DCU Comic Book Reviews

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #7

The Others Among Us, Part 7

April 2007

Written by A. J. Lieberman

Pencils by Al Barrionuevo

Inks by Bit

Cover by Al Barrionuevo & Bit

Synopsis

In the sky, J’onn J’onzz is fighting Dal’en, a white Martian.  J’onn is able to stop him, but he realizes that he will have to three more times, for each of his “friends” that he had helped escape from the laboratory.  In New York City, Rio returns a box full of confidential information to her employer, but when Mr. Keane opens the box he finds it’s empty.  Meanwhile, J’onn finds all of the White Martians and subdues them all but one:  Till’all.  Later, J’onn realizes that someone might have set the White Martians free.  J’onn races to Keane’s house, where Rio is watching, expecting to find a White Martian, but Keane is indeed a human and he is dying.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

As a quick, easy read that helps to clear away some of the unwanted characters to get to the final conclusion this was not a bad issue.  The battles with the White Martians were handled well (and the pacing was even and the fights were nicely choreographed) and the final conversation at the end between J’onn and Sara helped to put some of the events into perspective.  Like the rest of this mini-series, however, I still have no feelings for any opf the characters, I still don’t know what Rio is up to or even why Sara is still working for the people who kidnapped her and may have killed her boyfriend.  Lieberman has put all of the pieces onto the chess board and it has been fascinating to see how they have been moved around, but frankly I don’t really care about any of the characters, which is not good with the finale right around the corner. 

I can say that I am not all that surprised that Keane would be human or that Rio might possible be another White Martian (or at the very least the one responsible for it all).  It is a trademark of this mini-series to lead in one direction and then reveal something else entirely (actually that pretty much sums up the first six issues with regards to the White Martians).  Sadly this issue is undermined by the fact that the last time the White Martians, it took the combined strength of the JLA to defeat them, but J’onn is able to take them on all by himself? 

Could the missing Till’all be Miss Martian in the Teen Titans?  The age of both would be correct (at least from what I can tell).  I can’t remember if Till’all was given a gender, or if that makes a difference to Martians when they assume different forms.