Martians are quite possibly the most powerful beings in the universe. Every member of their species has the potential for numerous superpowers, such as shapeshifting, flight, telekinesis, superstremph, phasing and telepathy. These are the main Martian powers, but there are quite literally dozens of others that they can develop, one of these being invulnerability. But despite this invulnerability, Martians are still weakened by fire, but if they're invulnerable, then how can fire possibly hurt them? Well, there have been several explanations given in the comics. The first is that the Martians are just inexplicably weakened by fire. My physiology and McGanns are susceptible to extreme heat, which was originally the explanation given in the comics when Martian Manhunter was first created. But later on in the comics, this was changed so that Martian Manhunter only had the weakness to fire psychosomatically, meaning that it was all psychological and in his head. This is due to the overwhelming guilt that he feels as being the last survivor of the Martian race. As all the rest of his species have of course died in fire-related circumstances. I escaped. I survived. To my great shame. This explanation is also the one used in the new 52 version of the DC Universe, though this may be changed in the future and rebirth. It's also worth noting that the flames don't technically hurt Martian Manhunter, as he is invulnerable, he just thinks it's hurting him, which is pretty much the same except that he isn't actually causing Martian to have any physical damage. Now this explanation only makes sense if Martian Manhunter is the last Martian alive, but in other DC universes, such as the TV show Young Justice, the Martian race is thriving. So it's not possible for Martian Manhunter to have survivor skill, as his race is very much alive. And the third, and most interesting explanation for the Martian's weakness to fire, was revealed in the Justice League of America comic issue 87, and it was due to a war with the Guardians of Ola and the Martians. Now the Guardians of Ola created and run the Greenlands and Core, they are a very powerful race for mortals, or at least all but in mortal as they have been known to die before. Now thousands of years ago the Martians were very different to what they are now. They were known as the Burning, because they used their shapeshifting powers to turn their skin to flames and were perpetually on fire. They also spread like fire and were very violent and barbed-out species that fed off of other suffering. They used fire and other suffering to ace actually reproduce. The more suffering they fed off of, the more children they were able to produce. And when they began to develop the technology to leave Mars and spread their violent ways across the universe, the Guardians decided they had to step in and stop them. The main problem with Martians was that they just didn't have a weakness. Whereas other species do have got light power, such as the Kryptonians, the Kryptonians at least have Kryptonite or Red Sun radiation to help balance out their power. Building solar lamps to simulate the rays of your native Red Sun was like loophers idea, in case you were wondering. Run Superman! Get out of the light and your powers come back! But there was no other species that could really stand up to the raw power of the Martians. They lived for centuries and have more superpowers than pretty much any other species, continually grown stronger the older they get. And since the Guardians didn't want to wipe out the species entirely, as they sought the Martians had the potential to become quite a noble race. They instead decided to give them a weakness in the form of fire. The reason they chose fire was actually rather simple. Fire was actually what made Martians so violent and able to feed off of a suffering and reproduce so quickly. If they weren't actually on fire, they were actually quite a peaceful and noble race, and they did not feed off of a suffering or want to inflict harm. Basically they took the fire that was the greatest strength of the Martians and made it into their weakness to stop them from ever becoming this barbaric again. Now the Guardians didn't have the power to make the Martians vulnerable to fire physically. Instead the weakness they gave them is just psychological. They imprinted a fear of fire in their genetic makeup to make them think that as they were exposed to fire, it would hurt them. Kind of like a really extreme form of hypnosis. And because of this, it takes away a Martian's greatest weapon, their mind. All a Martian's powers come from being able to focus their minds, and without this focus, the Martians are quite weak, and in some cases can't even keep their bodies together, collapsing into pools of liquid. So the weakness was essentially given to them to make it possible for other species to survive them, because if they didn't have a weakness, there was no one that could stand up to them and they pretty much could rule the universe. The Guardians also divided the race into the green and white fractions to further spin into the species and protect the universe's population. The idea behind this being that the Martians would fight amongst themselves, rather than fight any other species. And that is why the Martians are vulnerable to fire. Which does kind of make a lot more sense than the Martians just inexplicably being weakened by heat. After all, one of the powers they can develop is heat vision, just like Superman's. So it doesn't really make sense that they can create fire, yet are weakened by fire. But what do you think? Do you prefer the Guardians planting this weakness in the Martians' minds, or that they should just be inexplicably weakened by fire? Be sure to let us know in the comments, along with whatever you think this will be changed again in the reaper of comics. And just like I say, a quick thank you to those who donated to Needlemass Productions page on Patreon. Patreon is a crowdfunding site that is helping us to bring you more videos each week, and to raise funds for adapting comic book stories into short animated films. If you're interested in donating, or just want to find out more, there is a link in this video's description. And as always, thanks for watching, and feel free to subscribe, share, like and comment.