18 hours Ago By David Harth
Absolute Martian Manhunter is a massive success on every level. Absolute Martian Manhunter #1’s sales success earned the series six more issues, and it changed everything we thought we knew about the Martian Manhunter. It’s also just a beautiful piece of art, as writer Deniz Camp, artist Javier Rodriguez, and letter Hassan Otsame-Elhaou create a piece of pop art unlike anything else on the comic stands.
Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 is a worthy follow-up, bringing chaos to the order that the first issue dropped on readers. We got to see how John Jones and the Martian Mindhunter work as a duo, some clues on the what exactly is going on with the two of them, and finally who the big bad of the series is going to be — the White Martian. Fans of Grant Morrison’s blockbuster JLA run will find the White Martian familiar, as will fans of the cartoon Young Justice.
The lore of the Martians has always been sort of important to the history of DC. Martian Manhunter has been around since the last gasp of the Golden Age, first appearing in 1955’s Detective Comics #225, which came before the birth of the Silver Age in 1956’s Showcase #4. The White Martians have been around for decades, but they’ve only become important in the last thirty years.
They’re very important to the history of DC, and look to being important to the Absolute DC Universe.The White Martians Are an Army of Superman Level Threats in the Mainline DC UniverseThe White Martians first appeared in 1969, back in Justice League of America #71. They were called the Pale Martians back then, and were one of several races that lived on Mars.
The White Martians were referred to as Pole Dwellers, living at the north and south poles of the planet. The White Martians were the warriors of the Martian race, and the Justice League ended up battling General Blanx, defeating him with the help of Martian Manhunter. The White Martians would also appear in the book Son of Vulcan, but would be forgotten as the years have gone on.
Well, forgotten by everyone but Grant Morrison, which is honestly pretty normal for DC. Morrison made them the secret villains of the first four issues of JLA, with a group of White Martians posing as human superheroes known as the Hyperclan. They were meant to be the top of the spear of a White Martian invasion, with more of them waiting in the Ghost Zone — which seems to be the Martian name for the Phantom Zone — to attack the Earth after the defeat of the metahumans.
They captured the League, but Batman was able to figure out their secret, using fire against them all while Martian Manhunter pretended to join with them out of Mars pride.RELATED: Grant Morrison’s Most Underrated Work Will Change Everything You Know About ComicsMartian Manhunter used his powers to make the White Martians forget who they were, but he missed some. The White Martians have returned several times over the years, mostly in Martian Manhunter series — of which there have been several since the late ’90s — and JLA.
Eventually, Miss Martian would join the Teen Titans, vouched for by Martian Manhunter, and it would be revealed that she wasn’t a Green Martian, but a White one. Miss Martian was popular enough to get a role in the cartoon Young Justice and the Hyperclan appeared in “Future State”, a DC publishing initiative that came out after Death Metal but before Infinite Frontier. The White Martian Is a Huge Threat to the Absolute UniverseAbsolute Martian Manhunter introduces them as the singular “White Martian”.
They don’t have a physical form, but seem to be a creature of mental energy that can move from being to being, much like the Green Martian Mindhunter. John and the Mindhunter defeat one, but it’s hard to tell whether there’s only one or an army of them. However, they definitely seem to be a widespread threat.
Trigger Taylor, the human that the White Martian possesses, believes that they’ve infiltrated every corner of the Earth. There’s an irony to the whole situation, as Taylor is possessed by an alien and is defeated by someone else possessed by an alien.The Earth of the Absolute Universe is a place where evil always wins.
It was created by Darkseid for some mysterious reason, and so far everything we’ve seen about it is a world where the worst people hold everyone under their thumb. The White Martian could very easily be a weapon of Darkseid, used to keep the world under control and to cause chaos. Absolute Martian Manhunter looks to pit the two types of Martians against each other, rekindling a battle that’s been fought in DC for decades.
Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 is on sale now.The post Absolute Martian Manhunter Just Got a Major Enemy (& It’s a Huge Deal) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
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