Chapter Nineteen: Alien Atlases
Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City
Year: 1986
Some ideas in this chapter such as Zook and New York City are courtesy of Lord Ultimas. Thank you!
"The seeds of the League were thus planted," said Ostrander, "and when Earth was invaded by Appellaxian warriors, J'onn made his first public appearance alongside the other heroes. The Appelaxians thought to fight it out amongst themselves and that the winner be declared king of their home world. If Earth got destroyed in the process, then too bad. J'onzz defeated one of the aliens, a rock giant, and then he and the others caught up with Superman and Batman. Thus, the world was saved and came to know the Martian Manhunter as a founding member of the JLA.
"The people of Earth were understandably leery of him after having just suffered two alien invasions—maybe three with how Maggin said that Braniac's arrival and initial city shrinking was so early in the new age of heroes. Still, with all the good Superman and the others had done by that time, their word counted for something. If Superman himself was an alien, why not give Manhunter a chance?
"Now," paused Ostrander, "I won't say too much about the League itself that'll be… some guy's job. Ms Kahn, who is doing JLA?
She smiled. "That's a secret. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."
He shrugged. "Yeah, okay. As for my part, I won't be saying too much about the League aside from how it became a family to J'onn. Remember, he came from a civilization where everyone had superpowers and used his own to make his world a better place. It was his life's purpose. Now, the Justice League gives him the chance to be a Manhunter again. There were times when he could even pretend that he was still on Mars before the days of Blanx.
"J'onzz' classic Silver Age role is thus secured and reaffirmed. The old Detective Comics issues where he was back up and his House of Mystery stories, where he headlined, are still on the books. He was still Middleton's top detective, John Jones. He still served under Captain Harding. He still had his Lois Lane, Lieutenant Diane Mead. He still had his sidekick/pet a happy go-lucky orange dwarf named Zook. He still had to face a poor-man's Luthor, Professor Hugo. He still had to face all sorts of alien threats that for some reason only ever went to Middleton, Colorado, and, after faking his death like he did the first time, he still had to destroy the Idol Head of Diabolu.
"As House of Mystery showed, the U.S. government ultimately contacted J'onn and said they needed his help to investigate and combat the 'super-secret international criminal empire called V.U.L.T.U.R.E.' During his initial work with several F.B.I. agents, J'onn accidentally killed Marco Xavier, one of the mob's lieutenants. He saw an opportunity to infiltrate the gang from the inside so he then took Marco Xavier's idnetity. The writer, I forget his name exactly, but whoever he was, wrote good stories. He was eventually called out though on how he quickly took J'onn from being a laid back character to such a bleak, gallows humor guy.
"Now comes the big one by Denny O'Neil." Ostrander stopped and smirked. "How is it Denny that your stories keep cropping up in this?"
The Batman editor passed the buck. "Don't look at me, I got these assignments from Schwartz there!" The old man shrugged. "He wanted me to shake up old characters so I did."
Ostrander nodded. "Then folks Denny did his job because he shook up the Manhunter very well. He had Commander Blanx destroy the Tree of Blue Flame—the source of heat and energy on Mars—thereby killing all life on the Red Planet! Nobody knew why but all of a sudden he just decided to destroy the world and soon enough the blue flame began to inexorably cover Mars scouring the planet of life down to the bacterial level. By the time it was done Mars was just a barren rock floating through space.
"As soon as J'onzz learned of this he raced back to his home planet in a desperate attempt to save what was left of his world. The remaining Greens and even many Whites begged for his help; the Whites especially said that they were wrong to have ever listened to Blanx, that they'd do anything Manhunter asked just as long as he saved them. With help from the League J'onzz did; he evacuated his people on huge starships to a distant world they renamed Mars II.
"And of course there was one last battle with Blanx wherein the murderer said he had committed the act of genocide against his own people for no other reason than money. He had wanted to sell Mars to an alien mining company but could only legally do so if he were the last living Martian. Why not? After all, even the White Martians had grown soft and desirous of peace so why not kill them all?
"Blanx you see is the ultimate narcissist. He cares about himself and nobody else. He's not unnecessarily cruel in obtaining his goals but if the pursuit of his goals means he has to kill every man, woman, and child on the planet, then so be it. In fact, from the Commander's point of view, the Martian people deserved to die because they had proven unworthy of him; they would not listen to his calls for conquest and endless war. War was not a means to an end for Blanx but the end in and of itself." Ostrander laughed. "Perez, maybe Blanx has a touch of Ares in him after all!
