MARTIAN MANHUNTER (J'onn J'onzz)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Joe Samachson and Joe Certa

Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz)

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: J'onn J'onzz
Aliases: John Jones (former police detective, then private investigator); Marko Xavier; Dervish (superhero of Turkey); Johann Johansen (cab driver); Bio Armor Jade Warrior (superhero); Isobel De La Rosa (an author); additional alternate identities
Occupation: Depends on cover identity user
Homeworld: Mars
Race: Green Martians
Marital Status: Widower
Known Relatives: Sha'sheen J'onzz (mother; deceased); M'yrnn J'onzz (father; deceased); M'yri'ah (wife; deceased); K'hym (daughter; deceased); Ma'alefa'ak (twin brother)
Base of Operation: Z'onn Z'orr, Antarctica
Group Affiliation(s): Justice League of America
Group Affiliation (former): Stormwatch; Justice League; Justice League Task Force; Justice Experience
Gender: Male
Height: 6'7"
Weight: 300 lbs.
Eyes: Red
Hair: None
Distinguishing Features: Green skin and protruding forehead (humanoid form); green skin, thin limbs and pointy head (true Marsian form)
First Appearance: Detective Comics #225 (November 1955): "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel"
Creators: Joe Samachson and Joe Certa

The Martian Language has twelve words for "husband"... fourteen for "father." Hearing their music again has been a siren's song - J'onn J'onzz Quote taken from JLA: Midsummer's Nightmare

OVERVIEW

On his home planet of Mars, J'onn J'onzz was a manhunter, the martian equivalent of a police force, though the role meant far more than that. A great planetary hero, he lived to be his race's last survivor, when all others died of a horrific telepathic plague. Brought to Earth by the scientist Dr. Erdel, he adopted this planet as his home and did his best to walk among humans as one of them, taking on the personas of various people who had died before their time. Eventually, he went public as a hero and joined the fledgling Justice League of America, where his vast physical and mental abilities, including shape-shifting, flight, telepathy and much more, were much valued. A dependable member of the Justice League for many years, J'onn is one of the most trusted members of the heroic community, particularly in the Pacific countries, to which he tries to dedicate as much time as possible.

He has used many identities in the past, but after a series of experiences in which he felt that he had let his friends down, he has decided to stick to just one of these identities, Denver private detective John Jones. His only vulnerability is to fire, a great fear for all his race, but a fear which he is gradually learning to master. Wise and compassionate, he has known fear, betrayal, love and loss, and will continue to be revered for many centuries to come.

HISTORY

Nobody truly knows how old J'onn J'onzz is or how long into the past Dr. Erdel's machine reached to drag him to our world. These and many other facts about him are his knowledge only and few dare ask him. For much of his time on Earth, J'onn has been a mystery to many – even himself. Despite his reserved and silent nature, the Manhunter cares deeply for his adopted world and would lay his life down in an instance for it.

In his time the Manhunter has been a founding member of almost every incarnation of the Justice League of America, he headed for a time the JLI's youth training division (the so called Justice League Task Force) and was the senior member active when Professor Ivo's androids succeeded in killing several League members. Close to the more vulnerable and younger members of the League (such as Gypsy, Ice and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) he only really relaxes in very close company (such as L-Ron, Oberon, Maxwell Lord, Blue Beetle, Fire, etc.). J'onn is a brilliant leader and tactician but normally defers to Superman in leadership. However, in the southern hemisphere, where J'onn spends most of his time (acting out of the ancient Martian outpost of Z'onn Z'orr) his recognition factor is even higher that of the Kryptonian. He also maintains a number of cover identities around the world so that he might study humanity further.

Ma'aleca'andra, the fourth planet of the Terran system is known by the Humans of Earth as Mars after one of their ancient war gods. To their science it is barren and devoid of life. An endless wasteland of red rocks beneath a pale sky that is wrapped in a tenuous atmosphere, a remote forbidden place. But it was not always so! The race that others would know as the Martians rose aeons ago, evolving from glorious winged creatures that flew free in the skies of Mars, while life on Earth was still in its infancy; they survived the wars and other threats that seek to destroy civilizations and rose to be a complex and very open society. This was based on the very physical nature of the Martians; they displayed physical powers that placed them on a par with Kryptonians and Daxamites, but they also were in complete command of their bodies which allowed them to shift form and function with a very thought.

