Martian Manhunter is one of the most underrated DC heroes, despite being one of the most powerful and interesting characters in DC. And to be honest, it really annoys me of how little attention J'onn gets these days. J'onn is the only JL member that DC has not made an animated solo movie or a movie that is centralized around him, and it really bums me.
As some of you know, DC have published a crossover comic between Justice League and RWBY. The JL members that appear in the story are Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Cyborg — and all of them are natives of Remnant in this story (at least, as far as we know). Again, I'm disappointed that Martian Manhunter isn't in it, especially since in the New 52/Rebirth continuity, J'onn isn't a founding member of the Justice League like in the original continuity, but I digress.
Mars/Ma'aleca'andra - 500 Years Ago
"Ma'alefa'ak J'onnz. The jury of this court finds you guilty of the crime you stand accused of. You have been sentenced to excommunication. You will never again communicate or share your mind with the people. Do you have any closing statements to make?" The elderly Martian asked.
The accused party lifted his head, and sneered hatefully at all the individuals around him. But he focused his anger and hatred on only one individual in the witness stand. The one who had apprehended him. The one who (in his eyes) had betrayed him: His own brother, J'onn J'onnz.
"This is all your fault, J'onn!" Ma'alefa'ak yelled as he moved closer to the stand, forcing the guards to restrain him. "Do you think robbing me of my powers and memories has made you safe?" He asked threateningly, to which J'onn remained stoic and calm. "I will have my revenge. I'll make sure you'll pay for crossing me. You'll pay, J'onn! Do you hear me?!"
As he guards moved Ma'alefa'ak to the canter of the room, five Martian priests present there prepared to preform the ceremony that would rid him of his telepathy. That would remove him forever from the rest of the Martina people. Ma'alefa'ak did not care for them or the ceremony, his hatred existed for only one person.
"You will pay, J'onn! This I swear!" Ma'alefa'ak yelled at the top of his lungs, and with that, the five priests attacked his mind, locking away his telepathy. As this happened, J'onn somberly looked away, unwilling to watch this, despite knowing well that his brother deserved it for his crimes.
Centuries Later - Remnant
"Atlas really needs to change their game..."
"The Schnee Dust Company should be take down..."
"I know it's hard being a Faunus..."
"I wonder if there's a new type of Grimm..."
"My sister just unlocked her Semblance..."
"I don't care what they say. Faunus are people, too..."
"I'm considering on becoming a Huntsman..."
Thoughts of countless people, both humans and Faunus, flowed through J'onn's mind as he silently flew through the city of Argus. One might think that the presence of a flying, humanoid alien would cause quite the commotion and panic in the city — but it didn't. In fact, truth be told, the citizens couldn't even see him. By bending the light-waves around himself, J'onn was invisible, and by lowering the density of his body, he was also intangible.
It has been over five months since J'onn J'onnz arrived on this planet, called Remnant. But he still remembered the pain of how he got here:
Despite his memories still being sealed, Ma'alefa'ak, having faced discrimination from the other Martians for not having telepathy, had engineered a contagious virus. This virus reacted to telepathic energy and carried from one Martian to the next whenever they elected to use their psionic powers. The plague responded to a Martian's innate fear of fire, causing them psychosomatic stress so intense, that their bodies and minds literally bursted into flames.
J'onn, who was somehow immune to this plague, desperately tried to keep his wife and daughter from using their mental gifts, but they were unable to do so, and thus ultimately contracted the virus. His daughter was the first to experience the symptoms, and his wife followed soon after. J'onn could do nothing but watch as his family burned to death before his very eyes. The trauma of the event nearly shattered his psyche.
Fueled by rage, J'onn immediately tracked down his murderous brother, and engaged him in a short fight that ended with Ma'alefa'ak transporting J'onn to Remnant using a Mother Box that he had been keeping for a unknown period of time.
Stranded on this alien planet, the grief-stricken J'onn hid himself from the inhabitants of Remnant for over four weeks. After calming down, clearing his mind and putting his past behind, J'onn decided to explore this strange world. Remnant initially appeared alien, and yet, every so often, J'onn was reminded of home. By scanning as many minds as possible, from both humans and Faunus alike, and seeing their personal lives for himself, he learned almost everything there was to know about Remnant.
The Kingdoms, the Dust, the Faunus, the Creatures of Grimm, Aura and Semblances, the Huntsmen and Huntresses, he learned practically everything. It took J'onn about two days to learn all of this, which was mainly thanks to his telepathy. Despite their surprisingly advanced technology, Remnant has yet to develop space travel, which he learned was due to Dust, their main resource and fuel, becoming ineffective once leaving the planet's atmosphere.
The Creatures of Grimm were another thing that surprised the Martian. Despite their resemblance to animals, these strange creatures - if he could even consider them that - did not possess minds, as any telepathic probing he attempted was met with nothingness. It wasn't just the lack of minds, the Grimm didn't seem to be alive whatsoever, as every time they 'died', their bodies dissipated into nothing — and the fact that they primarily targeted humans and Faunus, while mostly ignoring normal animals and plants, lead J'onn to surmise that these souless things were similar to drones, obeying and reacting to a unknown source.
Throughout his time on Remnant, J'onn hid in the shadows and kept a low profile, either by staying invisible or shape-shifting to blend into their society. While he did wish to help the people in their fight against the Grimm, knowing the discrimination and prejudice that many Faunus often faced, it wasn't hard to imagine what both humans and Faunus would think if they saw him in his natural form.
But due to his previous life as a Manhunter (the equivalent of a Huntsman in his world), J'onn could not bear the idea of innocents needlessly dying, even if they were not his people. These people... they were flawed, but were Martians any better? J'onn remembered how the Green Martians warred against the White Martians for countless eons. How the White Martian oppressed and discriminated them. Every day that passed, Remnant and Ma'aleca'andra seemed more and more alike.
Sighing to himself, J'onn turned and began flying to the northern coastline of Anima, in the high mountains to be by himself for a little while.
Mistral forest
After discovering all the secrets that Ozpin had been keeping from them via summoning Jinn from the Relic of Knowledge, team RWBY and Qrow were understandably angry at their former teacher for his deception, who now inhabited the body of a 14 year old boy named Oscar. They learned that Remnant was created by two deities, known as the God of Light and God of Darkness, and also learned how the selfishness of a woman named Salem lead to the destruction of the first generation of humanity at the hands of the God of Darkness, and how Salem herself was cursed with the inability to die for her treason against the Gods.
Ozpin was originally known as Ozma, a noble and brave warrior who rescued Salem from her imprisonment in a tower, and both eventually fell in love with each other. However, when Ozma fell ill and died, Salem set out to convince the Gods to resurrect her lover. Ozma was revived by the God of Darkness, but killed again by the God of Light soon after for disrupting the delicate balance of Remnant. Ozma was then given a choice by the God of Light before he and his brother abandoned Remnant; he would be able to return to the land of the living to act as a guide for Humanity and protect four magical Relics; Creation, Destruction, Choice, and Knowledge.
The God of Light gave him the ability to reincarnate after death, joining souls with another like-minded individual so that he would never be alone. After returning to the world, the next generation of humanity (along with the Faunus) appeared, and Ozma reunited with Salem. The two acted as Gods and created a prosperous Kingdom while also starting a family. Unfortunately, they eventually turned on each other after Ozma displayed his disagreement with Salem's plans for the new Humanity. Their four daughters were killed in the ensuing battle and Salem murdered Ozma, who reincarnated again. Thus began the millennia-long feud between the two, with Ozma making it his mission to protect the world from her evil.
As much as they wanted to, the heroes had no time to argue over this as the snowstorm started getting worse, forcing Team RWBY, Qrow, Maria, and Oscar to move on. After walking for two hours through the snow-covered forest, the heroes found a seemingly abandoned farm. Having no other choice at the moment, they headed inside to take shelter from the raging storm.
