Why does DC hate Martian Manhunter?

Their refusing to use Rebirth as reason for re establishing his ties to the Justice League speaks volumes.

Who f***&^; knows at this point.

No idea. No one can make the claim that he is too small-time to be on the Justice League when Cyborg has actually diminished in popularity since n52 and the loser rookie GLs are on the team.

They made some half-hearted efforts during n52 with him being part of the government's JLA and suggesting that he had some history with the real team, but never explaining it. As of now, it doesn't really matter if he is part of the JL. That book was pretty mediocre during n52 and is garbage now and has been since novice writer (and terrible artist) Brian Hitch took writing duties.

I found the MM solo book interesting (not great, but decent) and wish they would have continued on with it.

Better question -- why do people act like they like Martian Manhunter? DC has tried to push him multiple times before but his comics never get the sales to justify continuations. All I see is people complaining about his absence from the original Justice League as if they really care beyond nostalgia for nostalgias sake.

He's a meh character to me honestly

People are upset because he was a key part of the Justice League. Not every character is strong enough to hold their own series but that doesn't make them any less important to the League during the biggest moments of the team's history. He's as much of an iconic part of the team as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are. It might be for nostalgia but that doesn't make people wanting him bad wrong.

Take the upcoming Venom movie Sony wants to do for example. Venom has very rarely ever been able to keep a long running solo series going and is most certainly not a strong enough character to carry an entire movie by himself. That doesn't mean people don't still want Venom to still be a Spider-Man villain or part of his history.

Nah, besides a few runs (and they were great), MMH has always just been a recognizable face in the original Justice League. If he were in the original league still, I bet you the majority of people complaining wouldn't give a damn if he hardly got attention. They just want him to be there. And no, nostalgia isn't wrong, but if they really wanted more MMH they would buy his comics. So, I disagree with your assertion that the character isn't strong enough to hold a series. Any character can hold a series if the sales are there. MMH doesn't have that.

Well, Venom is a Spider-Man villain, part of his supporting cast. MMH is his own character. He's not supposed to just be part of the Justice Leagues supporting cast.

What about Cyborg? His sales tend to not do well well either and he's still stuck on the League. And now that I think about it, you're right about Venom and the example I used should have been Cyborg. He was a big part of the Titans and the Teen Titans, but it's doubtful that, even before the New 52, that a solo series of his would have been able to sell enough to keep the series around. But people would and still do want him as part of the Titans because that's where he's at his best. I agree that Martian Manhunter is not a supporting cast member but he is best when he's part of a team, just like Cyborg. Though of course it depends heavily on the team they're on. Cyborg worked best with the Titans and J'onn worked best with the Justice League.

Another example I could use are the majority of main X-Men members. Most are characters that work best as part of a team book rather than in their own solo series. Like J'onn, Storm is her own character and not just part of the X-Men's supporting cast, but that didn't save her series from cancellation. Heck, I'd argue it even works the other way around with some characters. Spider-Man, when he's on a team book, is more often than not written as an overly jokey and annoying character because those tend to be the only traits the writer thinks about when writing him, so he more often works better in his own solo books.

I don't think they hate him, more so they don't know what to do with him. Reminds me of the Sentry, powerful character, but writers have difficulty writing for them.

This.

as depressing as it is...this might be a factor. not as many people seem to truly care about him outside the League. probably doesnt help that none of his series outside of the Ostrander one has really made an honest attempt at developing his personal mythos and supporting cast outside of the f&*(ing martians.. Rob Williams series was interesting for most of it but by the end was confusing to me personally.

I have no idea. MMH is awesome, I've always been a fan, and I always will be.

They don't hate him.

They don't hate him they just have no clue what to do with him, it's hard writing very powerful characters.

He literally would fix every story they've had so far and I don't mean as in quality I mean he could solve mostly all the arcs they've been through.

'cause he's too alien and unrelatable, therefore unusable for live-action media except for a few cameos here and there. So rather than waste prime comic book space on him, they'd rather give it to someone more human that they can "advertise" for whatever they produce next.

You know, just like this female warrior princess tied to Greek mythology that they previously said couldn't carry her own film.

Ppl are talking about "ppl don't buy his comics", but he's only had....3 shots at a series? One of which was VERY popular in the 90sz

He's a good supporting character but he doesn't have main event status pull.

DC heard fans always talking about how he kinda made Lantern and Superman irrelevant with his superior Hax at times.

Also Him just not coming in and using said hax to stop a villain instantly (especially the bricks) made for alot of plotholes meaning that they just had to keep making more ridiculously Overpowered Villains.

Put him in a team where he is the clear, unarguable powerhouse, so that he fills a niche and no one gets redundant.

I would like to make him the power house and Professor X from a team. It would be cool him mentoring new heroes.

They would rather use Cyborg in his place (b/c of the upcoming movie) and make everyone forget that MMH ever existed.

