J'onn J'onzz

Martian Manhunter

John Jones

## Biography

### Background

J’onn J’onzz was born during a time of civil unrest on the planet M’arzz. It appeared as if the reign of the G’arunn martians would be coming to an end. As such, G’arunn martians were acting out in hostile violent uprisings against local government and villages where the A’ashenn and B’lahdenn lived.

Frustrated with the lack of interference by the Martian Council of Elders and the apparent compliance of G’arunn manhunters in the atrocities, the Bl’ahdenn all voted to leave M’arzz, instead moving elsewhere in Sector 2814, to the planet Saturn.

### Early Life

J’onn was born to M’yrnn and Sha’sheen J’onzz.  M’yrnn was a Chronicler and Sha’sheen a Rector. As such, J’onn grew up in good socioeconomic standing, but he has revealed little else about his early years on M’arzz. The only other thing he has spoken of is when he was assigned the duty of manhunter upon graduation from the local academy.

J’onn was at first hesitant to be a manhunter, as he was hoping to venture beyond the city of Ma’aleca’andra and the surface of M’arzz, J’onn felt he was an explorer at heart and wanted to venture through the galaxy. However, he eventually convinced the Council of Elders to make him an honorary deputy with the Green Lantern Corps and help them safeguard Sector 2814.

This was a huge achievement for J’onn, something no chronicler had ever recorded before. He became a miniature celebrity on M’arzz. As such, he drew the attention of several female Martians, specifically rector M’yri’ah D’all. The attraction between the two was mutual, and they soon underwent the Ma'ayava'ana ceremony, and were wed.

Very soon after their marriage, K’hym J’onzz was born. J’onn continued to live a happy life with his family, amidst interspecies tensions on the planet. Public favor for J’onn lessened when his sister, J’ann, wed an A’ashenn, M’att M’orzz, and had two children; M’gann and M’comm.

After years of unrest, the Martian Council of Elders chose to dispatch J’onn on a reconnaissance mission to Earth, to live in disguise among humans and report back on his findings. J’onn came to Earth in the midst of the American Civil War. After observing - but not intervening - for a majority of the war, he returned home and reported on his findings.

Shortly after his return, My’ria’ah was pregnant again, and T’ania was born. Unrest was growing among the J’onzz family. J’onn’s nephew, M’comm was leading a violent revolution of A’ashenn against the Manhunters of M’arzz. But, M’comm was constantly evading capture and was now a fugitive, putting J’onn in a difficult spot.

J’onn put together a task force to capture M’comm, succeeding. While transporting him to a prison facility, J’onn’s deputies attacked the boy, horribly scarring the lower half of the boy’s face. By the time J’onn realized what was happening, the damage had been done, and J’onn was on the outs with his sister’s side of the family.

His deputies were not penalized for their actions, and J’onn grew depressed and frustrated with the Martian justice system. M’comm would eventually get his revenge after breaking free from prison and beginning a hunt for the Imperium tomb beneath Ma’aleca’andra. He eventually found it, freeing the Imperium, and becoming their leader, known as Ma’alefa’ak (translation: darkness of the heart).

Ma’alefa’ak waged war on the Manhunters with the Imperium by his side. They waged another war on the population by spreading a disease known as Hromneer’s Curse, which only affected G’arunn Martians. However, he had a secret double plan. While J’onn was preoccupied with battling the Imperium and assembling shamans to help cure the disease, M’alefa’ak broke into J’onn’s home and killed his parents, wife, and daughters.

In a fit of rage, J’onn tore through the Imperium soldiers, trying to find Ma’alefa’ak, but he escaped, leaving the Martian society in shambles. Humiliated and devastated, J’onn requested he be sent off world. The Council of Elders agreed and dispatched him to travel the galaxy.

### Stranded

While traveling, J’onn refused a radio interception from Earth. He responded and suddenly found himself pulled to the planet through an experimental zeta beam by Doctor Saul Erdel. He crash landed in Middleton Colorado, destroying the doctor’s laboratory and alerting the local police in the process. Erdel found him in the wreckage and urged him to run and hide in the local woods, fearing the arriving officers would be afraid of J’onn.

J’onn evaded the officers and went home with Erdel, where he began helping him perfect the Zeta Beam technology. After a few weeks shut in with Erdel, he ventured into the local town, taking the form of an African American man.

He discovered that it was the Earth year of 1968. He took up the alias of John Jones and became a detective in the town, where he fell head-over-heels with the daughter of the police commissioner, Diane Meade.

J’onn’s infatuation with Diane turned to concern, when one night he followed her home after she left her purse at the office, and discovered that her husband, Justin Ballantine, was abusing her. While Ballantine was inside, J’onn blew up his car, causing the man to run outside. He hoped Diane would use this opportunity to escape, but she didn’t.

