Is Martian Manhunter a useless hero?

[zryson]

Many heroes mirror each other. Just look at Wonder Woman's gradual powers over the years - she's sort of a female Superman. Also Batman has become near indestructible. I remember watching an animated movie where a villain picks him up by the neck and slams him against a wall and somebody said "shouldn't he be dead?"

[the4thpip]

Yeah, this the opposite problem that MM has. He's so useful that he kills stories when he's there. I was surprised they didn't bring his powers down to DCAU levels in the reboot, where he mostly does the things the other's can't. Though I do like that he's a one-man Justice League.

Gardner Fox only seemed to know about one power in the classic JLA stories: Martian breath.
Which sounds like you need a mint for that.

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

Nope. Telepath, shapeshifter and intangibible.

However, keep in mind that the 90s-00s were the boom of redundant heroes: Robin III, Spoiler, Impulse, Wonder Girl II, Miss Martian, Blue Beetle II, Firestorm II, Atom III, Speedy II, etc.

I tend to not care about most of the characters created after the 80s. Maybe some villains. Mst of them are redundant and serve to make absur and idiotic hero-families. I mean how moroni would Christian bale look coorinating Tim, Damian, Steff and Cass in a movie? It's just stupid, they should have become trainees in the new continuity.

[TheDarkNut]

He is the most powerful and dangerous member if used properly but that would make the big three (Supes, Wonder and Bat) useless.

[Addams]

As other people pointed out the problem with him is that he's too useful.

Which makes him kinda hard to use in a team without making the other member look like clowns.

[hunter_peterson]

This is actually one of the most promising things about JLA to me- MM's the clear powerhouse of the team. He should get a chance to really shine.

[Outside_85]

Yeah, but how does the weakness work? What are the rules?

Is was a genetic pyrophobia all Martians suffered from thanks to the Guardians tampering with them to prevent the Burning (proto-martians if you will) from becoming a major threat to the rest of the universe.
The Burning needed fire and suffering to reproduce asexually, so making them afraid of fire meant the Martians had to go about it the old fashioned way instead.

[hunter_peterson]

Is was a genetic pyrophobia all Martians suffered from thanks to the Guardians tampering with them to prevent the Burning (proto-martians if you will) from becoming a major threat to the rest of the universe.
The Burning needed fire and suffering to reproduce asexually, so making them afraid of fire meant the Martians had to go about it the old fashioned way instead.

That always sat weird with me because the Martians were shapeshifters, so you'd think they'd all be hermaphrodites. Having male and female Martians seems counterintuitive. I don't even really see why they would have the concept of gender.

[Silver_Leopard]

Ask anyone who hates Superman, and they said that Martian Manhunter is the best person who could replace Superman.

Now for me, he is a good character. You have to learn how to use him right. Writers tend to be a little too strict on the character which makes his personality very bland. While others know what to do with him (Keith Giffen for example).

[Outside_85]

That always sat weird with me because the Martians were shapeshifters, so you'd think they'd all be hermaphrodites. Having male and female Martians seems counterintuitive. I don't even really see why they would have the concept of gender.

Well that would depend on the extent of their shapeshifting abilities. I know J'onn could alter the shapes and locations of his organs, but I dont think he was able to change their function or grow new ones he didn't have before.

[Overhazard]

Like others have said here, no, J'onn is not useless, he's underused, and a lot of writers have a problem with him. The Others Among Us just shows us that the martians are so powerful that no one knows what to do with them.

[scary harpy]

Useless? NO.

MM's powers:

• Invisibility
• Intangibility
• Telepathist
• Shapeshifter
• superman junior

Whole heroes (and villains) have been created using just 1 of these 5 power categories. Being overpowered was his problem; his presence pretty much eliminated any need for new members of the League.

In a superhero RPG, his powers would have been much more defined. In comic books, his abilities varied according to the writer (and varied too much).

I did not read Stormwatch but I hope they toned him down like they did Superman. In my humble opinion:

• Inhuman strength? Yes. On par with Superman? No.
• Martian senses? No. (He can shapechange into animals. If he wants to see Ultraviolet light, he can turn into a chicken.)
• Telepathy? Some for sure (but he does not need to be the present day Saturn Girl).
• Invisibility? Make it Mental Invisibility; it's now a telepathic power.
• Intangibility? No. (Perhaps the ability to turn into a fluid form that can flow through small openings; this would now be a now shapeshifting ability. )
• Reevaluate most of his superman junior powers and reduce or eliminate. We don't need the Superman from Mars.

That's what I hope anyway. I also hope they keep him and Superman toned down; makes for better stories.

[glennsim]

Couple things:

Sometimes MM might seem redundant because the stories are so simple. Superman can only be in one place at a time. If the threat only needs one Superman-powered hero to resolve it, then yes, MM can seem redundant. However, if the threat requires two Superman-powered heroes at the same time to be in different places, then having two is a good thing. It's not like every member of the Army in the real world has separate skills. It could be argued that it's not realistic for there to be such world-shattering disasters on a regular basis that you needed both Superman and MM targeting the same problem at the same time, and that's why they should be on separate teams, each pursuing different issues.

The fire weakness - basically, in the Silver Age, it was just like kryptonite. It wasn't just that fire would burn him (and in fact, it generally didn't, just because getting horribly burned would have fallen outside the level of violence the stories allowed at the time - see any Silver Age Human Torch story) but being around it would generally make him lose his powers and get weak, just like a lack of water did for Aquaman and kryptonite did for Superman. It had to be within a few feet of him, same as kryptonite.

[Greg Anderson]

It's funny seeing people post about how much writers don't know what to do with him. I don't think I've even read a comic where he played a part at all. Yet he was probably my favorite character in the Justice League cartoon. Writers of the show actually used him (until Unlimited came about).

[glennsim]

This weekend I was looking through some issues of the Justice League of America when it was the Detroit League and he had plenty to do there.