The Martian Manhunter: The Others Among Us TPB

Written by A.J. Lieberman

Art and Cover by Al Barrionuevo

DC Comics $19.99

Collecting the entire 8 issue mini-series, “The Others Among Us”, this trade is a great read and served as a good introduction to the Martian Manhunter to me last year. Though it has no additional features, the 208 page trade collects everything you need to know about this great series written by A.J. Lieberman with help from Grant Morrison and, if you didn’t grab the mini-series, as DC did so many of them this past year, it’s a great way to get the full story.

In this series, the manhunter realizes a group of other Martians, though he has believed his entire life that he was the last surviving member of his race, on earth. There’s an interesting dialog throughout the series about what it means to be the last member of a race on an alien planet and how that would affect your entire personality. It is revealed that the manhunter has been using his psychic abilities to make himself appear more human to everyone, but when he discovers he’s no longer the only one, he stops trying to conform. I thought this was one of the most interesting aspects of the entire series, because it’s such a unique look, similar to that of the Superman story, but it rejects the conformity that the Kent character bends to.

The main focus of the story revolves around manhunter breaking out the aliens, a conspiracy to cover them up and the rebellion and hatred directed towards manhunter by the newly discovered Martians because he’s conformed to humanity’s demands. The manhunter’s assistance in breaking out the martians leads to an interesting conflict and stand off with key members of the Justice League, leading manhunter to feel even more alien and misunderstood. This all changes and causes him much shame what the Martians attack him, blame him for their problems and continually try to kill him, leading him to feel guilty for not trusting Clark and automatically trusting people who share his race instead of his friends on Earth, who he has known much longer.

In the end, this series is more about allegiance, isolationism and government conspiracies more than it is about superheroes or aliens, really, and for that, it is better than most superhero comics.

Justice Society of America

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Fernando Pasarin, Rooney Ramos and Alex Ross

DC Comics $2.99

I’m fairly sure this is my favorite DC title. Alex Ross’ covers would be incentive enough to buy this, as would Pasarin’s great pencils that suit superheroes so well, but Geoff Johns is so good at writing conflicted characters and the trio is so incredibly pleasant. Thought I had never read a Justice League-oriented comic book before this new series started, I was lucky enough to catch it as it began. The past eight issues have felt like two years worth of story because Johns’ writing is so character driven while the art concentrates on high tension action. It works rather well.

I am really happy to see the focus of this book get back to Citizen Steel, because it’s not only an exploration of the bitterness that comes with a disability, showing how his youth was robbed by the loss of his leg, but it functions as the complete opposite of the common superhero story. I really like the idea of a superhero who doesn’t want to be a superhero but still feels responsible for doing his job. It really reminds me of the old Spider-Man stories I grew up on in the 1980’s.

The back story in this issue, as one would guess, is Liberty Bell, and how her childhood shaped who she has been at different points in her life. And they also kick the shit out of some Nazis.