This puzzled J’onn, who spoke to Dr. Erdel about it, who then had to explain to J’onn what love is among humans. J’onn began trying to hatch a plan to get Diane out of that situation. One night, in his human guise, he ventured to a bar with Erdel. Ballantine stumbled in, already very drunk, and tried to pick a fight with John. Ballantine was kicked out.

When J’onn and Saul left, he found the man passed out in the alleyway. In a moment of pettiness he would later regret,  J’onn essentially performed a telepathic lobotomy, searching the man’s mind and altering it to make him less aggressive, almost turning him to a vegetative state. Erdel was horrified by J’onn’s actions and kicked him out of his home.

J’onn got his own place and continued working as a detective. He discovered that Diane had gotten divorced and was living with her father again. After a few months, he asked her out, and the two started dating - and were later married.

J’onn tried to get back into favor with Dr. Erdel, discovering that he was leaving Middleton to move to Metropolis, and he planned to sell the patent to his zeta beam technology to STAR Labs. The two parted ways as friends, and it would be the last time J’onn ever saw his friend.

John and Diane lived a happy life in Middleton, but he never showed his Martian heritage to his wife. He eventually retired from the police department and the two moved to a cabin on the outskirts of town. One day, they received a knock at the door. Diane opened it to find Justin Ballantine wielding a gun. He murdered her on the spot, sending J’onn into a fit of rage, killing the man on his doorstep.

He was cleared of charges on account of self-defense, but it was time for J’onn to leave Middleton. After burying his second wife, he disappeared from the town completely.

### Martian Manhunter

There is a scarce accounting of what J’onn did between 1993 and 2002. J’onn says he swapped identities for a little bit and tried venturing off-world. In the early 2000s, he became inspired by the resurgence of superheroes in the likes of Superman and created the identity of the Martian Manhunter for himself, although sightings of him were less-frequent than the others, and he preferred to stay an anonymous do-gooder. He claims that he had met each hero who would become a founding member of the Justice League, but they didn’t know it was him.

On November 25th 2002, J’onn discovered the Appellaxian stone giant turning citizens to stone. After defeating the alien, he telepathically connected with it, discovering it to be a hive mind with six other beings. J’onn quickly made telepathic contact with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Green Arrow and told them of the threat, bringing together the Justice League for the first time.

Now, the Martian Manhunter was very publicly a superhero. He moved to National City, where he took up the identity of John Jones again and joined ARGUS as a field agent. Somehow, news of J’onn’s work on Earth got back to M’arzz. He had long been believed dead, but they sent a field agent, Cay’an Oz’mm, to find him and bring him back. While there, the Council of Elders told J’onn they wanted him to stay on Earth, but to send back cultural artifacts and keep them posted on the state of the world - especially monitoring the metahuman boom. J’onn agreed.

During his brief return to M’arzz, he reconnected with his sister and her family - where he learned that M’comm had never been found following his assault with the Imperium. The family had become social pariahs, and M’gann was constantly ridiculed in school. J'onn returned to Earth, where every few months, Cay’an would visit, leading to her and J’onn having a short fling, and then would bring whatever artifacts he felt were important back to Earth, which included VHS tapes of the show *Hello Megan!* One day, in 2005, Cay’an returned. As she and J’onn were preparing to make love, M’gann popped out of her bio-ship, revealing herself at a very inopportune time.

J’onn and Cay’an both tried to get her to return to her home planet with Cay’an, but M’gann refused, begging her uncle to let her stay with him. After a brief transmission with J’ann and M’att, J’onn begrudgingly agreed, making M’gann his deputy.

J’onn and M’gann worked well together as Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian. On one mission, they suspected the Bialyan dictator Queen Zazzala to be an alien. While doing recon, they accidentally blew their cover and were forced to retreat to an animal sanctuary in the countryside.

They met the owners, Marie and Mark Logan, and their son, Garfield. After M’gann got over being starstruck, recognizing Marie as an actress from *Hello Megan*, they learned that the Queen would send troops to obtain hush money from them, and so the martian pair agreed to stay the night with them in case the troops came by. When the troops approached, the Logan’s tried to evacuate, resulting in a soldier firing an explosive at the family jeep.

While J’onn dealt with the soldiers, M’gann rescued Garfield from the wreckage. Gar was bleeding out, so to save his life, M’gann altered her blood type to Gar’s and gave him a blood transfusion, resulting in him acquiring shapeshifting abilities. After helping them, they suggested the family relocate to the United States, giving them the name and number of Doctor Niles Caulder.

J’onn was hesitant to let M’gann join the Titans once they started up, knowing she was awkward around humans, so he enrolled her at Happy Harbor Junior High, and relocated himself there, transferring to a different branch of ARGUS. In Happy Harbor, J’onn was able to keep a closer eye on the Justice League’s secret sanctuary of Mount Justice. Fellow ARGUS agent Lucas Carr was recruited by J’onn to be Mount Justice’s “den mother”, although that ended after Lucas was manipulated by the Joker into revealing the base, forcing the Titans to relocate to Jump City, and J’onn to partner with the Green Lantern Corps again and Wayne Enterprises to create the Watchtower.