"J'onzz won their single combat but for what? He fell to his knees and began sobbing." Ostrander pulled out Justice League of America # 71 from his binder. "I think we can let J'onn speak for himself here. 'We were so close! After untold hundreds of centuries, we were about to find maturity… outgrow senseless strife… become all we might have been! And one individual, sick with the need for violence, deprived us of our destiny! And so my world ends.'
"J'onn bid his Justice League friends goodbye and left Earth; his place was with his people now. Years ago he abandoned Mars saying that it was dead to him with Blanx's victory and maybe that had been his mistake. No longer. Now he would stay by his people and aide them now in their time of greatest need. As before the Crisis, he goes with them to Mars II to oversee terraforming and colonization though now in our revised timeline the space ark's first stop was Saturn. The Martians had been in on-and-off contact with their siblings the Saturnians for centuries and some had even participated in their creator's civil war, though as a whole they had remained neutral.
"J'onn knew that the artificial continents built inside Saturn's atmosphere during the Martian Golden Age contained more than enough land and life to support both Saturnians and Martians." Ostrander sighed. "Or it would have if not for the fact that the Red and White Saturnians had also destroyed their world by means of civil war and they themselves were looking for a new home. The Reds were in the process of reestablishing an old Martian colony on one of Jupiter's moons; they could give their Green friends nothing with how they were barely surviving as it was. And Saturnians of both colors wanted nothing to do with the White Martians. All J'onn could get from them was the coordinates to an uninhabited world hospitable to Martian life.
"That's where we at DC left J'onn, rebuilding Mars II and working with his people." Ostrander snorted. "Of course that doesn't last since we keep bringing J'onn to Earth on various Justice League adventures and that has a side effect of having the Martians trust him less and less. Does he care more about Earth than Mars II? As we all remember from the last big pre-Crisis Justice League story, yes.
"He returned again to warn them that a faction of Green Martians had fallen under the sway of a military dictator named the Marshal who saw Earth as their rightful home. Why should they go all the way across the galaxy trying to build up their new world when a fully habitable one rich with food and water was right next to their old one? 'Blanx was right.' That's what the Marshal said. Ironically, it was the Whites who wanted the least to do with him.
"It was really the biggest alien invasion we've seen yet," though it would be dwarfed by 1988/1989's Invasion, "and it had the UN Secretary General playing Eisenhower with Reagan and Gorbechov with their fingers on the button. The League just barely won and their satellite was destroyed. After it was all over, J'onn telepathically knew that he couldn't go home with his fellow Martians. With how he had warned them over and over, with how he had saved them from themselves, he was a living reminder to his fellow Greens that they had sold themselves to the devil.
"With no other home to go to, he has since stayed with the League and stayed in the roster when Aquaman reformed the team and based their new HQ in Detroit. When Aquaman left soon after that, J'onn was appointed team leader. That's where we stand now.
"I plan on using this and doing something with J'onn now that he's back on Earth, this time for good. When the obligatory miniseries retelling Manhunter's origin is done, I'll be using the Manhunter ongoing series Ms. Kahn promised me to bring J'onn up to speed." He turned to his boss and nodded. "Thank you Ms. Kahn."
She waved it aside. "Don't mention it."
"Right," said the writer. "So now J'onn is shunted aside by his people and is exiled once again. Now knowing what else to do, he reaffirms his ties to the Justice League, the only family he has left. What'll happen with the Justice League I'll leave for… whoever it is that's going to write it but I can write about J'onn's personal feelings towards it. I can't stress this enough so again, J'onn grew up in a society of superpowered beings and so sees metahumanity as normal. Also, unlike his teammates, his life's work as a Manhunter was effectively identical to his role as a superhero; part policeman, part firefighter, part soldier. Fighting alongside a team of fellow superbeings to make the world a better place is the thing he knows best.
"J'onn moves into JLA headquarters—wherever the team's writer says it will be—and stays there full time. He's on every mission and with so much time on his hand volunteers for all the monitor duty. Unlike other heroes who go back to their civilian identities and relax after they've saved the day, J'onn just sits down and waits. His teammates start getting worried that he's turning into a workaholic; only Aquaman doesn't call him out of that.
