I am a huge fan of Martian Manhunter. A lot of this has to do with how I
first entered the world of advanced comic readership. When I was younger my first entry point to comics that
wasn’t in the form of animated TV was the extensive work of Keith Giffen and
J.M. DeMatteis. These two guys
basically invented the tropes and ideas of modern comics, from character
identities to universal events 90% of the stuff we like in modern comics can be
traced by to Giffen and DeMatteis.
One of their first comics I ever read was a 1988 four-issue mini-series
spotlighting the Martian Manhunter and his origins. This series alone stands as a testament to how influential
their work was as it’s still the defining mythos by which Martian Manhunter is
written today.
Since reading it I’ve always been keen to check out any
appearances of the Manhunter from mars so when DC announced a new comic series
I was intrigued. So far DC’s
post-New 52 titles have been a mixed bag but both Batman and Action Comics
turned out very well, so I was optimistic going into Martian Manhunter. The
result doesn’t so much sore as it stumbles at the starting line but makes a
decent effort in the process.