When M’gann started high school, J’onn nominated her for membership with the Titans, and she was accepted. He also decided to end things with Cay’an, focusing on enjoying his life as a single man and a pseudo-father to M’gann. He also adopted a Martian pet that Cay’an left behind named Zook.

J’onn became one of the most valued members of the Justice League, as many believed him to be even more powerful than Superman. In addition, his shapeshifting helped get a couple of League members out of some difficult spots - such as taking the form of Batman at a press conference with Bruce Wayne to divert suspicion.

J’onn truly found a home and a sense of purpose with the League, which made it devastating for him when the League shut down following the Death in the Family. J’onn continued operating as the Martian Manhunter during the League shut down. He became fascinated and enraged by Doctor Sivana’s Sivana Syndicate, meant to take the place of the Justice League under a corporate sponsor. He felt a particular interest in one of the members, the Bronze Wraith.

Sivana claimed the Bronze Wraith was a street magician with real telepathic and telekinetic powers, but J’onn saw something familiar in him. When it turned out the Syndicate was a band of villains posing as heroes, J’onn organized a small response team in Dakota City in order to battle them.

While battling the masqueraders, the Bronze Wraith revealed himself to be none other than Ma’alefa’ak himself. He and J’onn fought across the city, eventually battling hundreds of miles away from the others. The battle ended when J’onn believed he had incinerated his nephew, but that was not the case, and he had evaded capture yet again.

Following the return of the Justice League, J’onn was shocked when a Red Saturnian named J’emm J’axx attacked him, claiming he was sent to kill him. With M’gann’s help, they put him under and restored his memories. J’onn accompanied J’emm to Saturn, where they found that the Red Saturnians had been wiped out.

### Undercover

Upon returning to Earth, J’emm revealed to J’onn that the Imperium had been the ones to mess with his memories - and claimed that there was a colony set up in Evergreen, Washington. J’onn then went undercover with the new identity of Clemson Murn. Under this disguise, he began operating as an ARGUS intelligence agent, he proved his worth, and was then assigned to Project Last Line by Amanda Waller, set about uncovering the Imperium.

With the help of Peacemaker, they found the underground colony and discovered that the shapeshifting aliens had overtaken much of Evergreen already. While ARGUS wanted to destroy the town, J’onn eventually convinced Waller that the colony should remain intact, so long as they remain peaceful, as he was convinced that the Imperium only were violent towards the Martians due to Ma’alefa’ak’s actions. Believing him dead, J’onn saw no cause for concern.

After this, J’onn made a return voyage to M’arzz with M’gann, allowing her some space following the end of her relationship with Lagoon Boy. While on M’arzz, J’onn created a council of Manhunters, planning to reform an ancient Martian police force called the Hyperclan. An elder chronicler told J’onn that their base had been a secret city, hidden beneath the Antarctic surface called Z’onn Z’orr.

J’onn and the other Manhunters found the city, and upon entry discovered that Ma’alefa’ak was alive, and using the city as his own base of operations, planning to restart an A’ashenn colony there due to their hatred on M’arzz. And, he had begun repopulating with his new wife, Cay’an.

J’onn was forced to battle his former lover and his nephew, as Ma’alefa’ak was hell-bent on the destruction of G’arunn Martians. M’gann, the stronger telepath, was eventually able to put her brother in a catatonic state, and he was then transported to the Phantom Zone.They reclaimed Z’onn Z’orr and made it the Earth base of the new Hyperclan - who would get their first action in a battle with the Reach, where they got a new recruit in the form of Green Beetle, a martian indoctrinated by the Reach. J’onn also started focusing on diplomatic efforts. Apparently, he has been working with the Green Lantern Corps, LEGION, and US President Jefferson Pierce, discussing starting up an initiative he calls the United Planets, planning to bridge the intergalactic gap between planets, and uniting them under a force of shared resources.

## Trivia

* Shayera Hall believes that Thal and J'onn were lovers in another life when J'onn assumed a different identity - and there is a possibility that they had a child together.
* J'onn loves Choc-o's cookies and anything chocolate.
* J'onn possesses a slight premonition ability. It scarcely manifests, and even then, does not usually extend far into the future.

## Notes

* Clemson Murn is a character from the MAX *Peacemaker* TV Series. It was heavily rumored that Murn was supposed to originally be Martian Manhunter in disguise, but it was changed out of respect to Zack Snyder.
* In the comics, Justin Ballantine is the villain Libra.
* The different subspecies of Martians and J'onn's relatives are adapted from the *Young Justice* TV Series.
* His daughter, Tan'ia is from the CW *Supergirl* TV Series.