Warning: contains spoilers for Icon and Rocket Season One #4!
The Martian Manhunter is one of DC’s greatest heroes, a charter member of the Justice League, and a bedrock of strength for his fellow heroes, but in the Milestone Universe, he is a villain. As readers continue to learn more about Icon’s past, it is clear there are other extraterrestrials living on Earth—and a demented version of the Martian Manhunter is one. Icon and Rocket Season One #4 is on sale now in print and digital.
Icon is a centuries-old alien, marooned on Earth in the American South in the 1840s. Passing as a human ever since, he waits for the day when Earth’s technology is evolved enough to repair his ship so that he might return home. Icon was convinced by young Raquel Ervin to end his isolation and use his powers for good. Icon saw the logic in her statement and working alongside Raquel (taking the name Rocket) he launched a crusade against crime in Dakota City. While the citizens of Dakota have welcomed Icon with open arms, others in high places have not. As the series has unfolded, readers have learned that Icon has not spent the last 200 years living under the radar—he has been quite active in human affairs. Readers have also learned that other aliens walk the Earth as well, not all of them friendly. One such being, working for a mysterious government agency, came for Rocket’s mother at the end of issue three, threatening her and everyone she loved.
As Icon and Rocket Season One #4 – written by Reginald Hudlin and Leon Chills, with pencils by Douglas Braithwaite, inks by Andrew Currie and colors by Brad Anderson – opens, the mysterious alien assassin threatens to “shred” Rocket’s mother, and if not for the intervention of the mysterious, sword-wielding Xiomara, he might have been successful. Icon and Rocket join the fight, and their combined forces put the alien on the run. As he retreats, Rocket asks Icon if other extraterrestrials are living on Earth; he tells her there are a few and this particular one hunts and kills them, and also that he is referred to as “the Manhunter from Mars,” a phrase first used to describe J’onn J’onnzz—the Martian Manhunter.
Martian Manhunter is one of DC’s most powerful heroes—he possesses nearly all of Superman’s powers and many others, such as telepathy and shape-shifting, as well. The Martian Manhunter is also one of DC’s most moral heroes, a beacon of hope and light and proof that someone can rise up from a great tragedy. Yet in the Milestone Universe, he is a villain, a cold-blooded killer dedicated to ridding the Earth of others like him. What led to this change in the Martian Manhunter? Did the trauma of being teleported to Earth, away from his family on Mars, scar him deeply, leaving him bitter and angry? This would explain his change in attitude and tone. If this is so, this version of Martian Manhunter is not only a dark version of himself, but Icon too: both have spent considerable time passing as humans, but whereas Icon has retained his goodness, the Manhunter from Mars has discarded his compassionate nature in the face of humanity’s ugliness.
It is worth noting that this Martian Manhunter was neither Green nor White—he was actually orange. This leads to the possibility this is not J’onn J’onnzz, and could be another alien altogether, and the nickname is incorrect. However, he is also a shape-shifter, so the orange-looking alien could be another form he has taken, all in the interest of deflecting ties to his true identity.
The Martian Manhunter is one of DC’s most unshakeable heroes, never wavering or deviating from the pursuit of justice, but in the Milestone Universe, he has become a villain, a dark mirror of himself.
Next: Superman’s Death is So Much Darker in DC’s Milestone Universe
