Martian Manhunter

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**J'onn J'onzz** was a inhabitant of Mars during the era of the Green Martians. After a planet-wide act of genocide enacted by his brother Ma'alefa'ak, J'onn lost his wife, children, and was left as the only survivor of his people. In the centuries that followed, J'onn traveled to Earth where he would set up a number of identities using his shape shifting powers. The latest of these identities would be **Calvin Swanwick**, who had formerly served as a Lieutenant General during the Black Zero Event, holding the position of head of United States Northern Command, being is tasked with preventing any possible threats towards the United States and her interests. Hence, he formed an alliance with the alien hero Superman in order to defeat the extreme threat posed by General Dru-Zod and the Sword of Rao.

At some point during the two years after the Kryptonian invasion, Swanwick became promoted to United States Secretary of Defense, and he attempted to aid Superman again, this time against the monster Doomsday, though his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Calvin having desire to both honor Superman's legacy, and protect the Earth from threats beyond the Earth, he assisted Batman in the formation of the Justice League. J'onn would first reveal himself as both alien and superhero, when a large scale alien invasion struck the Earth. From that point on, J'onn was officially made a member of the Justice League.

## Biography

### Early Life

Thousands of years ago on the planet Ma'aleca'andra (Known to Humans as Mars), the Green Martians known as M'yrnn and Sha'sheen gave birth to twin sons. The bearing of twins was uncommon among the Martian culture, and as such, the first of the twins was named **J'onn J'onzz**, whose name means "Light to the Light." J'onn's brother however, was born a mutant, bereft of a Martian's innate ability to communicate telepathically. He was named Ma'alefa'ak, whose named means "Darkness in the Heart". As an adult, J'onn became a Manhunter (police officer) and married a Martian woman named M'yri'ah. The two established a modest home for themselves beneath the windswept Martian plains and gave birth to a daughter named K'hym.

### Loss of Family

Years passed, and J'onn's brother Ma'alefa'ak grew to despise everything about Martian culture. In an ambitious endeavor to commit full-scale genocide against his own people, he engineered a contagious virus known as H'ronmeer's Curse. The virus reacted to telepathic energy, and carried from one Martian to the next whenever they elected to use their psionic powers. The plague responded to a Martian's innate fear of fire, causing them psychosomatic stress so intense, that their bodies and minds would literally burst into flame.

J'onn desperately tried to keep his wife and daughter from using their mental gifts, but they were unable and so, contracted the plague. K'hym was the first to experience the symptoms, and M'yri'ah followed soon after. J'onn was anguished as he watched his family burning to death before his very eyes. The trauma of the event shattered his psyche, and nearly drove him mad. With the H'ronmeer's Curse widely dispersed across the surface of the planet, the Green Martians died out along with the planet. J'onn was the only survivor of his brothers act of genocide, leaving him as the sole Green Martian in the universe. With nothing left on Mars but death and pain, J'onn left his life behind and sought to live on the closest planet in the galaxy, Earth. J'onn would spend thousands of years using his shape shifting to live as dozens of newly formed identities, this cycle repeated itself with J'onn losing more and more of his Martian identity, until the early 21st Century where J'onn's latest identity would be in the form of Secretary of Defense **Calvin Swanwick**.

### Kryptonian Invasion

While still serving as a General, Calvin Swanwick was alerted to the mission control room at Peterson Air Force Base when a huge UFO settled into orbit near Earth. Shortly thereafter, a menacing message was sent all across the Earth from the extraterrestrial General Dru-Zod, who demanded that a fellow alien from his planet, a man named Kal-El (who had tried to blend in with Earth's population for decades), be handed into his custody, and that if the latter wasn't turned in to Zod within 24 hours, the entire planet would suffer severe consequences of apocalyptic proportions.

Kal-El himself arrived at a military base shortly afterwards, surrendering if Lois Lane was to be freed. Kal-El and Lois sat in an interrogation room where the General questioned Kal-El on his motives, before handing him over to Dru-Zod's second-in-command,Faora Hu-Ul, who requested that Lois come too. When 2 bogies descended from the General Zod's starship into Earth's atmosphere, Swanwick order a strike to take them out, led by Colonel Hardy.