"Soon enough the other Leaguers tell J'onn that he needs to take a break. They tell him that he maybe he should retake a secret identity and get some fresh air, talk to people who don't wear their underwear on the outside to keep from losing perspective. At that J'onn remembers how his walking among humans in disguise is what led him to love his adopted world. For a while he thinks of creating a new identity but he rejects in favor of going back to the beginning.
"John Jones was Manhunter's first human identity and, again, he's rather attached to it. He retakes it and makes his way his back to Middleton and reconnects with his old friends, Captain Harding and Diane Mead and the rest. The Middleton police department is glad to see him again after so many years… even if they are shocked since he was supposed to be dead. He said that he'd been cursed by the Idol Head of Diabolu—no lie. He then said that he had had to do some undercover work for the FBI—no lie. He continued saying that he had had to go out of the country because his family and most of his hometown had died in a terrible accident—again, no lie. He had helped the survivors rebuild but his old neighbors have since disowned him for X reason." Ostrander stopped and said, "I imagine that someone from a civilization of telepaths would find it difficult to lie outright.
"In any case, J'onzz is back and his old friends are glad to have him. A more quiet reception comes when Jones meets up with Zook. Yes I'm bringing back Zook. When writers had Manhunter start chasing after the Idol head of Diabolu, J'onn's sidekick just vanished and was never mentioned again." The man smiled. "A perfectly good character just waiting to be dusted off and revitalized. Isn't that what this meeting is all about?
"We learn that ever since his Officer John Jones' 'death' in the line of duty and the Manhunter's sudden disappearance, Zook has been keeping watch over Middleton and doing a good job of it too. He's stayed on out of a sense of duty and, to be honest, because he's still stuck in the Silver Age. Part of him still expects J'onn to come back any minute and bring him along to solve the next case or throw Diana Mead off the track. Can't let the girl know your secret identity, right?
"You can thus imagine what it's like when J'onn tracks Zook down and tries to say hi. Manhunter expected the lovable old sidekick, happy to see the old boss. What he got was a foul mouthed midget who was blood spitting mad.
"He screams, 'Where were you! I went through hell for you over and over and you just up and ditched me! What, I'm not good enough for you Mr. High and Mighty Martian Manunter? And now you have the gall to return and expect me to come crawling back and give you a hug… Aw gee Mr. J'onzz, Zook sure am happy to see you!'
"Manhunter is stunned by this and thoroughly embarrassed but does admit that he did something terrible to Zook. His sidekick had looked up to him and then one day he just disappeared without so much as a note to the 'man' who had served him so faithfully. For a few tense panels, they stand in silence before Zook finally asks his old friend if he has a place to stay. When J'onn says no, Zook offers to take him to his house for the night.
"Yes, he lives by himself and protects the city in secret, thus letting people think that Manhunter never left. Somebody has to be catching all those crooks and rescuing all those people, right? J'onn is rather touched by all this. He's also touched by Zook's relative poverty. He lives ninja turtle style in the sewers and survives on society's castoffs. Manhunter knows he did wrong and here sees a chance to do right.
"He leases some office space in downtown Middleton, goes into business as a private detective… and asks Zook to be his partner. After some initial doubts, Zook decides to give J'onn the chance to make amends. The short red alien thus becomes the tall green one's wisecracking partner and serves admirably in the field. He's nowhere near strong enough to fight the usual monster they might encounter or go against an armed and ready gang of thugs but he doesn't have to be. Zook is smart enough to use his powers of temperature control and telepathy as Manhunter's backup—the very definition of a sidekick. More than once will Zook save Manhunter's life. The dwarf will also develop some shape changing skills to pass for human when he has to come into the office.
"He's not the only one as John Jones also hires Diane Mead who has since pieced together the secret. And no, there's no romance between them; they're just good friends and good partners. She had since retired from the Middelton police in the years after J'onn vanished; maybe her sister had kids and needed the help or maybe her mom was sick and she volunteered to take care of her. Doesn't matter. What does matter is that she is free now and wants to get her old job back: easier said than done. The new Police Chief, Harding's retired by now, says that she'd been gone too long for her to just be given her old job back. There'd be retraining and starting one rank lower than when she left.
"When John Jones offers her a position with P'erla'andra Investigations—and at a higher position and salary than she'd get with the police—she accepts immediately. Besides, she missed the big lug.
"The trio will often help the police in their investigations but they will also handle their own cases. Missing people, manhunts for escaped criminals, helping the police serve a warrant, the usual. More often than not, J'onn will use his agency as a cover for other, stranger cases." So much so that Jones's detective agency would be compared to the X-Files both in universe and in real life throughout the 1990s. "In fact, P'erla'andra Investigations is where he goes after his daily round of superheroics to take notes and place them in the files.
