Martian Manhunter Question

[Person Man]

Has the fire weakness/lack therof come up at all since the Inferno arc, and if so has it made any difference or just not stuck?

[Jack Zodiac]

Recently, in his mini-series, he was outright attacked with a flamethrower, and while it did allow a simple human to put him out of a fight for a while, he wasn't melting into a pile of goo, like he usually does.

[Joe Acro]

Related to this, I recently read some mid-90s Justice League issues and he is able to overcome his fire weakness for very brief periods of time. The whole thing was psychological. Was this changed, say, post-Zero Hour to an actual physical weakness?

[Alex L]

Related to this, I recently read some mid-90s Justice League issues and he is able to overcome his fire weakness for very brief periods of time. The whole thing was psychological. Was this changed, say, post-Zero Hour to an actual physical weakness?

No. It's still psychological, and it was revealed in JLA that the Guardians of Oa were the ones who implanted pyrophobia into the Martians.

[marshal99]

He certainly doesn't seemed to have problems with fire anymore like in the past. Batman torch him recently in the superman/batman comic and he just shrugged it off.
Of course , that being the crappy new version MM imposter skrull that is running around nowadays in the DCU , i tend to disregard any appearances he makes.

[the4thpip]

The fire weakness was first described as psychosomatic in the 1988 mini series by DeMatteis and Badger. Then that was ignored again for several years.

[skally19]

in "the burning" jla story, at the end he said he can overcome a simple flame. but flames that are made cause of emotion, like hate or love, he can't handle

[Alex L]

in "the burning" jla story, at the end he said he can overcome a simple flame. but flames that are made cause of emotion, like hate or love, he can't handle

So if you're really, really pissed off MM will become weak?

That's even worse than before! http://www.spinquad.com/forums/images/smilies/Tard.gif

[Person Man]

Really pissed off and throwing fire. It's a subtle, yet distinctive difference!

[Shem the Penman]

Just to further muddle the issue: the Ostrander/Mandrake series had, IIRC, yet another explanation for the fire weakness, rooted in the Martian telepathy and shape-changing abilities.

For what it's worth, I think DeMatteis's explanation -- it was a traumatic reaction to seeing the bodies of his family burned during the plague that wiped out the Martians -- makes the most sense, and I'm sorry Morrison retconned that away in JLA.