After the Battle of Smallville, Kal-El (now nicknamed "Superman") and Lois came, along with Kal-El's Spaceship, telling the General how to send Zod and his followers back to the Phantom Zone, this time permanently. The plan was to collide the Phantom Drive of Superman's infant star-craft with Black Zero's, in an attempt to create an unstable Phantom energy singularity, which would suck all of Zod's forces back into the Zone. Before they could do so, however, Superman would have to personally destroy Zod's World Engine and end Earth's terraformation. Swanwick agreed to the plan and ordered the attack, after which Superman promptly took flight to the Indian Ocean.

Ultimately, while the plan was successfully executed (with only Zod remaining on Earth), it came at the cost of Colonel Hardy and Doctor Hamilton's lives, with only Lois escaping the singularity's pull, due to Superman's timely intervention. Nonetheless, Earth and all of humanity had been saved from the alien invasion.

### Age of Superman

Shortly after the end of the Kryptonian invasion, General Swanwick had drones try to track down Superman's whereabouts, determined to find his address. Superman, however, wasn't pleased, and proceeded to slam one of the drones into the ground, right in front of Swanwick's car, much to the latter's dismay. Superman assured the general that, having grown up in Kansas, he was technically an American himself, so he would never act against the United States' interests. However, while Superman would always remain an ally to both America and all of Earth, he requested that it be done on his own terms, and that he trusted Swanwick's ability to convince Washington D.C. of that. With that said, Superman took flight again at supersonic speeds, leaving Major Farris smiling, self-admittedly in awe of the handsome alien.

### Secretary of State

In the aftermath of a Superman's appearance, Swanwick was appointed as the United States Secretary of State. He was ambushed in the male toilets by Lois Lane, who was investigating prototype military grade ammunition that was used in the Superman incident in Nairomi. Swanwick dismisses her away but takes the bullet she gives him.

Swanwick, in civilian diguise, meets with Lois on the banks of Potomac River, who discloses that LexCorp Industries are the supplier of bullets, and that Lex Luthor had militia in Nairomi led by Anatoli Knyazev to pick up Kryptonite but it went sour.

As Doomsday emerged from the Scout Ship, Superman engaged the monster and tried to take him away from Metropolis and throw him off the Earth. Swanwick received a phone call from the President to fire a nuclear warhead at the two Kryptonians. Swanwick tried to dissuade him as it would kill Superman as well. To his regret, the President reluctantly persisted and they fired the nuke, with Doomsday landing on Stryker's Island while the signal to Superman was lost.

### Revealing the Manhunter

With so many costumed vigilantes coming into the light and saving lives across the planet, J'onn so many times wanted to reveal himself and fight alongside his long time ally Superman not just in the government, but on the battlefield. What really held him back from doing this was that J'onn believed that if he revealed himself as a superhero that he would draw more trouble to himself, something which almost always changed his mind. Eventually, in an freak alien invasion, J'onn quickly put aside his fears of revealing himself, and changed to his typical Martian garb, but kept his overall appearance more humanoid.