Battle for those ancient Martians was not like the brutal and brawling battle of other races, but was more of the dance of Martial Arts where the Martians would shift from one "battle form" to another with standard forms with such names as the "Flesh Vortex" and the "Storm of Hammers". As is the way for many civilizations, a split formed within Martian society between the more philosophical Green Martians and the militaristic Pale Martians. In retrospective, any differences between one Martian and another are purely philosophical – such distinctions as race and gender have little true meaning for a race that can shape-shift between male and female or pale and green, only the underlying psychological aspects truly remain.

Matters between the two factions came to a head when the Pale Martians, while using Earth as a source of materials, upset the natural evolution of the human race towards being a seeming race of superbeings to rival the Martians themselves. The consequence was that only a fraction of humanity would ascend to the position of superbeings. For the crime of destroying the evolutionary possibility of another race, the Pale Martians were sentenced to eternity in the Still Zone. The Still Zone, the Phantom Zone – call it what you will – is a dimension that exists apart from our normal space time continuum that has been used in ancient days by long forgotten titanic races as a prison for things best forgotten. It was in this endless eternity that the Pale Martians were imprisoned until the day when they would one day escape as the Hyperclan to threaten the human race once more.

The remaining Martians consolidated their civilization into a utopian existence that lasted millennia. They were philosophers, artisans, performers and listeners. The gift of telepathy opened up their society so there were no secrets, on every level, every aspect took on a spiritual aspect and the worship of their gods played an integral part of their lives. Chief amongst their pantheon was H'ronmeer (god of death) and C'eridyall (goddess of life), while behind all was the Unnameable One. They were a people at peace with each other, their gods and their environment. A peace that tragically would be shattered by Ma'alefa'ak, a rogue green Martian.

Ma'alefa'ak, J'onn's twin brother and shadow-self, had committed the crime of mind rape, and as punishment he was stripped of his memory, his telepathic abilities were shut down and a new identity and history was created for him. He was then sent off to begin his new life as priest/scientist of the central power cathedral on Mars. However, although his memory had been wiped out, his hatred for the rest of the Martian race had not, and slowly his memory came back as he plotted his revenge. Telepathically drawn to the uncontrolled image of chaos, Martians had a weakness to fire that was both physical and psychological as their thoughts would be consumed by the fire, causing all physical functions to shut down. Knowing this and that he was the only Martian not possessing telepathic abilities, Ma'alefa'ak created a plague, known as H'ronmeer's Curse, that would not only set the Martians' minds on fire but their bodies as well.

During the early days of the Great Plague, the few Martians that were still unaffected gathered to determine what or who had caused tha plague as they had found that it was artificially created and not a natural phenomenon. Believing it to be the work of Ma'alefa'ak, the only Martian whose mind was not open to the rest, they decided that he should be put to death. J'onn, who believed the evidence against Ma'alefa'ak to be circumstantial at best, challenged the decision and was charged with learning the truth in his role as manhunter. J'onn then sought out Ma'alefa'ak at the central power cathedral on Mars only to learn that the others were right and that he was indeed determined to wipe out the entire Martian race.

When Ma'alefa'ak took refuge in a fortress of fire, J'onn returned home to be with his family and try to prevent them from being claimed by the plague as well. Knowing that the curse spread from mind to mind, he tried to convince M'yri'ah to shield her thoughts, but when their daughter who was already affected by the curse called for her mother, M'yri'ah opened her mind to her daughter and was herself affected by the curse. They both died. Grieving, J'onn returned to the cathedral to kill Ma'alefa'ak even if it would result in his own death as well. Ma'alefa'ak seemingly died in the ensuing battle and J'onn began wandering the cities of Mars, sometimes morphing himself into his fellow Martians to convince himself they were still alive.

On Earth, separated from the Martian race by both time and distance, the self-taught scientist and dreamer Doctor Saul James Erdel sought to create a machine that would reach across space and the dimensions to seek other intelligent life. He had more failures than success, but at some point in the 1950's, he initiated the machine and much to his surprise, it finally worked. Alien life was transported to him in the form of a male alien, apparently carrying the body of little alien girl. The alien collapsed, and regained his consciousness after Erdel had buried the girl. In an instant, the minds of Erdel and that terrified alien brushed against each other telepathically and all was laid before the stunned scientist.