"And yes, Middleton, Colorado, is glad to finally see Martian Manhunter back after so long an absence. They don't have him all to themselves though, far from it. See, something I noticed is that most all the superheroes we have are American. It makes sense since… we're all American and write for a mostly American audience. But it's kind of unfair that the other countries don't have their own superheroes and I'm betting J'onn thinks that too. Hey, he might have lived in the US but that doesn't make him a flag waving American citizen!
"On seeing how overly represented the US is in terms of superheroes and on seeing that some third world countries don't have so much as a single champion, Manhunter decides to do something about that . Across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and various Asian nations people look up in the sky and see a green face. They hadn't been neglected, per se, by the League; Superman, for example has always conducted global patrols. But he's a white guy fighting for the American way whilst Manhunter is a neutral shade of green who pledges allegiance to the flags of the United Nations of Earth.
"Middleton, Colorado, aside, J'onn leaves Europe, America, Australia, and wealthier Asian nations alone. It's not that he has anything against him or that he wouldn't help if asked; it's just that he knows that their native supers can handle things. Whether it's evacuating some Filipinos from the path of a hurricane or reuniting lost Rwandan children with their families or performing search and rescue in the event of a Guatemalan earthquake, Manhunter's there. With the exception of you know who, he becomes the single most popular superhero in the entire southern hemisphere."
Ostrander laughed. "I can just see it now, the League goes to Kenya and Manhunter's fans ask who the heck these other guys even are!
"Seriously though, I plan on using this aspect of Manhunter to explore the DCU and meeting international heroes like Jack O'Lantern of Ireland and other Global Guardian heroes and new characters like… like Brazil's all female Carnival inspired Birds of Paradise team, or India's The Unclean—a team of underdog heroes who are all untouchables. Aside from that, Manhunter also takes it upon himself to organize and train local supers in the use of their powers."
"W-What!?" stammered Mark the copyboy in shock. The writers and artists stopped what they were doing to stare at him; among those stating was Jenette Khan. She frantically gestured for him to keep quiet, to not let anything slip from his mouth. "It's that…" I can't say that that sounds like something I have planned. He gathered his thoughts and cleared his voice. "… it's that, Mr. Ostrander, pardon the interruption but… are you going to do anything with Saul Erdel?
He raised an eyebrow at Khan and wondered what it had all been about. The he scowled. "Aside from naming teleportation gates Erdel gates as a nod, not really. Manhunter might meet the man's living relatives and help them out now and then but nothing major."
"Enough with Plaid," grumbled Schwartz. "Alright, Oz," the old editor had any number of nicknames, "I can see that J'onzz is loyal to Earth, yadda, yadda, yadda. But what about Mars? When he had to choose between siding with his people after they'd gone bad and protecting innocent Earthlings, he sided with Earth. Do you plan on anything special?
A puckish grin crossed Ostrander's face when he heard that. "I was just thinking about that! I don't know exactly when this will happen, it might not happen for several years…" If Ostrander only knew how right his words were; he in fact left the Martian Manhunter series by the time the story he had in his mind finally took place. It was 2001's Our Worlds at War where the Anti-Monitor finally returned… to Mars II's sorrow.
By that time, J'onn J'onzz had finally stopped being just the League's mascot and become a hero in his own right. He'd never sought the limelight but his real world fans were glad to see him getting the respect he deserved. There was also the issue of his fellow Martians. He had occasionally met up with them and sought to make peace. He was not welcome on Mars II but thanks to Roh'kar M'orse he was able to make at least brief visits. J'onzz old friend had since been elected leader of his fellow White Martians and worked tirelessly with Green leadership to ensure fair treatment for all. Such ideals extended to his daughter M'gann to whom he taught tolerance as one of the greatest virtues. It was the least he could do after helping, albeit unwittingly, a war criminal kill Mars… and with it his wife.
Roh'kar's daughter recognized her "Uncle J'onn" from her father's stories and knew that her father had owed his life more than once to the Green during their days as Manhunters. M'gann even took the appearance of a Green girl for her uncle's sake; J'onn appreciated that with how all his immediate family was also killed when Blanx destroyed the Tree of Blue Flame.
