Martian Manhunter's History
J'onn J'onzz is the Martian Manhunter, one of the last survivors of the planet Mars who came to Earth in search of justice and peace.
Life on Mars
Millions of years ago, Mars was a living world, populated by a race of humanoids divided by skin color. However, one day the populace received a psychic warning, which the government perceived as a threat and recruited several of its people, including a young J'onn J'onzz to investigate. While on their mission, the government agent Ma'alefa'ak unveiled a double-cross, killing all of the subjects except J'onzz and then used their blood for a magic ritual that super-empowered J'onn - permanently, against his will.
Hunting Ma'alefa'ak, J'onn discovered a monster - the cause of the psychic warning that had sent him on the mission in the first place. Taking the shape of J'onn J'onzz's son, the monster explained that it was the embodiment of the dying Martian biosphere, trying to warn the populace to help it. However, the embodiment decreed that they were unworthy, and Mars and the Martians died, throwing J'onn to Earth, where he lost himself in an infinity of identities before finally, millions of years later, he attempted to become a hero once again.
Justice League
Soon after the formation of the Justice League, J'onn tried to join the team, under the hero identity of Martian Manhunter. Having forgotten his past, he could not give them answers about himself, which led to his brief tenure with the group ending in distrust and a fist-fight.
Stormwatch
J'onn, not left cynical from his expulsion from the Justice League, became a member of a group called Stormwatch, who protected Earth from super-powered threats in a more "professional" (rough but functionally covert) way.
With Stormwatch, the Martian Mahunter helped fend off a war with creatures of the Moon. However, finding he was not at place with Stormwatch, J'onzz attempted to leave the group but realized that they would perceive his departure as a threat to the secrecy of the group. Therefore, to prevent them stopping him, J'onn wiped their memories of his membership entirely and vanished, searching for a place where he belonged.
Justice League of America
Martian Manhunter was later contacted by Amanda Waller to join her government-funded 'Justice League of America', which, unknown to the members, was constructed to combat the real Justice League if the heroes were to go rogue. J'onn was chosen as a foil for Superman.
He was imprisoned during the Crime Syndicate attack, but used his powers to free Stargirl, enabling her to help save the day. Afterwards, they founded Justice League United, a non-national superteam which could bring superheroes together.
The Epiphany
While investigating a disappeared lunar astronaut, J'onn was attacked by foes who sparked his buried memories of his origin. Running back to Earth, he fought against an inexplicable wave of terror-bombings, dying as a result.[6] However, his remains were gathered by a disparate group, who were compelled to bring the remains to a holy site in Ghana.
Teleported to a paradoxical Mars, the group discovered that they were various aspects of J'onn's psyche, split off and given bodies, and that any or all of them could become the next Martian Manhunter. However, they also discovered they were being hunted by Ma'alefa'ak, the mastermind of the scheme, who wanted to use them as magical fuel to save Mars under his rule.
After much conflict with Ma'alefa'ak, the group (including J'onn himself) was able to return the martians back to the past, save the human refugees stranded on Mars, and join together once again to form J'onn J'onzz as a whole.
Dark Nights: Metal
Shortly before the invasion of the Dark Multiverse, J'onn went to Thanagar Prime in search of more Nth Metal, where he later on found Mister Terrific and Green Lantern imprisoned by Starro and Onimar Synn. J'onn freed both Hal and Michael, and then stopped the Thanagarians from firing against Earth with the Phoenix Cannon, also rescuing Plastic Man from the grasp of Synn. Soon after, three of the Dark Knights appeared on Thanagar, revealing that both the Cannon and Plastic Man were part of their plan to finally drag the whole Multiverse into the Dark. Inverting the polarity of the Cannon, they shot Plastic Man at the Earth's core, starting a chain reaction with Hawkman's Mace, currently at the Rock of Eternity, that would sink Earth and the whole Multiverse inside the abyss known as the Dark Multiverse.
J'onn was captured and transported to Earth by the Dark Knights, and was put in trance like the other prisoners. Wonder Woman, back from the Rock of Eternity with Hawkman's Mace, was able to wake them all up, as she clashed the Mace with her Bracelets. J'onn fought together with the other heroes against the forces of Barbatos, with the Multiverse winning against the Dark thanks to the retrieval of Element X inside the World Forge. After the fight, J'onn was informed about the consequences of their war: the Source Wall broke apart, and now the Multiverse stood unprotected. Later, he took part on the mission to stop the Omega Titans.
The Totality
Acting as the president of the reformed Justice League, J'onn was key to stop a plan by Vandal Savage, which aimed to move Earth away from its orbit to avoid it from colliding with an object coming from space, called the Totality. To stop this plan, the Manhunter had to destroy the Moon, helping himself with explosive previously implanted by Batman. He then convinced the League to vote for letting the Totality hit Earth, convinced that it might be a positive thing that will lead to the healing of the Multiverse, damaged after the rupture of the Source Wall.