The alien Erdel found was actually J'onn J'onzz and the girl was actually a part of J'onn's body given the form of his daughter. After J'onzz was nursed back to physical health, Erdel offered to send him home, but the Martian still broken inside by painful memories destroyed the equipment rather than be sent back. Afterwards, J'onzz mind shut down to protect him from any further emotional injury. In this catatonic state, Erdel used the telepathic bond between the two to craft a new identity for J'onn, to paper over the cracks in his shattered mind and to craft the personality of the Martian Manhunter based on stuff he borrowed from old pulp magazines. Although Erdel believed himself to have fabricated J'onn's new identity entirely from scratch, it was actually more of a combined effort as J'onn subconciously inserted various bits and pieces from his actual life on Mars, such as his beetle-browed humanoid form as well as his profession as manhunter, while other bits were left out as J'onn subconciously wanted to leave behind the hurt of his past.

J'onn now believed himself to be J'onn J'onzz, military leader of the desert dwelling Martians in a civil war against the pole dwellers lead by General Blanx (imagery drawn from the ancient myths of the Pale Martians). Defeated underhandedly in single combat by Blanx, J'onn was exiled from Mars, while in the intervening period Blanx destroyed the rest of the Martian race, forcing J'onn to permanently adopt Earth as his new home. After leaving J'onn with a basic grasp of language and customs, Erdel staged his own death to force J'onn to build a new life for himself in the human world. The exact circumstances of Erdel's "death" have not yet been revealed, but it is known that Erdel blew up his lab and that a body was found and identified as Erdel soon afterwards.

One of the officers to investigate the explosion and death of Dr. Erdel was police detective John Jones, who impressed J'onn so much that he decided to stick close to him in his invisible form in order to learn more of Earth and the humans. About a year later, John Jones was killed by a fellow officer who had been bought off by a crimelord that John was about to testify against. Having learned everything about John during that year, J'onn decided to take his place in order to bring the crimelord to justice. Seeing the good he could do in his role as John Jones, J'onn decided to keep the identity for himself after that.

As John Jones, J'onn became a one person crime fighting force as a fully fledged detective right down to the fashionable suits. The subconscious memories of the plague still lingered, leaving him stern and unsmiling. For almost a decade, J'onn maintained the identity of the detective, only rarely using the form that be believed to be his true face to battle more powerful evils. When he was not working as John Jones, he kept much to himself watching hours of television, an artform that facinated him. As a Martian, he was used to be able to use his telepathy to peer into the mind of the storyteller and experience the story first hand, but with the television he encountered a medium that brought back the element of surprise. As Erdel before him, J'onn staged his own death from the police force in 1968 to protect his friends from the enemies of the Martian Manhunter after his police partner learnt the truth about him. (J'onn also wiped the memory from the mans mind but would years later lift the wipe to renew the friendship.)

Following the death of his John Jones identity, J'onn created the identity of the Bronze Wraith and became a member of the superhero team Justice Experience. J'onn's involvement with the team came to a halt in the early 1970's when Doctor Trapps, the ultimate foe of the Justice Experience, captured the Bronze Wraith as part of his vendetta against the community of superheroes and villains, whom he believed responsible for the death of his wife. J'onn's encounter with Trapps left him without any memory of who or what he was for a two-year period. During this time, he wandered the streets of America as a homeless person. When his memory returned, he found that all his teammates in the Justice Experience had been murdered by Doctor Trapps and as the Bronze Wraith, J'onn then assisted the Justice Society of America in bringing Trapps to justice.

The grief over the death of his newfound friends made him vow never to openly play the hero part again and he abandoned his Bronze Wraith identity. The following years he created a number of other identities for himself throughout the world. For a time he took the identity of Marco Xavier and battled more powerful menaces, yet still he kept himself hidden from the world at large. When Superman made his public debut and started a new heroic age, J'onn thought it might be time to once again go public, this time revealing himself to the world at large in his Martian form as the Martian Manhunter. On his first public appearance as the Martian Manhunter, he helped out Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Black Canary in fighting off an alien invasion. Afterwards the five heroes decided to stay together and found a new team: the Justice League of America. Over the years, J'onn became one of the longest serving members and the practical back bone of the group. Years later he would return to the identity of John Jones when he became a private detective.

From the Justice League of America to the Justice League International, J'onn remained with the League. To him it became perhaps the only family he had and he became very protective of team mate Gypsy, treating her like a daughter. In one of the first cases of the JLI, J'onn battled a sentient virus and via the magic of Dr. Fate, the virus was held prisoner within J'onn's alien cells. For months he held it safe inside himself, unaware of the effect the virus was having on him.