He battled alongside the other heroes, and they left triumphant. From that point on, the Justice League considered him a valued ally not only as the Martian Manhunter but as Calvin Swanwick. The League even offered J'onn membership into the team, an offer that J'onn ultimately accepted.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Martian Physiology**: Martian Manhunter has been described as "the Swiss Army knife of superheroes." He possesses many of the powers of Superman. His powers come from his alien physiology. Born of Mars over a millennium ago, from a super advanced civilization, boasting advanced technology and genetic modifications over its people, the Martian Manhunter would appear to be a genetically modified being with incredible powers stemming from the changes made in his body. Whether this is their natural state or an advanced state given to only a few individuals is unknown. The Martian's physiology would seem to be composed of a complex molecular chain that resembles polymer bonds but with the ability to be altered at will. The Martian Manhunter can change his mass, color, relative shape, imitating even clothing if desired. The bio-polymer is extremely flexible, durable, incredibly strong for a biological material and apparently self-sustaining. It is unknown if the Martian Manhunter actually needs to eat or not but he has been seen consuming food, particularly "Chocos," a brand of cookies.
	+ **Shape-Shifting**, **Malleability**, **Plasticity**, **Elongation**: The most incredible of the powers of the Manhunter is the ability to shape-shift. He is able to literally control the molecular structure of his body's bio-polymer and make it resemble anything he wants. He can form clothing and weapons with non-moving or non-functioning parts. There does not seem to be any limit to the number of people the Manhunter can imitate and has stood in as a double for many famous people. His ability to imitate people and their mannerisms has stood him in good stead for his disguises. He has recently been seen to shape-shift into the size and shape of a common house fly and to enormous sizes comparable to skyscrapers. He is also able to change colors.
	+ **Invisibility**: The Manhunter can cause the bio-polymers in his body to lose their ability to reflect light, rendering the Manhunter invisible to normal light and human sight. With more increased concentration, he can render himself completely invisible along the electromagnetic spectrum, including the infrared and the ultraviolet ranges of the spectrum. This invisibility does not affect every other sense and he could still be detected by touch.
	+ **Phasing**: The Manhunter can phase through solid matter. No explanation of this power has been given, but it might possibly be an aspect of his psionic powers, perhaps shifting his mass into another dimension or out of vibrational phase with other objects in this dimension.
	+ **Superhuman Durability**: The bio-morphic structure of the Manhunter's body allows him to absorb almost all kinetic energies such as high caliber-bullets, shrapnel, or flying debris easily. He can harden his bio-polymers by rebinding them and increase his durability to the point where he is nearly on par with Superman. Along with his nigh-invulnerability, his shape shifting makes him even more difficult to harm. Hazardous environments practically do not affect the Martian Manhunter. In addition, Martian Manhunter's immune system protects him from all toxins and diseases (meaning he is unable to succumb to any earthly disease or infection).
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: The Martian Manhunter is one of the strongest beings on the planet. The Martian's superhuman strength comes from his plasmorphic structure formed from immensely long and complex molecular chains, augmented with his psionic and telekinetic abilities allowing him to lift incredible weights without these weights crumbling under the stress. The Martian has been seen lifting tankers out of the ocean for vast distances, stalemating powerhouses like Superman, and he has even helped tow the moon and objects as large as the Earth itself together with Superman. J'onn's strength is great enough to the point that he has drawn blood from beings as durable as Kryptonians such as Supergirl by his punches alone. By modifying the density of these bio-polymers, the Manhunter can make himself stronger by forcing the polymers into tighter bundles. While at a rest state the limits of his strength are unknown, the Manhunter can lift 100 tons without much effort. He is nearly as powerful as the likes of Superman when concentrating his bio-polymers to their full capabilities.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina**: J'onn's endurance is just as formidable as his strength or invulnerability. He can operate under extreme conditions for an indeterminate period of time without showing signs of fatigue. The exact range of this power is unknown.
	+ **Regeneration**: The Martian Manhunter has shown amazing regenerative abilities. His regenerative abilities are so great that he has been able to completely regenerate from nothing but his severed hand,[16] regenerate in moments from nothing than a puddle of green liquid and other moments, having his head cut off, and he has shown total control over his molecular structure.