That was when the universe killer arrived to destroy Mars II. In the first Crisis, Mars II was in its disorganized relative infancy—and Anti-Monitor had no idea of the challenge the heroes would offer him. Now it was strong with superhuman armies that the now wary villain knew might pose a threat. It had to be eliminated.
With how they all possessed superpowers, the Martians could have driven Anti-Monitor's minions back with no trouble. However, the destroyer rightly guessed that just a little subterfuge would keep the paranoiac populace turned against itself. A few spies and rumor mongers made sure that the Greens and Whites spent more time fighting each other than they did their mutual enemy. When Anti-Monitor finally did destroy Mars II it was due in large part to Martian infighting.
J'onn J'onzz returned at M'orse's request in the hopes to uniting the two races against the common foe. After all, they were living proof that Green and White could get along, right? While the two "brothers" fought valiantly and served as point of view characters, their friendship was not enough to save Martian civilization. In fact, when J'onn revealed the Anti-Monitor's scheme for turning the races against each other, the monster merely gloated to both races that it was all true. He was right to gloat because even with that confession, even with their very survival at stake, many Martians still wouldn't set aside racial grudges and work together.
It was thus ironically the Anti-Monitor who, in the end, did more to improve Martian race relations than anyone else by exploding Mars II. When the few survivors saw their new home destroyed—for older folks, two planets dead in one lifetime—all Martians knew what they had to do. All past transgressions, real or imagined were forgotten because there was only one side now: the Martian side. The Sons of H'ronme'er were united at last and the Tree of Blue Flame reignited as proof of it.
In accordance with its legend, the Tree had grown ever weaker as Greens and Whites fought one another; during the Great War it had gone out as a result of being turned into an instrument of planetary genocide by Blanx. It was thought lost forever but a series of visions suggested otherwise and J'onn J'onzz went on a quest to recover his people's greatest treasure. After many adventures he finally found one tiny blue ember smoldering atop an asteroid in the Mars II asteroid belt. It only grew brighter the closer he brought it back to his reunited people. The Tree's recovery and new fire boosted Martian morale immeasurably… and gave M'orse the impetus for his decision.
Anti-Monitor was—is—by far the greatest threat to the DCU and had already destroyed whole universes but the heroes knew he could be beaten. When he finally was, it was due in large part to Roh'kar M'orse. He took with him as much of the fully reenergized Tree of Blue Flame's power as he could and launched a suicide run against the monster as it prepared to attack Earth. He gave orders for all forces to fall back lest they be destroyed in the fight between himself and the Anti-Monitor. J'onn J'onzz was the only one who disobeyed. He would not leave his brother behind! M'orse wept when he heard those words; deceit is nearly impossible amidst a race of telepaths. Regardless, the White Martian summoned a blast of Blue Flame and hurled J'onn to safety. Roh'kar's last words before he released all his energies in one climactic explosion? "Take care of M'gan for me."
While M'orse failed to defeat the Anti-Monitor, the Big Bang level explosion left the universe killer injured enough for the rest of the heroes to ultimately finish him. All across the universe—and across the restored multiverse—people erected statues to M'orse, none more so that the Martian people. In gratitude, the Justice League and the UN invited the Martians to come back to the Solar System and the Sons of H'ronmeer accepted the invitation. J'onn personally carried the new Tree of Blue Flame to the original place and led his people, Green and White in prayer.
That's not to say it was easy, far from it. Even with the Tree of Blue Flame pumping life giving energy back into the Red Planet, resurrecting the dead world was hard work. There was also racial friction. For example, even those Greens who were best friends with a White during the war were horrified to their daughters dating a White boy. And vice versa. White or Green it's the same message amongst too many people; I do believe in racial equality and I do respect them… as long as they stick to their kind and don't mix with ours. The road to brotherhood would be a difficult one with one step back for every two steps forwards but now, at least, they had a goal to work for.
Mars also sought normalize relations with Earth in the wake of the war and that meant exchanging ambassadors. A man of two worlds, J'onn J'onzz was Mars' only logical choice. True, he established himself in New York as a local superhero filling in for Wonder Woman with how she had left by then in order to live in Metropolis with her new husband, Superman. The main thrust of his activities, however, was to speak for Mars to the people of Earth and to speak for Earth to the people of Mars. He performed in this duty admirably.