What's weird is that this was actually a variant cover for Justice League #1 (Rebirth):

because his name is sexist and should be changed to Martian PERSONhunter.

Joke lol.

Still being treated better than Shazam

The words you're looking for are 'stupidly overpowered'.... When you make a character super-everything it gets really hard to write modern & interesting comics without introducing equally super-powered villains at which point you run into the famous "Superman dilemma" where the character is akin to a god and all other heroes (in his periphery) look like insects in comparison but to keep people reading & buying you need more and more OP villains to challenge the hero and/or some really lame gimmick to cripple the hero to give a lesser villain a chance OR you turn the whole book into a 'soap drama'.

They have a crush on Cyborg instead.

I'm much more pissed that they refuse to use him in the movies than the comics. He's had his chances in the comics. But, he was very popular in the Cartoon show so why the freak won't they try to fit him in the movies. Goyer claims it's because he's overpowered, but if they make their movie Flash lightspeed im going to cry bullsh*t...

I don't think they hate him...more like, "What should we do with him."

Because:

1) No-one actually gives a f**k about Martian Manhunter. Like someone else said, they mostly want him there for nostalgia points. Even the animated series struggled half the time to actually make him relevant or interesting.

2) Martian Manhunter doesn't really have all that much of a well-defined personality beyond liking oreos. He used to be a detective with Superman-level powers but DC dumped that years ago. Now he's just Superman plus shapeshifting and psychic ability.

omg

As if his actual name wasn't enough of a mouthful.

@orangebat: what about his sense of humor? He used to pose as an inept supervillain henchman and trip crooks up by acting incompetent for the lols. Or his compassionate, patient and sage nature with which he used to provide invaluable console and support to many heroes over the years of every tier.

I agree with all those who have said the issue is how to use him. I don't think he's massive set of powers is too much of a hindrance. Telepathy can be sidelined through personal choice and even more explanations could be found to limit the use of his more exotic powers.

That being said, although I love MMH, I don't think he necessarily needs a solo series. I'm perfectly happy with him just being a justice league mainstay.

Storm is my favourite member of the X-men, but I certainly didn't buy any of her solo issues or particularly wish for elaborate individual stories.

He should be in a team book imo.

IF they want to give another shot at a solo, let Tom King tackle him.

I just want DC to realize how important he is to the League.

Didn't his last comic sell pretty poorly for a character that so many people apparently care about?

He should definitely be part of one of the team books. No question. There isn't a good reason for him not to be.

mostly due to maritan manhunter not having an alter ego. I think if they set him into the world as some kind of alter ego with personality and character he would do fine.

@supermanforever: you mean John Jones?

Also, Aquaman. And Wonder Woman has not had a secret identity in years.

@supermanforever: Martian manhunter has numerous alter egos with the Detective John Jones alter ego being chief among them. At least he did pre flashpoint.

Who knows at this point /.\

I dont think they hate J'onn, I think however the overbosses of Warner Bros have had a part to play in all of this when they decided they needed to make a JL film. Because they weeded out the potentially toxic GL brand, they couldn't add John Steward and they couldn't put out a movie about 4-5 white people and one green guy in this day and age. So out went J'onn and in came Cyborg, possibly one of the most popular black heroes DC has at the moment.

But regarding comics, while it is a shame his old ties have not been reestablished... much like the New Teen Titans haven't really been, I think DC is also trying to build/grow J'onn as a character that operates outside of the JL book.

If you read the last limited series, J'onn still maintains several secret identities, and up to that series had several separate persona's running around with their own lives and thoughts not knowing they were all part of the Manhunter... right up until he realized he had let it run too far and absorbed them all, which was sad.

Plus in the olden days he also maintained the John Jones private eye persona, and later expanded to include a bunch of others he went through once in a while to better understand the human condition.

Ill check it out. But i remember during Smallville series when Jonn was detective an all that. Would be cool to see something like that. It could be done decently if they did some kind of Origin story when he was on mars or something like that and he becomes last survivor and thing like that and then comes to earth. We comic book fans have knowledge about origin story, but casual movie goers know origin stories of likes of superman, batman, spider man etc. most of them probably dont even know Martian Manhunter. Would be cool to maybe introduce him in one of the DC movies sort of cameo like WW in Bvs and then do separate origin story. I love martian manhunter and lets hope we will see him on big screen sometime in dceu.

because he is not batman

Nice to see they are finally taking him seriously.

In fairness, Batman and Wonder Woman are being faced off against Elmer Fudd and the Tasmanian Devil, so it's not like he's being given special ridicule.

Cyborg. For whatever reason Jones has been replaced.

I didn't care much for MM in the animated series anyway.

His comics don't do so well, probably because he lacks depth as a character and DC hasn't allowed much time for him to grow very much. Does MMH even have an alter ego?

@itouchedtheboat: Several. He's the ultimate catfish.

Boring character, "survivor of another race" archetype that we've seen 1000 times. If a writer were skillful in using him we could get some good stories and development but as it stands no one is interested in touching him