DCU Comic Book Reviews

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #8

The Others Among Us, Part 8

May 2007

Written by A. J. Lieberman

Pencils by Al Barrionuevo

Inks by Bit

Cover by Al Barrionuevo & Bit

Synopsis

J’onn J’onzz (aka Martian Manhunter) is at the home of Dr. Keane, the man who held White Martians captive and tortured them to find methods to combat J’onn.  Unfortunately, J’onn does not have proof.  Rio Fernandez arrives with the proof that will put him away forever.  Three days later, J’onn apologizes to Superman for his recent behavior.  And he tells Superman there is a second Green Martian somewhere on Earth.  Meanwhile, J’onn waits patiently for the White Martian Till’all to find him.  When Till’all does, J’onn needs help to find the Green Martian.  With a telepathic link, J’onn learns all that he can from J’onn, he pretends to leave, but comes back when the Green Martian arrives.  It is Sara or Cay’an and she wants to destroy J’onn because she feels he was responsible for the destruction of Mars.  The two fight.  Later, J’onn takes Till’all to visit Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman at JLA headquarters.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

On a general level this was a fairly decent ending to the mini-series which makes a few changes to the Martian mythology without overtly changing anything.  White Martians can still be the bad guys even a writer wanted to go that way, despite Till’all’s status at the end and J’onn is still left alone since Cay’an has disappeared.  She is the type of villain that can appear and reappear at whim whenever a writer needs a villain for J’onn (and if I had to guess this was goal to the story all along). 

For me, the defining moment of this entire mini-series occurred when the Green Martian finally revealed herself.  We finally know who she is and who she was pretending to be.  At that moment, all I could say was that now, finally, the character’s inclusion into the story made sense.  It is sad, really.  The few panels detailing Sara’s plan up to the point actually tells the story better than what the story told.  This story has been too convoluted and I think has been told poorly.  I think Lieberman has failed to provide context to motivations and actions or even just plan segues from one scene to the think.  The perfect example of this is the fight between J’onn and Cay’an.  One minute they are locked in battle and the next we get an unidentified man offering thanks to J’onn for what he did.  So, uh, what happened?  How did the fight end?  Am I missing something?

Can I just say how stupid Cay’an’s Martian outfit looks?  Who the hell wears something like that?  Just dumb, dumb, dumb. 

Is that the first look of the new JLA headquarters, which is supposed to be unveiled in Justice League of America, issue #7, which had been published at the time of this issue?  I would assume it was just a generic location.

Comic Connection

The story of J’onn’s brother Ma’alefa’ak and the destruction of Mars can be found in the 1998 series Martian Manhunter (Volume 2).