DC Comics

Launched as a minor feature in Police Comics #1 in 1941 (originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics), Plastic Man is a creation of artist and writer Jack Cole. He initially thought of a character named the Indian Rubber Man, inspired by sideshow freaks, but Everett Arnold–who was the founder of Quality Comics–suggested naming the character after that material that was all the rage at the time.

According to Art Spiegelman, who profiled Cole for The New Yorker magazine, in 1943, when Plastic Man expanded into his own book, Cole explained the morphing hero to new readers: “If you should see a man standing on the street and reaching into the top window of a sky-scraper…that’s not astigmatism—it’s Plastic Man!… If you happen upon a gent all bent up like a pretzel…don’t dunk him…it’s Plastic Man! All this and bouncing too, you’ll see when the rubber man and his pal Woozy Winks gamble their lives in—The Game of Death.”

This is the story of Patrick “Eel” O’Brian, a lowlife gangster. While committing a robbery, he was accidentally doused by some unnamed acid. Nursed back to health by a reclusive order of monks, Eel became a new man. He now had stretching abilities that defied the laws of physics and, inspired by the teaching of the monks, he was now ready to put his criminal past behind him to protect the law–he first helped the police force and later became a special agent for the F.B.I.

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Introduced in the story “The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel” in Detective Comics #225 (1955) by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa, the Martian Manhunter is a DC Comics superhero also known as J’onn J’onzz (often pronounced “John Jones”).

A green-skinned humanoid from Mars, J’onn J’onzz came to Earth with an experimental teleportation beam constructed by Dr. Saul Erdel who can’t send him back before a few years. In the waiting, the Martian Manhunter shapeshifts into a human. When Dr. Erdel is killed, he has no way to go back to Mars. He then decided to fight crime under the identity of John Jones, a detective in Middletown, USA.

During this time, J’onn J’onzz revealed his existence to the world to act publicly as a superhero and became a founding member of the Justice League. However, he still kept his secret identity “alive” until “Detective John Jones” was killed in action. After that, he moved to The House of Mystery to fight a supernatural menace.

With Superman taking a bigger role in the Justice League, the Martian Manhunter became less and less present. At the end of the 1960s, he eventually went back to Mars and only appeared occasionally in stories and didn’t make a real comeback until 1984 (in Justice League of America #228). Three years later, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, J’onn J’onzz stayed in the Justice League of America, unlike most of the other previous members. He quickly got a short miniseries that retcon his origin stories.

Now, the Martian Manhunter is the last of the Martian race. He has a lot of powers as he can shape-shift, fly, has super-strength and speed, possesses enhanced senses, can turn invisible, communicate telepathically, move objects via Telekinesis, and more! Despite his fear of fire, he is one of the most powerful heroes of the DC Universe. Also, he is known for his wisdom, calm demeanor, and profound sense of duty.

Read More »Martian Manhunter Reading Order (J’onn J’onzz)