Thus the 2000s saw the Martian Manhunter living in NYC with his old friend Diane Mead serving as embassy security and Zook as his personal assistant. One minute he was rescuing cats in trees and the next he was in suit and tie at the UN. Often fans would see interplanetary politics and J'onzz serving as a statesman, arbitrating disputes, negotiating treaties between the two worlds, and being the first to respond when someone from outside the solar system came in.
Most interesting of all was J'onzz' niece, M'gan M'orse whom J'onzz raised up as he had promised her father Roh'kar M'orse. She grew up shuttling between Mars and Earth as befit the adopted daughter of an interplanetary ambassador. As part of her new life she took as her default Earth form a green skinned, red haired human girl with slight Martian features. She'd also wear human clothes and play act the role of a stereotypical American teen, albeit ditzier than most. (She was prone to saying "Hello Megan!" and hitting herself on the head.) When Uncle J'onn asked where she'd gotten these new mannerisms, she said that she was just copying the human girls she saw on TV. J'onzz could only smile at that; Martians had begun monitoring Earth radio and television broadcasts with the establishment of friendly relations with Earth. The Alien Atlas thought he was the only one.
M'gann adapted well, too well, in fact, and J'onn eventually had to ask her if she was doing it to avoid confronting her grief. In one explosive issue that proved to in fact be the case as she raged against her father's shade for choosing to be the big hero and leaving her orphaned. She went on a rampage and though nobody was hurt and there was only minimal property damage, J'onn had to bring her in. He demanded an explanation and the sniveling M'gann mumbled something about reading minds of fathers and daughters she saw and that it wasn't fair and finally, after so many whimpers, that it was daddy daughter day.
Soon after her mother died, her father, Roh'kar, knew he had to do something special and declared a family holiday. He took her hiking that day and the next year he took her to a fancy restaurant. Every year it was some new experience; the last one was a pilgrimage to the Martian holy ground of Olympus Mons. They had returned to Mars II just a few months before Anti Monitor attacked. M'gann knew that her father was busy—especially since she had been born in such difficult times—but that no matter what he'd always be there, that he'd drop whatever work he was doing so that, even for just that one day, he'd be there just for her.
Not this time.
Her uncle knew that any punishments for telepathically spying on innocent people could wait and for now just consoled her. J'onn reminded M'gann that it was for her sake more than anything else that her father faced the last battle. He then showed her a telepathic message that Roh'kar had impressed on his psyche for just this eventuality. The last trace of the Martian entered his daughter's mind and comforted her. He didn't want her to mourn him forever; just the opposite. He had faced the Anti-Monitor not only in the hopes that she would survive but that she would live. He asked M'gann if she would forgive him but now that she held him tight she said that there was nothing to forgive… and that she loved him.
With that, M'gann found a measure of peace and enjoyed her special day. That weekend, John Jones paid a visit to Middleton and introduced his old friends to his niece/adopted daughter, Megan Morse. She giggled at how slack jawed Jones' police friends were when they saw her. They thought he merely invited them to the donut shop to talk about old times! Regardless, she enjoyed the little trip very much—Middleton really was a nice town—but more than that she enjoyed having a father once again.
M'gann knew that her place was on Earth with Uncle J'onn and now sought to follow in his footsteps as she had tried to do so her (first) father's. She watched TV and was amazed by all the costumed heroes she saw alongside her uncle. It all seemed so glamorous and exciting and it admittedly could be; she had also grown up listening to her father's Manhunter stories. Unfortunately, however, the best a White Martian girl her age and with her dream could traditionally hope for would be marrying one of Mars's champion. A female Manhunter was an oxymoron.
Such traditional gender roles made sense since female Martians were weaker than their male counterparts and would thus be a hindrance in hunting and fighting. Labor saving devices that would make such differences in strength irrelevant were never developed on Mars due, ironically, to how their superpowers made machinery unnecessary for so long. Yet at the same time those same superpowers meant that she was a "male" in terms of strength compared to humans and that amongst Earth's Manhunters (superheroes) she could indeed make the cut.
J'onn J'onzz was at first unsure of his niece's request; he, after all, was a product of a traditional Green household wherein gender roles were almost sacred. But then they were held so dearly because Greens chose their genders. He agreed and trained M'gann himself for the things a young superheroine might face. She proved an eager student and soon enough two worlds caught their first glimpse of Miss Martian.
At first, the overly cheerful, ever chipper girl was just Manhunter's niece and she was admittedly happy to be in his shadow. She was his faithful sidekick and every teen hero's "adorkable" best friend. While M'gann never outgrew her bubbly personality she nevertheless went on to became one of the best Teen Titans and a founding member of Young Justice. Those were good times and she made friendships that lasted the rest of her life on those teams but even then she looked to something greater.