	+ **Flight**: The Martian Manhunter flies by manipulation of gravitons (a subatomic particle associated with the force of gravity), manipulation of magnetic fields and control of his absolute molecular movement (a telekinetic effect). These combine to give him the ability to fly great distances with little fatigue and at great speed. The Manhunter has also been seen flying in space with no difficulty, and in space he can fly at speeds that has allowed him to keep up with the likes of even Superman. J'onn can therefore fly at speeds exceeding the escape velocity of earth (7 miles per second) under his own power.
	+ **Superhuman Speed**: Either through flight or natural movement, the Martian Manhunter can maintain speed and reflexes far in excess to that of even most superhumans. Like the power of flight, this is accomplished by manipulating the magnetic fields of energy surrounding his body, as well as ambient gravitational particles. Traditionally, J'onn only uses his superhuman speed while flying. He has admitted that he is not as fast as Superman but this can be argued as he has shown speed feats that is nearly at Superman's level, such as the speed necessary to fly around the earth destroying multiple targets around the planet in seconds and managed to also save Kyle Rayner in the end. He can process thoughts, move, and react at super speed. J'onn has also demonstarted that he is fast enough to comfortably catch bullets and other propelled projectiles.
	+ **Extrasensory Input**: J'onn possesses nine different senses. One of these senses could account for instances of the Manhunter's perceived precognitive abilities.
	+ **Longevity**
	+ **Super Hearing**
	+ **Super-Breath**: The inner valves and chambers inside the Martian Manhunter's air canals are very dense and greatly enhanced, allowing him to, much like Superman, create strong hurricane force winds just by exhaling sending pressured air out.
	+ **Enhanced Senses**
		- **Martian Vision**: The actual nature of this power seems to vary depending on the reports. It has been seen to be a bolt of force, directed by the Manhunter's eyes causing considerable damage It has also been seen to cause flammable objects to catch fire. It also grants J'onn the ability to see into other spectrums of light. J'onn can use his Martian vision to see the invisible. For example, upon their first meeting, J'onn's power allowed him to see past Gypsy's Metahuman camouflage ability; other effects unknown.
			* **Infared Vision**
			* **X-Ray Vision**
			* **Electro-Magnetic Spectrum Vision**
			* **Telescopic Vision**
			* **Microscopic Vision**
			* **Heat Vision**
	+ **Telepathy**: The Martian Manhunter is the most powerful telepath on the planet, and is one of the strongest telepathic beings in the Universe. He is able to read the mind of any human with no difficulties, and the only minds that can cause him trouble are insane minds. He can even read their subconscious mind as well. He can scan the mind of every person on Earth within a matter of moments. He can read a mind over great distances. This telepathy extends to distances as far away as the moon, since it is known that the Martian Manhunter can communicate with Earth with his telepathy. It is not known whether there is any limit to the number of people he can be attuned to or whether there are any special requirements to being attuned to him. In addition to reading minds, the Martian Manhunter has a multitude of other telepathic capabilities, one of which allows him to literally reprogram the mind of a subject into believing whatever he wants them to. He can use this ability to help subjects forget things that he does not want them to remember as well as set up post-hypnotic suggestions.
		- **Illusions**
		- **Possession**
		- **Astral Projection**
		- **Mind Control**: The Martian Manhunter can also control other beings mind's. Insane minds seem to be the only minds he has some trouble controlling.
		- **Telepathic Relay**: Other wise known as a telepathic link. As a Class 3 telepath, the Manhunter is able to use his telepathic prowess as a relay station for a group of minds, who can then "speak" to each other through him. This relaying ability seems to be limited to the same range as the Manhunters normal telepathic range.
		- **Telepathic Assault**: The Martian Manhunter can also use his telepathic abilities in an offensive manner. He has the ability to cause mental shutdown in a target using his mental powers. The Manhunter does not use this power often due to the invasive nature and harshness of such a telepathic attack.
		- **Thought Sensing**: The Manhunter can use the mental signature of a being to track it and can detect lifeforms by their empathic as well as telepathic signatures. He can detect whether a being is intelligent and can communicate with it empathically if it does not have a communication driven frame of reference for normal telepathy to function with. He can also detect various states of mind from anywhere in the world.
		- **Mayavana**: One of the most prized abilities of the Martians is Mayavana. It is the ability to reach into another mind and create a mental reality as real as any normal reality. The strain of Mayavana is such that it can only be used once in a life time, and so is normally used on the one that a Martian loves the most.