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:

Martian Manhunter Week: Shark!

Don't think I've forgotten about

MARTIAN MANHUNTER WEEK

Martian Manhunter has two weaknesses: fire...and SHARKS!

Surely he'll be able to get out of this one using his invulnerability to sharks, right?

Coming soon...this week's comic reviews and...Martian Manhunter meets his greatest foe...an attractive woman!

It's a Martian Manhunter Cross-Over Event!

Hello all.

I just want to inform you that my pal Johnathan Munroe is joining me in celebrating

MARTIAN MANHUNTER WEEK

over at his excellent and hilarious comic blog Paul and John Review. He starts with a post about the first Martian Manhunter appearance (not the one with Batman...that one was weird).

Do check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Martian Manhunter Week: Private Eyes, They're Watching You...

Join me as we continue

MARTIAN MANHUNTER WEEK

In Detective Comics #227, our favourite Martian-disguised-as-a-detective finds himself facing another dirtbag mobster type. And thank God for the Martian Manhunter, because the chief of detectives really sucks:

Yeah, that's a pretty airtight alibi. I know I never sleep unless I have at least five witnesses.

By the way, there is a chance that the whole "fire = weakness" thing may come up later in this story.

J'onz pulls out some fancy Martian tricks to get to the bottom of this:

That must be a very loud clock.

J'onz finally meets the killer face-to-face, and doesn't give Fisk a positive first impression:

Who is he talking about? Wild look? John Jones? Really? This guy thinks someone else looks weird?:
Anyway, J'onz lays some heat on the guy:

That crook sucks. He's like "How do you know? I mean...You can't bluff me!" He just did, idiot.

Fisk is taking no chances. He orders a couple of his men to take this pesky detective out:

As I've said before, I enjoy J'onz's complete lack of subtlety. Like, Clark Kent would do something like that, but find a way to make sure no one saw him do anything weird. Martian Manhunter has no problem just waltzing through a wall, or turning invisible suddenly, or suddenly appearing in front of someone. And he's always totally calm about it. I can see how it would be really terrifying for criminals.

The car thing doesn't work, so the crooks try another meticulously-planned tactic:

Wait'll you see what's in Fisk's bag of tricks.

Well, I think we all know this is not going to work.

It doesn't work. And Fisk, his bag of tricks apparently empty now, decides to give up.

Nice diaper, MM.

What follows is a pretty excellent montage of Martian Manhunter scaring the hell out of Fisk:

This is so awesome:

Amazing. But then it goes wrong for our hero:

It doesn't look good, but since this all happens on the final page of the comic, things end up wrapping up nicely anyway.

Cool as a damn cucumber. I love this guy.

Martian Manhunter Week: Play Ball!

Due to the recent death of a beloved DC character, I hereby declare the next seven days at Living Between Wednesdays to be

MARTIAN MANHUNTER WEEK

We'll begin with a look at the second Martian Manhunter adventure ever told, from Detective Comics #226. In this story, our hero rigs a baseball game.

Before we get to that, let's see J'onn J'onz (alias John Jones) in action as a detective:

Ah, J'onz...always with the snappy detective banter. I really like that he'll just blatantly walk through a wall to stop some crooks. And then act like he didn't do that at all.

This crook really says a mouthful here, considering he's being arrested at gunpoint:

Very articulate. And J'onz calling him Trigger is great.

Now on to the baseball part of the story!

First of all, I think he'll find with time that this is going to be one of his least unusual assignments.

Am I the only one who thinks that this guy's baseball career would be helped by the fact that he learned how to play in prison? I mean, that's a great gimmick! People eat that stuff up!

Wait a minute...the ability to peer into the future? Well, I'm glad that power didn't stick around for very long. It would have made this detective game pretty easy for him.

So J'onz decides to fix the baseball game. Well, not "fix," really. We'll say "correct." He's correcting the game. To be as he saw it in the future (which is not a power he actually has...so I suspect he's just trying to justify his actions to himself).

Molecular Hypnosis: also not a power he has.

Ok, so basically what he's doing here is making it REALLY look like this Michaels fellow is throwing the game. The mobsters will be happy...but what about the fans? They are going to notice. And wouldn't that be more damaging to his career than a criminal past?

J'onz does not care though. And he's certainly not interested in being subtle about it:

Oh, and here's the best part...the mobsters' reaction:

I love that they are like "What?! He's not losing at all! But let's just wait to see where this is going..."

And then our boy Martian Manhunter decides to make that home run happen. Now the mobsters are stone pissed:

And J'onz stops them by pushing them over. Awesome.

