DCU Comic Book Reviews

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #6

The Others Among Us, Part 6

March 2007

Written by A. J. Lieberman

Pencils by Al Barrionuevo

Inks by Bit

Cover by Al Barrionuevo & Bit

Synopsis

The Feds capture Rio Fernandez, hoping to learn more about the mysterious death of Alex Fernandez.  When she refuses to talk, they let her go, hoping she’ll take them directly to the one who betrayed her.  Meanwhile, J’onn J’onzz has learned the one of the Martians has killed two DEO agents.  He learns that it is Dal’en, who collapses from something done to him in the lab.  While their blood is analyzed to see if they were infected, J’onn visits Batman, looking for him.  Batman turns him down.  Later, Alfred supplies the name for him.  Elsewhere, Rio finds Mr. Keane, looking for retribution.  Mr. Keane convinces her it was Giggs who betrayed her.  J’onn also confronts Mr. Keane, but is stopped by Superman.  Then J’onn gets a distress call; Dal’en is getting sicker.  When J’onn finds Dal’en, he suddenly shifts in appearance and becomes a White Martian!

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I can’t say I am at all that surprised by the ending.  I would like to see it, but I can’t.  It seemed as if the series was heading in this direction pretty much from the beginning.  Granted, I though this would happen in the penultimate issue to set up the finale, so I am curious to see how this will affect the last two issues.  Are these white Martians who were made to look like green Martians in order to kill J’onn or were these green Martians that were turned into white Martians?   

Once more, this issue features a number of different characters moving around and doing things and talking to people, but it does not seem like anyone is actually doing anything.  For instance, Rio is take custody, ostensibly for killing Sullivan.  But how is this related to J’onn?  Yes, she is connected to Mr. Keane and yes she was involved in the plot with the Martians, but at some point she no longer became relevant.  Here encounter with Mr. Keane was pointless.  Or was it.  After all, someone sent her to Boston looking for whatever is she is looking for.  And we get back to the problem I stated in previous reviews:  the transition from scene to scene don’t always make sense.  This is also true of Sara, who went from someone scared of the Martians and being locked away in a room to someone willingly helping them analyze blood samples.  Here shift was not adequately explained.  And did Lieberman establish that she is a scientist in earlier issues?  I don’t remember.