The History Of DC's Martian Manhunter Explained

With the arrival of Zack Snyder's Justice League, J'onn J'onzz has finally made his fully-fledged big screen debut. But just who is this iconic DC superhero, and why are fans so excited to see him in all his alien glory? This is the history of the Martian Manhunter.

It all started back in November 1955, in the pages of Detective Comics #225. The main story in this issue follows Jim Gordon as he wins a contest to be Batman for a day — but that's not really important, here.

In the back half of the issue, among the Z-list heroes and hair gel commercials, there's a story entitled "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel " This tale introduces Professor Mark Erdel, world-famous scientist, and his remarkable new invention: "The robot brain of the century." Hoping to use it to probe the cosmos, whatever that means, Erdel turns on his machine — and J'onn J'onzz suddenly appears.

It's revealed that J'onzz is an alien scientist from Mars, transported to Earth through the power of Erdel's invention. Erdel explains the circumstances of J'onzz teleportation, and states that it may take years to recalibrate the robot brain to send the visitor home. Thankfully, J'onzz takes the news like a champ, and uses his shapeshifting abilities to transform into a human man. The shock of witnessing this incredible feat proves to be the last straw for Erdel, however, who promptly dies.

Now trapped on an unfamiliar world, the alien takes in his surroundings and realizes that Earth is a primitive place compared to Mars, and is desperately in need of a lawman. Adopting the slightly more low-key moniker of John Jones, he sets off on an expository mission, hoping to show Earth's citizens what he's made of.

Jones subsequently walks into the Middleton police precinct and immediately lands a job, despite straight-up freaking out whenever people light cigarettes in front of him. This is because, in his alien form, his one weakness is fire — which only sounds dumb if you put aside the fact that Batman's weaknesses are "everything, including fire," and that the Green Lantern Yalan Gur was at separate times vulnerable to wood and the color yellow. It's a superhero thing.

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Alien origins | 0:00
The Silver Age | 2:04
A new beginning | 4:06
Getting weird | 5:40
Rise of the Martian | 6:50
The road to Hollywood | 8:03

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