Team RWBY, Qrow, Oscar, and Maria arrived at the porch of a residence. Weiss wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm while Ruby carefully looked around the abandoned village, and couldn't shake off this feeling of uneasiness. "I don't get it. The empty towns I've passed through were all damaged or unfinished. But this place looks... fine." Her voice was filled with concern.
"Maybe everyone left in a hurry. Before things took a turn?" Weiss suggested, still shivering.
Cautiously, Qrow tried to open the door, only to notice it was locked. "Stay on guard." He warned. With some hesitation, Qrow kicked the door open, and everyone proceeded forward with their weapons drawn. They cautiously looked around the place, but found nothing that would be considered a threat in this seemingly deserted home.
"Close the door already! It's cold enough in here as it is." Maria complained as she walked into the house. After everyone got inside, Blake and Oscar pushed a nearby drawer to block the door.
"I saw a chimney from the outside. Maybe we could get a fire going?" Blake suggested.
"Please. I'll look for some blankets." Weiss said.
"Yang, go with her." Qrow ordered, prompting Yang to go with Weiss upstairs.
Ruby looked around the room and noticed a group of pictures on the wall of the family that presumably owned this farm. Blake walked up next to her, looking concerned.
"What do you think?" She asked, looking at the picture and then at Ruby.
"Something doesn't feel right." Ruby said, narrowing her eyes.
"Let's look for some-" Whatever Blake was about to say was cut off by a sudden, high-pitched scream from above.
"Weiss!" Ruby yelled in concern before she and Blake immediately raced upstairs and ran into the room where Yang and Weiss were in, followed by Qrow. Much to their horror and disgust, they saw a pair of decomposing corpses laying on the bed like a scene straight out of a horror movie.
...
Sometime later, the heroes lighted a fire in the fireplace to keep themselves warm. As Weiss quietly watched the fire burn, still shaken from what she saw earlier, Blake gently wrapped a blanket around her before sitting on the couch, next to Yang. The group then heard the door open and close, and Qrow walked in, brushing snow off himself.
"It's the same in every house." He grimly said.
"What?" Yang asked.
"Bodies. Every bed in every home. It's like the whole estate just went to sleep and never woke up." Qrow said, feeling just as disturbed and unnerved as the rest of them.
"Then we're not staying here, right?" Weiss asked hopefully.
"We don't have a choice. Storm outside's only getting worse. We'd freeze to death before we made it anywhere." Qrow said as he walked over to the fireplace to warm up.
"Well, might as well get comfortable." Maria got up and walked over to a nearby bookshelf.
"Yeah, fat chance." Yang scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Okay, then, let's do something. If this place wasn't abandoned it might still have supplies we could use." Ruby said with hope in her voice.
"Hey, yeah. Maybe even a car." Oscar said optimistically.
Qrow sighed. "I'll do another sweep of the grounds. No one else goes anywhere alone."
"Yang and I can search the other buildings for vehicles." Blake said as she got up.
Yang looked annoyed and sighed. "Fine, whatever gets me out of this house."
As Yang and Blake left, Ruby moved the drawer to let them exit. Afterwards, the young Huntress looked over to see Weiss standing at the doorway to the living room with a melancholic look on her face.
"Food always makes me feel better." Ruby said, attempting to lighten the mood. "Just saying."
"Right..." Weiss, still disturbed about all this, simply said. With that, Ruby and Weiss left the room, leaving Oscar and Maria alone together.
"I'll tell you what; You keep that fire fed..." Maria said before showing Oscar a book with an 'I' on the cover. "... And I'll find us a story to read before bed."
With that, Maria sat back down on the couch and began reading the book, making Oscar sigh.
...
Outside, Blake and Yang were slowly and steadily walking through the raging snowstorm, towards a nearby shed. They entered it and found rows of shelves full of supplies on it, as well as a tractor.
"Something tells me that's not street legal." Blake commented, looking at the tractor.
"What do you think happened here?" Yang asked as the two of them continued walking through the shed.
"There's that well in the square. Maybe water contamination?" Blake suggested.
"Yeah, maybe." Yang sighed and placed a hand on her forehead.
"Hey, are you okay?" Blake asked, looking concerned at her partner.
