Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

[oryanfactor]

Not really "Hero System" related as such, but need help with a Super-Hero/Comic Book trivia question.

 

Can the Martian Manhunter fly and survive unaided in outer space? And, was this always true?

 

Here's a thought that occured to me. If Doctor Erdel transported Johnn' to Earth and he can fly through space, why didn't he just go home??

 

 

Feel free to add other improbable origins.

 

oryan

[eavatar]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

because mars is a wasteland now

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

Initially, one has to assume this wasn't a possibility as he was stranded on Earth. Initially, however, he was a detective with wierd powers, not a Superman clone.

 

I think he'd been around several years before appearing in JLA and getting beefed up to Superman status.

 

Under current continuity, he has always been able to travel through space, but he was dragged through both space and time, and present day Mars is uninhabited.

[Haerandir]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

And, sadly, he didn't get to be in the Superfriends cartoon, so he doesn't get to go home using his 'various means of time travel'.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

i think it was in the martian man hunter miniseries where it was explained that the rest of the martians had been killed by a psychic virus

[McCoy]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

Johnn' is the textbook example of adding XP to a character with no reguarde for original concept.

 

I consider him, not Barry Allen, to have been the original Silver Age character.

 

Originally, all his powers came from his superior/more evolved Martian brain. Upon arriving on Earth he learned English instantly by telepathically probing Doctor Erdel's mind. He could also mentally manipulate light waves so he could project an illusion of human apperance or turn invisible.

 

Telepathy, invisibility, illusions to cover himself only. This was the original power suite. That and his detective abilities.

 

Then somewhere along the line the illusion abilitiy was dropped in favor of shapeshift. Apparently a new editor, writer, or both assumed that because Johnn' and Kal-El were both aliens, they should hve the same powers. His shapeshifting abilities were expanded to stretching, then desolidification.

 

New powers with no reguard for original concept.

[input.jack]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

Yeah, but the Justice League Animated Series version of him is so cool!

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

...New powers with no reguard for original concept.

I beg to differ. Except for the super strength, perhaps, all of the Manhunter's schtick falls under the classic early pulp sci fi paranoid musings on little green men from Mars. They can look like anyone...or anything! They can read our minds! They could be standing right next to you, and you'd never know...because they can turn invisible! He's a Martian visualized by the paranoid. I have no problem with that concept.

[BlackSword]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

...and can fly, and has laser eyebeams, and go desolid...

 

As much as I like Martian Manhunter, his power suite is Superman Lite, with Mental Powers thrown in.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

For a long time during the early Silver Age, "super" was a term to refer to the entire suite of superman's powers. If Lois became "super", she could fly, use heat visions, etc. Superchief had Superman's powers, so did Vartoxx, and a host of others. If they got the power of super stretching (like Elastic Lad), they would be described has having a super power. But if someone was just plain "super" that was shorthand for "has powers identical to Superman's".

 

Martian Manhunter was likely powered up during this period. "He's from outer space? Gosh! He's super!"

 

Here's a good article on J'onn's history.

 

Keith "gosh!" Curtis

[Kenn]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

I've not read many of the early J'onnz solo stories, but in the silver age Justice League stories, his flight abilities weren't powerful enough to get him home to Mars.

 

Of course, I don't know that he ever asked Superman or Green Lantern to fly him home either.

 

I think it had to do with him having been in exile from his own society, even before he was brought to Earth.

[Vorsch]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

If you dont need to breathe and have at least 1G acceleration force of will flight, you can get to mars in

 

1/2s=(1/2 at^2)x2

 

200x10^9=at^2

 

(200x10^9/a)^1/2=t

 

39 hours, and i belive hes faster than that. twice that if mars is farthest away from earth

 

Ilike him better than superman, for all his stupid unrelated powers.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

Of course' date=' I don't know that he ever asked Superman or Green Lantern to fly him home either.[/quote']

That was the problem with a lot of legacy Silver Age characters as they began to truly integrate the DC universe. I always wondered why Adam Strange didn't ask for a lift from Superman, rather than trying to catch that Zeta Beam every month.

Some characters work better in a vacuum.

 

Keith "In fact, a lot do" Curtis

[shaunclinton]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

I always thought Rann was supposed to be too far away for Supes to easily reach. However Green Lantern is a different story seeing as Oa is away at the centre of the Universe. Still, you don't want to be reliant on your mates all the time, eh?

 

Spaceflight travel times are one of the most bizarre things about comics and in general characters speeds vary tremendously based on the needs of the story. I recall one in particular were Superman and GL were off doing a tour of the solar system on their lunch-break or something similar which is just bizarre given that Supes can't travel at those superluminal velocities (or so he'd have us believe!!!)

