How J'Onn Could Work: Condition #1

I'd really love to do a "Why I Should Be Writing Martian Manhunter", like that blogger did about the Legion of Super Heroes and, if you believe the interwebz, almost got a job out of it. But I know that Grant has to have a way to bring him back all plotted out, so there is even less reason for a barely published writer to try to pitch.

So, instead, I'll be giving you how he could work as a character to build damn entertaining stories around.

Condition #1: He doesn't have to always be written as a poor man's Spock. Having the perspective of an alien who survived his whole race fading from existence is great, but it doesn't mean he has to be written as devoid of emotion all of the time.

The Spock approach worked well in Justice League/Justice League International because he was part of a large ensemble cast where he had great value as a straight man and filling a two dimensional role. But this is not how he has always been written. It has gotten to the point that no one remembers that the character has great emotion at times (one of which is shown above, from JL: A Midsummer's Nightmare, a mini that preceded Morrison's run on JLA).

It would seem that the Giffen/DeMatteis work had the unfortunate side effect of sapping all passion out of the character. Any perfectly acceptable emotion had to be a warning sign (Joe Kelly's great arc where J'Onn was transformed into a nigh unbeatable villain) or a lingering negative side effect (the craptacular AJ Lieberman mini where his emotions were from his WWIII exposure to Black Adam).

Readers have a hard time identifying with an emotionless character that studies the human race like a science experiment. If you absolutely MUST do something like that, then you need a regular cast member that serves as the reader's entry point.

But this shouldn't be necessary, since J'Onn is capable of demonstrating feelings and should show this a helluva lot more often than he has in the last decade or more.

He's not Spock, dammit...and even Spock demonstrated some emotion about once a film (translates to once an arc?).

How J'Onn Could Work: Condition #1: He needs to go back to showing just enough emotion to be able to have readers identify with him more. Maybe a little more, but never a little less.