"Yeah... I mean, no. But, I don't know. I'm just tired." She said.
"Yeah..." Blake dropped her cat ears, feeling uneasy as well.
Yang continued walking forward until she spotted something. "Hey, I found something." She called out as she saw a flatbed trailer next to a window. Through the window, the blonde brawler looked outside at the raging storm... before noticing a lone figure walking through the snowstorm. "There's someone outside!" She gasps.
Hearing this, Blake quickly raced to her friend's side, and she also saw the figure wandering outside. It was difficult to tell if this person was human or Faunus, or male or female, due to the snowstorm. Nevertheless, without a second to lose, the two quickly raced outside the shed, and almost immediately exiting it, saw the figure moving not too far from the shed. Despite the raging snowstorm, Yang and Blake couldn't help but notice that this person didn't seem to be having any trouble navigating through the storm, unlike them, who were forced to cover their faces with their hands.
"Hey! You!" Yang shouted as loudly as she could, trying to get the person's attention.
The person in question appeared to immediately notice them, and started walking in their direction. Yang and Blake were glad that the unknown stranger took notice so quickly. As the figure came closer to them, they realized that it was a human male who appeared to be 29 years in age, with long, brown hair, and blue eyes. He was also wearing heavy clothing, particularly a thick jacket, black pants & leather boots.
"Hello?" He asked, getting a better look at Yang and Blake. "Who are you?"
"I'm Yang, and this is Blake." The blonde introduced herself and her partner. "What are you doing here?"
"I was on my way to Argus, but then I got lost in this snowstorm... and now, I'm here." The man explained, his look was a mixture of confusion and concern.
"We were planning on going to Argus, too." Blake said. "Come on. Let's go inside."
..
Afterwards, Yang, Blake, and the stranger returned inside the house, where they introduce him to Oscar and Maria. Not long after, Ruby and Weiss also returned from the house's bar, and Qrow returned after making another investigation throughout the farm.
"My name is Mike. Mike Benson." The man, now named Mike Benson, introduced himself to everyone in the room. He sat on the couch, beside Yang, Maria and Blake, as everyone listened closely to his story. "I was living in a village in Anima, but my family was running low on food, so I decided to go to Argus and find myself a job to support my family in some way. But as I was making my way to Argus, this snowstorm suddenly hit me. I got lost. I didn't know where I was going... and I eventually found myself here."
"I'm so sorry." Ruby said sympathetically after hearing his story.
"It's alright." Mike smiled at her before tuning to the others. "So, what's your story?"
"We're on our way to Atlas for some business to take care of." Qrow said, being careful not to tell him anything about what they learned from the Relic of Knowledge.
"I see." Mike sighed. "Well, it's going to be a long night, so I guess we should make ourselves comfortable."
"That's gonna be a little difficult." Yang muttered, crossing her arms.
"And why's that?" Mike asked, rising an eyebrow.
Blake sighed and decided to explain. "There are bodies upstairs. Somehow, everyone in this entire farm died in their sleep."
"What?!" Mike exclaimed, shocked and horrified at what he heard.
"We don't know why or how this happened, but it's a good reason why we shouldn't stay here for too long." Qrow explained, quietly looking at the fire. "We should get some sleep. We're gonna head out early tomorrow."
"And here I thought my situation couldn't get any worse." Mike folded his arms and sighed to himself.
After a couple of more minutes, everyone began to get ready to sleep. Maria, being too stubborn, hopped off the couch and went to sit on an nearby armchair, where she turned on the lamp to continue reading the book. Ruby shrugged and smiled before going to sleep herself. Mike got off the couch and went to the sleep in the kitchen as there was no room for him in the main room.
"You can have my spot if you want." Ruby suddenly called out, offering Mike to sleep in her place.
"Nah, I'm good. Besides, I sleep in much more uncomfortable places where I live." Mike said, giving her a bright smile, to which Ruby smiled back.
As you may have noticed, the story takes place during Volume 6, shortly after RWBY learned about Salem, The Two Brothers, and the Relics.