Everything wraps up at the police station with a very weak explanation from J'onz:

What? Not even a pun? Just "Let's just say I was lucky"? How about "Let's just say the mobsters didn't cover all their bases." Or something. Screw you, Martian Manhunter.

This Week's Haul: Grab Bag Week

Every four to five weeks or so I hit what I call the 'grab bag week.' This was one of those weeks. The big titles this week were, of course Buffy and Dark Tower, but since I don't read those I get an odd selection of sidekicks and minor characters. With a couple of notable Marvel exceptions.

Nightwing #145

This has actually turned itself into a really good Bat title. The current storyline is totally messed up and insane, but very fun. And the Morales art has been fantastic.

This issue is also monumental because, I believe, it's the first time I've seen the word 'vaginally' in a mainstream superhero comic. And it's not even used the way you'd expect in a Nightwing comic!

Robin/Spoiler Special

As I mentioned in the comment section of the last post, I don't really care one way or the other about the lack of memorial in the Batcave for poor Stephanie Brown. I liked her as a character, I hated everything about the War Games storyline, and I am glad that she's back. I think the whole "Hey guys! I faked my own death! Leslie helped!" return is pretty lazy, but I forgive it. I kinda feel the same way about it that I do about Brand New Day: I don't care how they did it, as long as they fixed it.

So this comic was pretty good. Two stories, both by Chuck Dixon and both with great art. I enjoy Robin and Spoiler together. It's got a nice old school Robin/Batgirl feel. Stephanie is the Barbara to Tim's Dick.

Wait. That didn't come out right.

Secret Invasion #3

Alright, here we go.

So, is Tony Stark a Skrull or what? And if he is, is that good or bad? I mean, obviously that's an easy way to explain away why he's such a douche now, but at the same time...

Well, either way, Yu has been at the top of his game with the art on this series so far. And I'll say this: whatever is happening in this whole Secret Invasion thing, it's holding my interest. Keep it up, Marvel!

Jonah Hex #32

Matador vs Bull!

Bear vs Bull!

Hex vs Bull!

Hex vs Scum Bag!

And all with fabulous Jordi Bernet art! Darwyn Cooke is doing the art for the next issue, in which Hex travels to Canada! I can't wait! I'll bet Darwyn draws some attractive mounties!

Justice Society of America #16

I really like comics/television episodes where the characters are granted wishes, so I really enjoyed this.

Damage gets his face fixed! Yay!

Lookin' good, buddy! We should introduce Gog to Jonah Hex.

Overall, I'm not super into this whole Kingdom Come storyline, but I really like this big, happy Gog.

And I like that Black Adam is working his way back into a JSA title.

Midnighter #20

This is a the final issue in a story that, I'm just gonna say it, got pretty bland after Giffen took over. Love Giffen, but this just wasn't a good run. This series started with a fantastic Ennis story about traveling through time to kill Hitler, and continued to be very good until the latest storyline. This issue, however, was pretty good. Certainly very violent, which is the reason to read Midnighter comics.

I am sorry it's canceled because I was hoping for a day that it would get awesome again. Oh well. If only the Morrison/Ha Authority comics would ever continue.

Justice League Unlimited #46

Another final issue. I find it sad when an all-ages title bites the dust, but I guess it's inevitable when the series has been off the air for several years. And, really, the series was more for nerdy adults than kids anyway. The end of this series means the end of the fantastic institution that is Justice League Unlimited. A great show, and a fun comic. This issue, much like every issue of this series, probably had too much going on in it for young kids, which is why Super Friends makes a lot more sense as an all-ages title. But it did make me think that a Green Lantern Corps cartoon series/all-ages comic would be a great idea. I mean, come on...Gnort? Gnort is made for all-ages reading!

Trinity #1

I love the cover because Superman is all "My logo's in focus! Bam!" As an aside...I really hate that Trinity logo. It's like "We need a logo for this series...pile them all on top of each other! No wait...that looks weird...um, blur the bottom two."

I had pretty low expectations for this, after the crushing disappointment that was Countdown. This wasn't bad though. At worst, it was boring. And that's just how I felt. Maybe I just don't have the energy for another weekly. The issue was fine, I just didn't read it and think "Sign me up for another 51 issues of this!"

The Amazing Spider-Man #561

This was SO GOOD. Really, there are no complaints at all about this series so far coming from me. Especially if they are putting people like Marcos Martin on art. (It should come as no surprise that I am a huge fan of Batgirl: Year One).

I never thought I would say this, but Spider-Man is now one of my favourite titles. And JLA is one of my least favourite. What crazy, upside-down times we live in.


Sorry these reviews are so late this week. I was having some computer troubles. Better late than never though, right? And I am trying really hard to not make it never.