The strain of containing the virus started wearing away at the mental block about his true past; this was boosted by the intercession of H'ronmeer the Martian god of fire. The terrified J'onn ran from the fire god straight into the home of Erdel, who revealed the truth of J'onn's passage to Earth. Then using his rebuilt machinery, he sent J'onn back to Mars to fully confront H'ronmeer. In a game of cat and mouse J'onn came to understand that H'ronmeer was not the dark god of death that humans might imagine, but rather the protector of the dead who had sought J'onn out to remove the mental block and allow the dead of Mars to rest in peace without J'onn's subconscious mind clinging so desperately onto them.

When he returned from Mars, J'onn had changed. There was an inner peace to him, he truly knew who he was and where he was from. When the JLI dissolved during its period of Breakdowns, J'onn resigned and took the chance to leave planet and meditate on his future. When he returned J'onn encountered the magician Bloodwynd who was having trouble with his Bloodgem. When J'onn tried to help him he found himself mentally dominated by the Gem as Bloodwynd was sucked inside. Under the control of the Gem, J'onn masqueraded as Bloodwynd for months; even to the point of joining the League as Bloodwynd. It was only the suspicions of the Blue Beetle and the help of the Atom and Ray that eventually freed Bloodwynd and J'onn from their mutual trap. Shortly afterwards, J'onn was recruited by the UN to head up the Justice League Task Force.

The Task Force was initially conceived as a group of superheroes from the Leagues rosters, hand picked for each mission on a rotating basis. J'onn was reunited with Gypsy during this time, and later when the Task Force became the youth training arm of the League, he adopted a sterner facade in order to better deal with the rebellious charges under him.

When the villain Dr. Destiny and the entity Know Man tried to blanket the Earth in a dream reality, J'onn found himself in an artificial recreation of Mars with his wife and daughter. Yet to him it was as real as the original, and when his friends tried to persuade him otherwise he signalled his intentions to remain in the dream paradise, until it was destroyed by a gang of Know Man's agents. The strain of losing his family (even and illusionary family) a second time took a large toll on the Martian Manhunter, alienating from those that had been his friends and slightly undermining the peace that he had previously obtained.

Later when a group of White Martians initiated an invasion of Earth by disguising themselves as an other-worldly group known as the Hyperclan and gaining respect around the world before initiating the actual attack, J'onn let them think that he betrayed the JLA and then he attacking the group from within. This incident, combined with the battle with the forces of Heaven, took a strong toll on J'onn who found himself under more pressure than ever from the world and his team-mates. His reaction to this was to pull back slightly, making him seem more alien than ever before to those that do not truly know him.

Recently the Department of Extranormal Operations found and publicized a list of J'onn's undercover identities around the world leaving only a few intact.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

The powers and abilities of the Martian Manhunter are a mystery to most people, and to some extent, even his friends. He has the ability to totally control his physical structure, allowing him to shape-shift, morph fluidly, and even turn invisible or intangible briefly. Physically, he is in Superman's league in terms of strength and endurance. The only thing that can harm him is an intense fear of fire (inborn in all Martians it is the basis of the god H'ronmeer who as well as being the object of fear as a fire god is the god of death via association). The effect of the fear strips any Martian of their super abilities via the psychosomatic effect of their own body control working involuntary against them.

Martians also possess a range of undefined mental abilities, primary among these is the telekinetic ability to fly. They also seem to have a range of telepathic powers, including mind reading and to an extent active telepathy. The extent and true limitations of these powers are not known. One of the most prized abilities of the Martians is the ability Mayavana, the gift to reach into another mind and create a mental reality as real as any normal reality. The strain of Mayavana is such that it can only be used once a life time and so it is normally used on the one that a Martian loves the most. J'onn used it on the rampaging Despero so that he thought that he had destroyed the JLI (subsequently he reverted to a an embryonic state) and thereby saved his friends.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Martian Manhunter in chronological order click here (1955-2011) and here (2011-present)

PROFILE REFERENCES

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #14 (April 1986)

Who's Who Update '88 #2 (September 1988)
Who's Who in the DC Universe #5 (December 1990)
JLA Secret Files #1 (September 1997)
DCU Heroes Secret Files #1 (February 1999)
JLA-Z #3 (January 2004)