DCU Comic Book Reviews

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #4

The Others Among Us, Part 4

January 2007

Written by A. J. Lieberman

Pencils by Al Barrionuevo

Inks by Bit

Cover by Al Barrionuevo & Bit

Synopsis

Before his death, Alex Ferguson created a videotape of everything that happened to him since he found the Kuru pendant that belong to a Martian.  That videotape eventually finds its way to Alex's girlfriend, Sara Moore.  While the escaped Martians learn to effectively cloak themselves as humans, the corporation that held them prisoner attempts to find J’onn J’onzz and the Martians as well as find Sara Moore.  After she views the video tape, Sara decides to take it to the local news station.  Both the corporation and J’onn try to intercept her. J’onn is able to take her back to his place.  He then reveals to Sara the existence of the Martians.  At that moment, the corporation attacks, using specialized weapons designed to burn Martians from the inside.  One Martian gets killed, but the rest are able to make their escape. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

As I said in the previous review, this mini-series is slowly losing me and I am beginning to understand why.  There are two reasons.  The first is that the corporation is basically a lackluster entity whose evil plans are not clearly defined, unless their plan was to create weapons based on Martian physiology.  If that is it, then it falls into the lame category.  Of course some of the problem lies in the fact that there seem to be a lot of different characters (some given no names at all) and adding in J’onn’s shape shifting and the change in now and then and it gets confusing to remember who is who.  At least this issue sticks with the present.  The second problem is that the Martians are poorly characterized.  There doesn’t seem to be much personality to them.  We are not given enough time (in terms of pages) to get to know them and what we do get is mostly the Martians fear humans variety that we got in this issue.  Besides, it seems as if Lieberman is more interested in Alex Ferguson and Sara Moore than he is about the Martians no one though existed (and exactly where were they before they were captured?  And how long were the captured?).  Another thing that I can’t understand is why J’onn just doesn’t leave the planet and go somewhere else.  I am willing to bet the corporation can’t follow him, so why stay on Earth and put yourself in harm’s way. 

So, where are the heroes that were promised from the last issue?  Did I miss something?  I thought they assigned to find Martian Manhunter.  They don’t know where he lives?  I am amazed that the big cliffhanger from the previous issue could be ignored so easily in this issue.