indefinite articles

“I’ll take the Martian Manhunter temporary tattoo, please,” I said to the young girl behind the prize counter. I handed her the tickets I had won by playing skee ball on the other side of the arcade. Instead of giving me the little caped, half-naked green man in mid-flight, I was given a blank, uncomprehending stare.

I patiently tried to guide her through to my desired prize, tapping my finger on the glass display case, pointing at the bowl of comic-book superhero tattoos. Once she was there, I asked her to pull out the tattoo with the green guy on it. She immediately reached for Green Lantern. I winced, queasy at the thought of what people would say if I sported the mark of a superhero whose weakness was the color yellow. Unacceptable.

I was finally able to direct the confused and slightly frightened arcade employee to the proper tattoo by telling her it was the one lying partially underneath Superman. With relief, I took the prize from her, savoring the flavor of hard earned success. I handed over my five tickets and left, feeling a bittersweet mixture of glee over my acquisition and disgust over the state of public education.

A year has passed since that day at the arcade, and now J’onn J’onzz (pronounced “John Jones”), the Martian Manhunter, is dead - the unfortunate victim of a flaming spear through the center of his chest. More than half of the original members of the Justice League have died since its inception, but J’onzz is the latest to meet his maker, just as fellow JLA founder the Flash gets resurrected. The Flash merited a feature in the New York Times for his resurrection, but Martian Manhunter’s death didn’t even earn a mention. The world hasn’t changed.

The untimely death of the Manhunter from Mars.

The question of why he is the only member of the Justice League whom your average person can’t pick out of a lineup is troubling. Even Aquaman is nearly universally known, even if it is as a giant aquatic joke. J’onzz is a powerful character - nearly an equal with Superman in all his powers, an insightful detective in the vein of Batman, a shape shifter, a telepath, and who knows what else. Is he unappealing because he is too powerful? Is it that his character lacks depth? Maybe, as a society, we just aren’t as blind to race, creed, and planet of origin as we like to think we are. And maybe, like Will Smith’s character in the upcoming movie Hancock, he just needs an image-management consultant.

The sad fact is, outside of the basics of his powers and an admiration of his strong brow, excellent physique, and penchant for Oreo cookies, I know little about the late Martian Manhunter. And yet, even with only this basic knowledge of the character, I am determined to not only find out why he remains unknown and underappreciated, but to one day be at the helm of a Martian Manhunter comic series of my own that will grant him the respect and notoriety that I assume he must deserve. A lofty and foolhardy ambition, but that’s also what they say about stopping global warming, and that’s not stopping Al Gore.

I will begin my scholarship by trying to get an overview of how J’onn J’onzz has evolved over time, focusing on his solo works before venturing into the more dense world of team-up comics such as JLA. I will read through the entirety of his solo series written by John Ostrander in 1998, his 2006 miniseries, and J’onzz’s appearances in the 1950s and ’60s collected in Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter Vol 1.

And now, I’m off, bag of Oreos at my side, ready to delve into the mysteries of J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter.