Martian Manhunter, Volume 1 by Rob Williams

Williams does a great job handling the despondency that forever lies just below the surface of DC’s almighty green alien. Now, they’re making their big move, and the Martian Manhunter plays a bigger role than any would have guessed. Martians have not only invaded Earth, but have been acting as sleeper agents for years, enacting clandestine acts of terror against mankind.

J’onn sends out a telepathic warning to the planet’s heroes, foretelling a terrible and ominous future. In Martian Manhunter, written by Rob Williams with art by Eber Ferreira and Eddy Barrows, aliens are very much amongst us on Earth. Frequent Justice League stalwart (and the eternal voice of reason in the fantastic Justice League cartoon of the early 2000s), J’onn doesn’t get nearly as much playtime in the DC universe as he ought to, which is why it’s so great to have a new Martian Manhunter series on shelves. Mike Logsdon is a master of Kung Fu and of reading comics.For all his manifold powers-strength, intangibility, shape-shifting, flight, telepathy, and on and on-J’onn J’onzz, aka the Martian Manhunter, is one of DC’s more unfortunately overlooked heroes. That said, some characters come off looking somewhat odd. There are instances where the panels themselves are broken up by the events of the story, and even our hero himself. Eddy Barrows does a great job of incorporating the fluidity of our main character into his designs and even the very layouts. It’s all still a mystery, but an intriguing one at that. He’s also got a fondness for something that may raise the eyebrows of astute readers. He’s strange, and is seemingly disconnected from the main events of this issue. There’s also the introduction of another character who may or may not play a supporting role. The threat will be familiar to fans of the character, but it’s also quite terrifying. All the while, the very thing that has caused him to stray so far from who he wants to be rears its ugly head once again.

He writes a frustrated and depressed character who, despite his violent past and his very nature, simply wants to be the compassionate hero he knows himself to be. Martian Manhunter has had a rough go of it since the start of the New 52 and Rob Williams writes the character as if he’s just as sick of this fact as you are.

Martian Manhunter, Volume 1 by Rob Williams