After the vote was cast and the Totality hit Earth, J'onn received from a dying Vandal Savage knowledge, which revealed that his choice led Earth to a road towards Doom. As this knowledge was hard to even process, J'onn dismissed it, and went on with his life, as the decision was taken and could not be reverted.[13] Back on Earth, the League decided to explore the surroundings of the Totality, trying to reach it and discover its secrets before others could. As the only members of the League physiologically able to compensate the powers of the Totality, Superman and the Manhunter were selected for the mission.
Both of them picked a partner tasked with the job of residing, miniaturized, inside their bodies, to eliminate the mutated cells the Totality would create inside them. J'onn, because of her great experience in centuries of battles, chose Hawkgirl.[14] Once there, J'onn made contact with the minds of some of the Source Wall's guardians, who came down with the object as well. In their minds, he saw confusing and terrible visions, and he was also attacked by the guardians, who wanted to kill him and called him First Abomination.[15] In a moment of peace, J'onn revealed to Superman he went to Thanagar to find The Keep, a martian who stored inside her mind all the history of his race.
J'onn wanted to know why his race was exterminated, and the Keep told him it was a coincidence, a random tragedy. But the visions J'onn saw in the minds of those guardians told otherwise: the Martians were part of a deeper, darker secret. J'onn was afraid to be the key to Doom. Taken by surprise, J'onn heard Superman confirm his thoughts and thank him. Soon after, he also discovered his friend was controlled by Lex Luthor, who laced through his brain while inside him. What he could not know was that the Joker soon would do the same with him.
Getting back to the Hall of Justice, J'onn took part in a final, desperate counter to stop Lex from reaching the Totality, while Earth was in great risk of being absorbed by the dark powers of Umbrax. Together with John Stewart and the Flash, he opened his heart and let humanity see his weaknesses and fears, and their combined effort made Earth itself become a White Lantern. As Flash was then able to cast Umbrax away, harnessing the Still Force, the League stopped Luthor in his tracks, with Kendra able to take the Totality thanks to a connection she did not know she had with it.
J'onn then decided to take on another mission: as the Flash told him about the visions he had while accessing the Still Force, the Manhunter, afraid of what these new truths meant for his race, took the decision of getting back to Thanagar, to once again question the Keep. He asked Hawkgirl and John Stewart to join him in his task, which they accepted to do. Before leaving, Superman and Batman confirmed to him that no matter what happens, the decision they took because of his words was still, in their hearts, the right one.
Misson on Thanagar
Together with Hawkgirl and John Stewart, J'onn reached Thanagar Prime, the hidden center of the Thanagarian Empire. There lived the Keep, another Green Martian who held the knowledge of all of J'onn's race: the Manhunter hoped she could help him understand the visions he had while near the Totality, and also why Kendra's wings are connected with the object. Once there, they are welcomed by Shayera Hol, Empress of Thanagar, who took back her homeworld from the mad Onimar Synn. Shayera told J'onn that the Keep was dead, and she excused herself for not having the sensibility to deliver a message to him. If they looked for answers in Thanagar, they would be disappointed. Still, Shayera offered them hospitality, asking them to stay on the planet during a traditional Thanagarian festivity.
Kendra soon made clear she was convinced that Shayera held secrets back from them, and wanted to investigate. While the festival started, the three Leaguers tried to find more information: noticing a dance floor offering a favorable point of view, Kendra asked J'onn to dance with her, leading the Martian to have a conflict with himself. He clearly felt something for Kendra, but he was still bonded to his wife. Soon, Kendra found out that Shayera was lying about the Keep, and that the Green Martian was held prisoner inside Thanagar Prime's intergalactic vault. Thanks to J'onn's psychic illusions, they were able to flee and hide before the Thanagarians could kill them.
J'onn, who lived on Thanagar for a while, explained to his comrades that the central planet of the Empire was hidden because inside of it there was a vault, containing all the most dangerous or important objects of cultures of all the universe. That was also why the Keep lived there. J'onn then developed a plan to enter the vault unnoticed, so that he could find the Keep and talk with her. Succeeding in getting inside, the Manhunter found the Keep and learned from her that Thanagar Prime and its soldiers were all constructs she was tasked to make by Shayera, with a powered-up Absorbascon. Soon though, she would die, and the planet would revert to its original form.
She also revealed to J'onn the visions he had were true: Martians were originally merged with Humans in another race, a race connected to a being called Perpetua, the mother of a Multiverse which came before the one they live in. Most importantly though, she revealed J'onn that in his past, while still a child, he was kidnapped from Hypertime by Lionel Luthor, who made experiments on him in an effort to recreate the Martian-Human hybrid that existed in the past. After telling this to J'onn, the Keep died and the constructs of the Absorbascon with her. Shayera was repented of her actions, and asked for forgiveness: the Universe was in fact afraid that if the Justice League went on with the research connected to the Totality, all reality may suffer a tremendous blow.
