Sunday, June 15, 2008

Martian Manhunter Week: Earth Girls Are Easy

Let's continue on with

Martian Manhunter Week

Remember, to get the full Martian Manhunter Week experience, you need to also be visiting fellow Halifax-based comic book blogger, Johnathan Munroe's blog. It's a cross-over event!

Let's see what happens when Detective John Jones, the Manhunter from Mars, faces his greatest challenge yet...the charms of a female!

As Miss Meade gets herself tarted up for her first assignment, John Jones is easily taking out the escaped criminal using yet another made-up power:

Sure. Why not? By the way, I hope you like randomly occurring super powers, because this comic is full of 'em!

But we'll get to that later. Here's where Det. Jones is formally introduced to young Miss Meade:

I'm sure she would love to learn his methods. That tramp. I also like that Jones decides that he is willing to work with her based on the fact that she is "kind of pretty"...for an Earth girl.

But wait! What's this?

No! He seems awfully surprised that she's smoking, considering EVERYONE smoked then.

Jones plays it cool:

So they go to investigate a stolen artifact or something, and are told that the thieves were wearing black masks. No problem. Jones has a super power he was saving in his pocket for just such an occasion:

"Let's play Justice League! I'm Aquaman! I can control the ocean!"

"I'm the Flash! I'm really fast!"

"I'm Martian Manhunter! I can visually magnify the electronic components of any object to 1,000 times their natural size!"

These next two panels are really weird:

"Haha...a little casual sex on the job, eh? Well, don't let us intrude. You kids have fun!"

A couple of panels later Jones falls victim to the oldest trick in the book: the ol' totem pole on the noggin:
Rearranging the molecular components of your arm and reaching right through the roof of a cave to the rocky hillside above you: sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution.

So they get out of the...cave...or wherever...and Jones whips out yet ANOTHER super power:

Jones tells Diane to stay put and changes to his Martian form in this awesome panel:

Then he decides to go and get himself some crooks, using a veritable buffet of invented-on-the-spot super powers:

I love this. Jones wants to bust in on the crooks like in the movies, but they aren't in a room. So he picks them up and places them in a room:

"Where am I? Weren't we just in a car? Now we're in a room?"

"I...I don't know...This is creepy. Are we dead? Is this heaven?"

"Hands up! In the name of the law!"

"What?"

And Diane is like "Huh? They were in this room the whole time? Then where the hell did John go?"

This comic ends on a bittersweet note, with our hero wondering if he could ever, really ever love a woman:

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Huh. What were the odds of there being 2 Justice Leaguers who've had police commissioners' daughters for a sidekick?

Though honestly, this being the golden age, I'd have bet on Ollie being the other one.

Anonymous said...

I know just how J'onn feels...Earth women are indeed strange creatures.

SallyP said...

"Angle vision?" Whahuh? Oh J'onn, you and your wacky wacky one-time use of powers!

On a sartorial note, did EVERYONE back then wear suits in inappropriately hideous colors? I've never even SEEN a purple or magenta suit, and Hal, J'onn and Bruce seem to wear them ALL the time!

Bill said...

J'onn is one of my all-time favorites. Thanks for featuring him.

Austin Gorton said...

I like to think of the uber-tacky suits as part of a hilariously inept attempt by J'onn at "blending in."

"I am not a MARTIAN SUPER-HERO, no sir, I am a NORMAL HUMAN, as evidenced by this PERFECTLY NORMAL HUMAN SUIT I am wearing..."

And everyone else is thinking "Whatever 'Det. Jones,' you're a super-hero. Only super-heroes wear such garish colors. Real normal humans, like us, just wear suits in standard colors like black, gray or navy."

Anonymous said...

I'm suprised you didn't end the Martian Manhunter week with a Super Hunk Ratings on J'onn.

rachelle said...

I was thinking about a super hunks post about J'onn J'onz, but I thought it was maybe too weird.

Anonymous said...

Why would it be wierd? He was a good husband on Mars and a Shapeshifter he can be any one you want him to be physically. And mentally with the telepathy of his. I look at him in the same fasion as Mystique.

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