Whatever happened to the Manhunter from Mars? This is the title of the latest version of the Brightest Day Epic series Written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi with art by Patrick Gleason and Scott Clark. If the title sounds less than original you maybe remember Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? by Alan Moore or Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman both considered great comics. While this story although good is simply one part of a greater story of Brightest Day and the saga of characters of the DC Universe. This is story is about J’onn J’onzz and the deception of of D’Kay D’Razz.
On Mars D’kay was physically and telepathically imprisoned by her fellow Green Martians after she conducted experiments on members of her kind whose minds were not open to the communal martian telepathic mind. After the death of the Green Martians, she no longer even had the company of those who imprisoned her. She went insane over the long years of complete isolation until she was beamed to Earth by Dr. Erdel. Once on Earth, the bombardment of thoughts thrusts her into further depths of insanity. In desperation, she stole the identity of a human and completely erased all memory of her previous Identity. J’onn J’onzz’s death message in Final Crisis put cracks in these telepathic memory blocks, but she did not regain her memories until J’onn returned to life in Darkest Night. Now she is desperate to recreate the Martian race with J’onn to the point where she even attempted to kill Miss Martian because she perceived a threat to her claim to J’onn. On Mars she telepathically creates a reality portrayed in this issue of Brightest Day.
Brightest Day #15 presents an alternate reality storyline in which Martian Manhunter experiences all his heart’s desires and then sees his comrades in the JLA fall one by one. It has the the appeal of a murder mystery where the JLA founders are turning up dead and J’onn is forced to put his detective sills to the ultimate test. The end result is J’onn is forced back to reality saying to D’kay that he can’t have a life built on a lie.
The art work is good the story decent. It is nice to see one of my favorite early heroes featured in his own story. Realizing that it may be several issues before we visit Jonn again. With similar powers of Superman and invisibility and shape shifting plus telepathy he is without a doubt one of the most interesting characters in the comics. It would be great for him to be featured more in DC Comics.
We have 9 more comics in the series to finish up what may be the best series of 2010. I am still drinking in all the aspects of the White Power and it’s mission in the series. I think the DC Universe will never be the same but comics will have a great collection of stories to reflect on for years. The suspense is there and the answers are coming, to find out you will have to keep reading Brightest Day. See you at the comic shop. Stay tuned comic faithful for more. 🙂 Walt