DCU Comic Book Reviews

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #3

The Others Among Us, Part 3

December 2006

Written by A. J. Lieberman

Pencils by Al Barrionuevo

Inks by Bit

Cover by Al Barrionuevo & Bit

Synopsis

J’onn J’onzz thought he was the last Martian, but recently he has found five Martians.  He has freed them from their laboratory prison and taken them to his home on Earth.  Meanwhile, Alxe Ferguson, the man who found the Martian pendant that led J’onn to the Martians, is on the run for his life.  He fears the director of the laboratory, Ms. Rio and the man who came to get the pendant, Mr. Dyer (who happens to be J’onn in disguise).  Elsewhere, Ms. Rio visits an unknown man and lets him know what happened to the laboratory and the prison.  The man wants her to find Mr. Dyer.  Later, Ferguson finds Dyer’s offices, but it is empty.  Suddenly he is attacked.  J’onn comes to the rescue, but fails to save Ferguson.  J’onn also realizes that whoever attacked him has managed to harness Martian power and use it as a weapon.  J’onn goes to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to inform them what is happening.  Elsewhere, the man from earlier says a group of powerful individuals have broken free, courtesy of the Martian Manhunter.  He wants to know how to stop them and asks Black Canary, Zatanna, Conner Hawke, Vixen, and Hal Jordan for help. 

Review

Somewhere along the way, this series and the storyline lost me.  Some of that has to do with the constant flipping through the timeline from now to previous back to now and back to a different previously and so forth like a ping pong ball.  This is evident by the frequent use of notes in this issue to punctuate dialogue to let the reader know when certain events actually happened.  While this issue is fairly linear, there are still a lot of back and forth and odd moments that don’t seem to make much sense.  Take for instance the scene on page 10.  The man wants the five he selected.  There are five Martians missing.  Is it them?  Or is he referring to the five heroes on the final page?  (and if so, who was not in the Western Hemisphere?  Conner?  Hal?). 

Beyond the time issue and the confusing sequence of events, I am also a little confused regarding some of the actions portrayed by some of the characters.  In particular, I am scratching my head over the Trinity.  They seem to be more worried about J’onn’s use of his powers than actually helping him.  Are they that scared of him?  Aren’t they friends?  Don’t they know him?  Wouldn’t they be willing to help him and find out who is responsible and free his people?  Or are they so afraid of J’onn they are afraid that five more Martians would spell doom for Earth?  I think the scene is supposed to show a grimmer, darker side of J’onn, to show how dedicated he is to helping His people, but it really just made the Trinity look like dweebs. 

In addition to that, when Alex Ferguson is talking into the camera, he says he is not safe, but then he states he needs to find Dyer.  Since he seems to think Dyer and Rio are working together, dontcha think he should go and get help somewhere rather than do it himself?  How stupid can you be?  You tell yourself, I am in big trouble, so what do you do, you try to find the one who might in on the whole thing. -- Review by MRB