Either way, he stumbled into the desert, cradling the body of his daughter in his arms.

THAT was when Dr. Erdel's beam struck him.

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Erdel was in his self-proclaimed "secret lab" one day, and after much fiddling he decided to test out his latest sci-fi creation and see what happened.

In theory, it was supposed to reach out into empty space, snag some tiny particle, and teleport it back.

In practice, it somehow launched itself over 10,000 years of time and space and snatched J'onn away to Earth.

You couldn't knocked Erdel over with a feather when J'onn stepped blindly off the platform and fainted at his feet.

Erdel discovered that the girl was long-dead, but the adult was still (barely) alive. He buried the girl in a wooded area near his house and set about nursing the remaining alien back to health.

Either J'onn was particularly strong, or Erdel was just lucky (again). The Martian lived, but the shock of his last days on Mars had left him too emotionally scarred to carry on. Being a telepath, J'onn latched on to Erdel's (slightly more stable) mind.

Erdel did what he thought was best: gave J'onn a new set of memories - images from pulp magazines about "Martian Warriors" and helped him create a beetle-browed green-skinned form that Erdel felt humans would more easily identify with. Even the name "J'onn J'onzz" isn't real (his true name is impossible for humans to pronounce, just like Mr. Spock's last name) and "John Jones" sounds familiar and "safe" to human ears. He also convinced J'onn that the "scientist who saved him" was killed in an explosion that destroyed the teleportation machine which brought the alien to Earth (in fact J'onn himself tore the machine apart in a fever-induced rage when Erdel suggested that he could beam the Martian back home). For decades J'onn lived amongst humans with these false memories in place.

He assumed the identity of a dead police officer by the name of "John Jones", who came back to arrest his own "killers". Years later, J'onn went on to join forces with the JLA, and has worked with the organization in all of it's various incarnations.

After one unusual mission, J'onn became infected with an alien spore-virus. In his fever-riddled state he re-gained his lost memories and finally was able to come to terms with his loss.

Today he spends much of his working hours with the JLA, and divides his "down time" between his adoptive home in Denver, and the recently unearthed Pale Martian city of Z'onn Z'orr, located near the South Pole.

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In the new series, the plague that killed the Martians is said to be a "telepathic plague" - spreading through mental contact, causing Martians to spontaneously combust. Here J'onn's daughter succumbs first, and when J'onn tries to prevent his wife from touching the child she lashes out at him violently. Both mother and child burst into flames together, while J'onzz watches helplessly.

He then staggers out into the desert, literally the last man standing. He makes puppets out of his arms, mimicking his family's faces (which I think is pretty weird, even if he is a Martian), until Erdel's beam catches him.

Erdel dies seconds after J'onn is "beamed" in - killed when the machine suddenly explodes. J'onn drags him out of the burning house, but fails to save the "scientist".

John Jones, a police detective, arrives to investigate the fire. J'onn follows him home, invisibly, and studies him. When Jones' is murdered, J'onn steps in to solve the case posing AS the dead detective, and the rest is history.

Personally, I like the original version better. But I also think that "Manhunterophiles" should be able to choose for themselves which version they like best.

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