 

Anyway, back on topic. I have to admit I'm a huge fan on J'onn and all his crazy powers. The one thing that's ever stopped me from doing a homage is trying to come up with any sort of justification for all of his abilities without just saying he's a martian! He isn't really to blame for all the retconning and strange decision making that has blighted his career. I think in recent years good things have been done in terms of unifying conflicting elements of his backstory (the pyrophobia vs. physical weakness for instance) and the Ostrander title of a few years back was a lot of fun whilst it lasted.

[Kenn]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

That was the problem with a lot of legacy Silver Age characters as they began to truly integrate the DC universe. I always wondered why Adam Strange didn't ask for a lift from Superman, rather than trying to catch that Zeta Beam every month.

Some characters work better in a vacuum.

 

Eventually, Dr. Strange (Adam, not Stephen) got a lift from Hawkman and Hawkgirl (the silver age Katar and Shayera Hol), but after not too long fell back into his zeta beam habit.

 

Maybe he just didn't know Superman or GL* well enough. On Rann he was a big deal. On earth, he was nobody.

 

* Except Flash nominated him for JLA membership.

[Kenn]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

I always thought Rann was supposed to be too far away for Supes to easily reach. However Green Lantern is a different story seeing as Oa is away at the centre of the Universe. Still, you don't want to be reliant on your mates all the time, eh?

 

Spaceflight travel times are one of the most bizarre things about comics and in general characters speeds vary tremendously based on the needs of the story. I recall one in particular were Superman and GL were off doing a tour of the solar system on their lunch-break or something similar which is just bizarre given that Supes can't travel at those superluminal velocities (or so he'd have us believe!!!)

 

During the silver age, the 4.5 light years between Earth and rann would be paltry to Superman, who regularly traversed the galaxy. Post-Crisis, he lost the ability to travel at superluminal speeds. During the Infinite Crisis he apparently regained the ability, as the Supermen flew Superboy to Krypton's star system (some 50 light years away) in a matter of minutes.

 

the Ostrander title of a few years back was a lot of fun whilst it lasted.

 

Amen.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

wasnt he working with pre crisis superman which would explain the whole intergalactic flight speed

[shaunclinton]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

I always liked Adam Strange... I think the first story he featured in that I ever read was one involving Kanjar Ro and his Gamma Gong. His plan was to visit Rann with its triple sun system that would make him 3 times more powerful than Superman, 3 times more willfull than GL, 3 times bustier than Wonder Woman, etc.

 

That's when you knew it was the Silver Age... when crazy sh*t like that worked and then Adam Strange thwarted him with a bit of metal from his home planet. Superb.

 

As I recall he got a lift from GL in that one. Some tomfoolery about the Zeta beam wearing off to help him escape the effects of the Gamma Gong and then getting GL to whip him off to Rann.

 

Infinite Crisis had some infinitely ridiculous moments! I was pleased to see that they didn't cheesily have Conner beat up Superboy Prime though - that would have been a bridge too far. Not that whipping through the gulf of Krypton, its Red Sun and then crashing on GL planet wasn't cheesy enough though. Despite all the silliness it didn't have the tongue in cheek (and excellent) tone of DC 1,000,000 though.

[shaunclinton]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

Back just after the crisis Superman couldn't breathe in space and took a few minutes to reach the moon.

 

Before long all that changed and by the time he came back from the dead he could super-oxygenate his lungs for extended space action and could whizz between here and the moon in no time.

 

Fast forward to Our Worlds At War and breathing didn't even seem to be a consideration (saying that, even the Flash was hand-waved to freely breathe (and RUN!!!!!!) in space at that point it seemed) and he could cover pretty much any distance within the solar system in virtually no time.

 

Cue Infinite Crisis and again they rammed his speed to ridiculous levels. Whether or not he was with pre-crisis Supes he still was attaining that ludicrous Earth to Krypton in 3 panels or so velocity!

[oryanfactor]

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

 

The problem with a low-powered Superman is that he is superfluous, he becomes Generally-cool-powers Man. If Superman can't fly the fastest, be the strongest, have the best morals and be the first Superhero, he loses his whole raison-de-tere. Even the Golden Age Superman is like that, he just works in a different way. The GA Superman, even at lower power levels, is the toughest son-of-a-gun in any story he is in.

 

That's why post-crisis Superman never quite worked, he just wasn't "Super"enough. He needed a space-mask to breathe, couldn't travel faster than light through space, and was no longer "a legend throughout the galaxy!"

 

oryan

 

PS I wonder how Kanjar Ro would've done in the Carrg System from Legion, whose triple sun system causes it's inhabitants to split into three identical people......