By 2013, the twenty-something Ms. Martian had taken over much of her uncle's mundane responsibilities and very admirably at that. There was even talk of her permanently taking her uncle's place on the Justice League in order to free more of his time for ambassadorial duties. That happened when she had subbed for him for a nearly a year after he was severely injured by a Norse Fire-Giant. Was she slightly intimidated? Maybe, it was the Justice League after all. Regardless she managed screw up her courage and proved herself worthy to fight alongside the world's greatest superheroes.
J'onn J'onzz wasn't quite ready for that. He liked being a superhero and it was agreed that however good Ms. Martian was he was still better. Crisis on Infinite Earths had taught the Justice League the hard way that the Justice League could only afford to have the best in the world in its ranks. The infinitely lower civilian casualties in Worlds at War proved that point…
Still in terms of making the world a better place and not just containing disasters, he did more good sitting behind a desk than he ever did wearing a bandolier and pirate boots. He also knew that M'gann was more than capable of taking his place; she was as good as he was at his age and in some respects, better. Thus, even after he made a full recovery he decided not to return to active duty. As of mid 2014, Manhunter has placed himself on reserve status with Ms. Martian actively serving on the League. He'll serve again, if the League ever needs him again. He doubts that will ever happen, though, not with M'gann there.
Nobody was prouder than J'onn and with that, the final peace came to him. Mars lived once again and both Greens and White lived in peace. He was embraced by both his homeworlds and had a family in Diane, Zook, and M'gann. Those were happy days… but they were all in the future, however.
Back in 1985 Ostrander finished up his last bit of his outline for Martian Manhunter and commented that he hoped to compare notes with the writer of Justice League… whoever he might be. "Wait a minute Mrs. Khan," he said. "You said that the League's writer would be a big surprise. Isn't it time now? I mean, we've gone through all the big heroes: JLA's the only thing left. So who is he?"
"That's me," replied the copyboy.
You could hear a pin drop in the conference room when he said that. Or to more precise the concept art he was shuffling and placing in a binder. Perez was the one who finally broke the silence. "Ms. Khan, are you actually serious? The barely old enough to shave intern? He's a copyboy! The only thing Plaid here ever wrote was one Superman story that wasn't even a real story! It was a… it was…"
"It was 'Peril of the Purloined Fortress,' Action Comics #572 just last year. I remember. Oh," he added, "and its Waid, my name is Mark Waid. I'm pretty sure that I can do it."
One inker shook his head. "Listen, maybe my interest is just the pretty pictures but all the pictures in the world mean jack it its outlined by a hack."
Khan whimsically smiled. "Nice rhyme but you might remember him as the kid who sent letters for every comic book he read and he read a lot."
He could feel their eyes drilling into him and suddenly he felt his palms grow clammy. Time to put up or shut up, he thought. "I admit that up till now I've only written or edited for fanzines and have just one professional work under my belt but I've been working on ideas for the League. I submitted them to Ms. Khan and when she saw them she invited me to the meeting. I was supposed to take notes and adapt where need be to the new DC Universe we're creating."
Maggin smiled and remembered when he was Waid's age. It was only due to a preteen Jeph Loeb that he sold the story that got him into comics and didn't have to spend the rest of his life in law school. "You know gang it would be a real shame if Plaid here had a good idea and we didn't hear him out. Ah take a seat already Clark and show us what you got."
The editor is screwing up my name? Now I know I'm part of the team! "Alright I'm passing around this binder and I want everyone to look at the concept art I've commissioned. My idea is that since the JLA and the JSA will be in the same continuity there will be changes but that we can use those changes. This is how it's going to work…"
Author's Notes: Justice League is up next! If you've been paying attention you've been seeing "Clark Plaid" the copyboy here and there all this time. ;-) As to the title... Manhunter doesn't have that many nicknames or titles so I had to dig one up. -_-; Now, to the mailbag.
Sir Thames: As always thank you very much'
Wolvmbm: Did you honestly think I'd forget! I just saved her for this chapter. As to the other Justice Leaguers... well I'm planning to do Justice League next and I don't plan for every character to have one chapter. JLA origin and then a brief look at the other heroes. As for the Arrow... ust waint asnd see
Everyone else: Love it hate, please review. I'd like to know what you think!