J'onn J'onzz

* John Jones
* J'onn J'onzz
* Martian Manhunter
* DCIU Concept Art

July 8th, 1978 (on paper, as Jones)

J'onn J'onzz does not discuss his childhood other than to describe it as the most difficult eighty-five years of his life. At a young age, J'onn realized he was not like most Martians and had difficulty fitting in socially.

When J'onn was old enough to undertake an assignment from the Martian Council of Elders, he chose to become a Chronicler for Mars' sister planet of Earth. He lived among humans, perfecting his shapeshifting, and telepathically telegraphing what he had learned about Earth's culture to the Martian Archivists. J'onn remained on Earth much longer than he was required to fulfill his commitment to the Martian Elders. J'onn had become fascinated by the humans people and finally felt accepted in a way that he never had on his home planet.

During this time, he became a schoolteacher in the American West until a call to action led him to join a posse to pursue justice, thus introducing J'onn to what would become his lifelong ambition: the pursuit of justice.

J'onn lived out no less than three lives on Earth. He was a happy Martian, but like all good things, it came to an end.

In the early-1900s, Mars fought a civil war between the Insular and Colonial factions. The war ended in the 1940s, with the Insular faction proving victorious and thus all Martians were called back to Mars. J'onn resisted the call at first, preferring to remain on Earth. J'onn's resistance became such a source of contention among the Elders that a Martian by the name of M'yri'ah, a Thought-Mage, was sent to compel J'onn to return. M'yri'ah was surprised to find that J'onn, a mere Chronicler, had the willpower to resist her telepathic advances and after months of J'onn resisting M'yri'ah's telepathic urges, the two fell in love and then M'yri'ah was able to coerce J'onn into returning to Mars simply by asking him nicely.

M'yri'ah and J'onn became mates in a ceremony that linked their minds together. This act allowed J'onn to gain access to M'yri'ah's Thought-Mage powers and also allowed M'yri'ah to realize just how much J'onn hated being stuck on Mars.

M'yri'ah would constantly argue on her mate's behalf to be granted permission to live off-world, but was denied. J'onn finally found a way to cope with life on Mars when M'yri'ah gave birth to K'hym, their child.

For J'onn's civil duties, the elders tasked him with placing sanctions against those who did not agree with the Elders. In this capacity, J'onn met Ma'alefa'ak. J'onn initially felt like this Martian was a kindred spirit as both felt like outsiders on Mars. When tasked to put sanctions against Ma'alefa'ak, J'onn decided to take a stand defied the elders, proclaiming himself as Ma'alef'ak's advocate.

J'onn, in turn, became an Arbiter (which is like a lawyer) and used his knowledge of the law to argue on Ma'alefa'ak's behalf, earning Ma'alefa'ak a reprieve from the punitive measures the Elders wished to impose upon Ma'alefa'ak for his abnormal behavior.

J'onn was praised as something akin to a civil rights leader among a minority of Martians for a time and seen an upstart by the Elders. But that was just the beginning of J'onn's relationship with Ma'alefa'ak.

Years after J'onn helped get Ma'alefa'ak an exoneration, Ma'alefa'ak repaid the debt by breaking into J'onn's home and murdering M'yri'ah and K'hym, believing that by doing so he would release J'onn of the only anchors tying him to Mars, thereby allowing J'onn to pursue his dreams. When J'onn discovered what Ma'alefa'ak had done, he nearly killed Ma'alefa'ak, but instead chose justice over vengeance. Ma'alefa'ak was brought before the Elders by J'onn with the Arbiter now arguing for Ma'alefa'ak's execution before the Council of Elders.

The Council could not fathom a heinous act such as execution and instead chose to send Ma'alefa'ak to Sector 2813 to be banished to the recently reinstated Kryptonian prison known as the Phantom Zone. J'onn personally escorted Ma'alefa'ak to Krypton with the Green Lantern Tomar-Re. After the sentencing of Ma'alefa'ak, and having many long conversations with Tomar-Re, J'onn decided that he was going to apply for the Lantern Corps.

After befriending Tomar-Re, J'onn decided to join the Lantern Corps, J'onn applied to the Elders for permission to join the Corps and was told that he could only do so when there was an opening in Sector 2814. J'onn continued his work as Arbiter as he waited for such an opening to present itself. Much of his work as an Arbiter was focused on social reform and criminal justice, trying to correct the flaws he saw in Martian society.

