I'm sure this has been at least theorized.

But... Has it ever been explained what exactly is the source of the Martian power?

Most known superheroes have in one way or another, had their abilities credited to one or multiple sources of power. But when it comes to Martian Manhunter, besides from The Burning explanation for their weakness, I don't remember any writer ever tackling that 'little big elephant in the room'.

@heavenlydarkdragon: i believe they're simply the apex of evolution, if you look into the lore theres a lot to do with meta genes, so i'd like to think they were masters of genetic engineering and could give themselves new meta genes for other purposes, for them, i imagine it wouldn't be any different than buying tools for a job, though i think shapeshifting telepathy ESP and psychokinesis come standard with all martians, or should anyway

@xargo:

But the sheer amount of abilities... And some people talk about Superman. Powerwise J'onn has pretty much every power in the book.

The problem with meta-genes is that when it's only one power or various manifestations of the same, it's easy to accept. J'onn powers are simply too much.

He has just like Superman godlike level of strenght, speed, stamina and resistance. He can shoot energy through his eyes, he can see through solid objects, fly, shapeshift, telepathy, telekinesis, psionic blasts, change his density making him become intangible or harder, change his size. In rare cases he's even showed a limit form of teleportation. And he can split himself into many bodies, that way if his original body is destroyed he can always resurrect himself.

So basically he's like the love child of Superman, Jean Grey, Vision, and Mystic

Meta-genes could be used to give a oneshot explanation, without actually being a explanation.

Honestly I'd much prefer if some writer said that Martians were born with a natural connection to the Emotional Spectrum, and their biology allowed them to harness it giving them those powers. That each power was a representation of said connection.

For example.

Their purely physical abilities, like strenght, speed, resistance, stamina, and even the martian vision came from the red part of the spectrum.

Their telepathy came from the indigo and yellow part of the spectrum.

Their psychokinesis came from the blue and violet part of the spectrum.

The shapeshifting and density control came from the green part of the spectrum.

The ability to see through objects, from the orange part of the spectrum.

Something like this. Just so at least we could get and idea were all that power came from.

I personally prefer characters that actually have a power source, be it the Sun, Speed Force, Magic, Emotional Spectrum, Quantum Field, nanotech, some form of radiation.

Genetic engineering is cool and all, but, for example like with the mutants of Marvel saying that a single mutant chromosome is the source of all those powers, or even a meta-gene, it works... but only if we close our eyes to the simple fact that a single gene or chromosome could never produce such effects.

Just would prefer if the Martians had something feeding those powers. Even if it was like Aquaman and atlanteans, a result of genetic manipulation through the use of magic.

@heavenlydarkdragon: lol im glad im not the only one who noticed the x gene and the meta gene are basically the same thing, i agree some of his powers are a bit too much, like the multiplying thing and the martian vision doesn't seem right without any energy source, most of the others I'm fine with the the superman ish powers like x ray vision and super breath feels unnecessary, I'm good with most of the others his writers need to improve on his lore way more so this stuff is addressed. were i writing it id make it as if they're one of the oldest and most evolved species in the universe that know how to give themselves this kind of power.

@xargo:

That or bring back The Burning, explanation.

I believe it was during post-Crisis that this was adressed. Basically the story was that once it appeared a race called The Burning, that had the potential to destroy all life in the universe, but the guardians of Oa stepped in, and because even they couldn't destroy them, they instead chose to split The Burning into two races, the white and green martians.

And also they gave them their fire vulnerability so they never again could become The Burning.

DC could reintroduce The Burning concept and say The Burning were much like what the Oans were. One of the oldest races in the universe, that at a given moment raged a war agaisnt the original race of Oans the Maltusians, and lost. And has a consequence the Maltusians placed a kind of seal on The Burning reducing them to current martians.

And just like the Maltusians got their powers from their powerful minds, The Burning could be shown that they too had powerful minds that got severaly reduced in power due to the war with Maltusians, but that they still were able to hold on to a good portion of the original power.

And has the generations have been passing on the Martians have been slowly regaining the powers their original race had.

Basically all the powers of the martians could be explained has being their ability to draw on the very psionic energy of the universe. Just like later on, the Oans drawn upon the emotional spectrum.

Martian Manhunter problem is that he's too much like Superman in terms of powers. It's like DC needed to create a character that could handle Superman, and so they created a steroids version of Superman and called him Martian Manhunter.

Just throwing some ideas around.

Batman once looked at Mars through a telescope and the mere glance from our lord and savior granted all Martians with their abilities inadvertently.

I'd like it if they said their power was more linked to their shape-shifting. If they can alter their dna and not just their appearance then couldn't they "program" any power they want into themselves? MM could have several different forms he could take all with different abilities and vulnerabilities. Could be a way of limiting the op ness of the character if he could only combined certain powers in one form at any given time but it would also make him limitless as he could gain any power he wants.

@heavenlydarkdragon: I agree with this soooo much.

Fernus the burning needs to come back!

@kiba:

Yes it could all be linked to their ability to shapeshift.

Not just their form but also their dna.

Although there is a problem with that. The same problem that stops us humans from simply using transgenics to simply improve our DNA.

In theory we could basically take the best of each individual species, or any species with a ability that would be useful to us, and simply add it to our DNA.

But there's a catch. How long would it take for humans to stop being humans altogether.

The same goes for Martians. It would come a point where all that adding of powers or abilities would lead J'onn to become not-Martian.

Also shapeshifting is one of the strangest powers there is. Because one is simply, willing changes to its dna with pinpoint precision.

And anyone that knows anything about DNA is that it's terribly complex. Even 1/10 of a change in it can have great consequences.

And for Martians or anyother species to be able to simply know by instinct or whatever, what works and doesn't work. That would require something like Quantum processing ability, to study the change desirable and its impact on the whole DNA structure.

Not impossible mind you. There are rare species one in particular, in the real world that can not only regenerate any part of its body, even if you were to cut it in half, but it has been recently discovered, it can also adapt itself to include certain traits from the other species to its own. Although of course that adaptability is severally limited.

But nice idea though.