With new, terrible truths in his heart, J'onn came back to Earth together with the rest of the League, who came to Thanagar thanks to the powers of Starman.
Apex Predator
After discovering he was kidnapped by Lionel Luthor in the past, J'onn decided to contact Lex Luthor alone, meeting him on Mars, to ask him explanations about why his father wanted J'onn's genetic material. Truthfully, the Martian Manhunter remembered that Lex, a kid at the time just like J'onn, helped the little Martian escape under the false name of Albie, because he was afraid to make J'onn discover he was Lionel's son. J'onn and Lex were friends when they were children, both victims of the crazy machinations of Lionel.
J'onn tried to reach out to Lex, and make him side with Justice, but failed. He then took part in the Justice League's expedition inside the Sixth Dimension, after Mr. Mxyzptlk gave them access to that dimension. There, the Justice League found a Multiverse where Justice won, an utopia where the good reigned supreme over evil. In this paradise, he was married with Kendra, and they had a son together, named Shayne. It is Shayne himself who revealed them that all this was not the future, but a completely separated Multiverse created by the World Forger, who was tricking them by taking on the aspect of an older Superman, while the real one was imprisoned.
Together with the other members of the League, he was able to convince the World Forger to not overwrite the current Multiverse with the one he created, where anyone who did not side with Justice was either killed or imprisoned, but to fight alongside them in the real Multiverse. Once back from the Sixth Dimension, J'onn and the League learned of the Offer made by Lex, to raise the Multiverse in the name of Doom, and J'onn guessed Luthor was still alive somewhere, faking his death to put emphasis on his words to all living creatures. He started to hunt him down, and found instead Lionel Luthor in Sacramento.
He soon discovered that the Lionel he was fighting with was not real, but an Amazo construct of Professor Ivo, who was working for Lex, trying to recreate the hybrid species Perpetua made out of Martians and Humans, which Luthor and Ivo called Apex Predators. As Ivo tried to take genetic material from J'onn, Hawkgirl found him and helped him escape, also realizing Ivo was not the real one, but a machine as well. Getting out of the place, J'onn got contacted on a private telepathic channel by Lex, who told him to meet him, alone, in a certain place. To make sure he was alone, J'onn had to put Kendra to sleep with his powers, with the promise of Lex that no harm would be done to her.
J'onn reached Lex's secret base, finding him transformed. Without realizing it, J'onn fell into Lex's trap: Luthor needed a Martian to complete his transformation in the Apex Predator, after he was exposed to all the seven negative forces of the Universe. In front of an impotent Kendra, J'onn's entire molecular structure was absorbed by Lex, leaving apparently no trace of the Martian Manhunter's consciousness.
Return and Death Metal
While the Justice/Doom war conflict started, J'onn was still alive inside Lex Luthor, but unable to return to a physical shape. Thanks to the sacrifice of Shayne, who substituted himself to him, J'onn was resurrected, and was also filled with the power of the Justice Totality, a powerful part of the original Totality which gathered the seven positive forces of the Universe. Thanks to these powers, J'onn tried to contact the whole Multiverse with his mind, to revert the will of the Multiverse to side with Doom, but was unable to convince enough people. As Doom won over Justice, Perpetua tried to kill all the Justice League with one blow.
She would have succeeded if not for the Quintessence, a group of all-powerful beings who found a way to make the Justice League able to counter Perpetua: they had to access the Anti-Crisis energy by entering an odyssey made of all their biggest adventures. So the League started their mission, and they were able to gather the Anti-Crisis energy, but in the final fight against Perpetua, they lost. Coming back to Earth 0, they discovered that the Batman who Laughs dethroned Lex as Perpetua's right hand, and that the deranged Batman was starting to transform their planet into what would become the Metalverse. After failing to stop the Batman who Laughs, J'onn was one of the heroes who got imprisoned inside New Apokolips
After Wonder Woman and Batman freed the heroes from their imprisonment[32], J'onn decided to take on the mission of destroying the Throne of Perpetua alone, facing both the Omega Knight and the Mindhunter, as he still was cursed by his guilt in letting the Totality fall to Earth in the first place. Trapped by the Mindhunter, a Dark Multiverse version of Batman who modified himself with Martian DNA who was trying to steal J'onn's link with the other members of the League to unveil Wonder Woman's plan,[34] he was rescued by Kendra, and the two decided to be serious about their love story. Then, he helped Kendra's team defeat the Omega Knight and free the Legion of Doom from Perpetua's Throne.
As the Batman who Laughs, now transformed into the Darkest Knight, killed Perpetua and launched the final assault against the Multiverse, J'onn fought alongside the others against the forces of the Last 52.[36] After the heroes won, thanks to Wonder Woman's sacrifice, he took part on the Totality project, becoming a member of the secret alliance between heroes and villains to protect reality itself. While there, he was part of the team studying the undergoing mutations of their Multiverse, consequence of the deal Wonder Woman made with the Hands.