In 1983, a position opened in the Lantern Corps, but Abin Sur overlooked J'onn in favor of Thaal Sinestro, Abin Sur's own brother-in-law. Deciding he did not need a power ring to make a difference and more or less saying "screw you" to the Martian Elders, J'onn did what no other Martian had ever done before and joined the Manhunters. The Manhunters are a peacekeeping predecessor to the Corps which still retained nearly as much legal authority as the Corps but had become tarnished over the years, regarded as little more than galactic bounty hunters. Though J'onn did his best to elevate the position by maintaining his status as an Arbiter and conducting himself as an ethical professional, he was still shunned on his homeworld simply because of the stigma associated with his profession and J'onn's well-known nonconformity.

As a result of this ostracization, J'onn used his status as a Manhunter to pursue criminals on Earth, thereby taking advantage of a legal loophole that allowed him to stay away from Mars as much as possible. J'onn was successful in capturing galactic fugitives that were hiding on Earth, yet despite his success, J'onn did not make any friends among his own people; and his growing attachment to Earth’s people, cultures, and desserts did not do him any favors.

Eventually, upset with Martian isolation and ignorance, J'onn exiled himself to Earth, bringing with him a youngling Martian obsessed with Earth culture (see “M'gann M'orzz"), also eager to put her planet’s prejudices behind her. Using his people’s natural shape-shifting talents, J'onn began his fourth main identity as an Earthling, taking the name 'Mark Shaw', an identity he would uphold for many years in the eighties and nineties, as he lived out the life of a police detective by day and a Manhunter by night.

During this time, J'onn apprehended the fugitive Zazzala and brought her to justice, rescuing the life of Garfield Logan in the process.

When J'onn learned of an approaching Kryptonian vessel heading to Earth, piloted by Brainiac, the rogue A.I. that had destroyed Krypton, J'onn gathered up several of the nearest of Earth’s “heroes” and together these “Super Friends” took a stand against Brainiac’s invading robot army. This act resulted in the birth of the Justice League. Since then, J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, has been a key member of the Justice League, I’m pretty sure J'onn also has about 10% of the world’s supply of Chocos stockpiled in the basement of the Hall of Justice.

After the founding of the Justice League of America, J'onn J'onzz decided he would adopt a permanent human identity. Naturally, J'onn settled into the identity of a wannabe cowboy due to his interest in the classic western genre of our planet’s cinema. The simplicity of good guys versus bad guys appealed J’onn’s personality, I guess.

At first, the identity of John Jones was intended as a hobby or recreational retreat from the burden of superheroics and his duties as a Manhunter; but in 2005, J'onn J'onzz and M'gann M'orzz received word to return to Mars. J'onn suspected that something was strange but did not expect he and his apprentice were being led into a trap. Upon arrival, they found their homeworld overrun by a biological weapon in the form of a disease engineered by Brainiac and implemented by a maniacally deranged Martian named Ma'alefa'ak (or "Malefic" as he is known now). This bioweapon (based off the enzymes from the creature known as Doomsday and fused with an alien virus from deep space) hijacked the shapeshifting abilities of the Martian populace and robbed them of their sentient though and skin pigmentation, transforming the entire world into rampaging ghostly white mutants. Basically, like living space zombies, I guess.

Though J'onn was able to avoid infection thanks to the intervention of the Lantern Corps and an injection of Malefic's own immunization serum, the rest of the Martian populace was not as fortunate. J'onn helped the Lantern Corps destroy the spaceports on Mars and install a worldwide quarantine in hopes that a cure could one day be found.

After returning from that ordeal, J'onn decided to put his training as a Martian constable and Manhunter to use as a sheriff’s deputy in Blue Valley, Colorado. In time, John Jones became a fed, transferring to the United Stated Marshal’s Service. It wasn’t long after that transfer that John Jones was reassigned to serve as the USMS's liaison to the newly created A.R.G.U.S. sponsored Interagency Meta-Criminal Apprehension Taskforce where he arranged to be assigned Diana Prince as his partner so that the Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman could help cover for each other.