Return to the Rogues of Wikipedia

Over a year and a half ago, I did a post about the then-current state of the Martian Manhunter Rogues Gallery as acknowledged by one of the most popular information resources on the internet. I thought it was a pretty solid list, considering how awful that type of thing tends to turn out (case in point.) While renovating the blog behind the scenes, I followed my own link back to the Wikipedia Rogues Page, and you can pretty much set it next to our own Vile Menagerie and check off villain by villain. Tom, is that you?

Not only are there a ton of new additions, but the text has typically been revised and augmented. Let's take a look, with my comments in italics...

Rogues Gallery

• Bel Juz - Martian that survived the fate of Mars and used her womanly wiles and devious mind to manipulate those around her. After her home world of Mars was rendered uninhabitable, Bel Juz fled to the planet Vonn with the remnants of her fellow Green martians. Bel betrayed her people to the Thythen, invaders who had driven out all the known natives of Vonn. The Thythen employed cybernetics to enslave the Martians, then used their life-force to drive Robo-Chargers. Only Bel Juz remained free among her group.
  
  A really nice detailed entry, and a valuable contribution. Curiously though, there's no mention of her association with the Marshal or their spearheading the Martian invasion of Earth that marked the final appearance of Silver/Bronze Age Martian society, not to mention the final Satellite Era Justice League adventure. It's also open to interpretation as to whether the Green Martians actually settled on Vonn, although it's been so long since I thought about it, I can't recall why.
  
  
• B'enn B'urnzz: Unchanged
  
  
  
  
• Bette Noir- A hideous genetically engineered clone with telepathic powers. She often projects the illusion of being a beautiful woman.
  
  Better than I've done so far...
  
  
• B'rett: Unchanged
  
  
• Cay'an- Cay'an brainwashed a group of White Martians to attack the Martian Manhunter.
  
  Mostly unchanged, aside from adding "One of the few surviving green martians..." That, and I can now happily link to my own Cay'an biography.
  
  
• Commander Blanx- Leader of the polar-dwelling White Martians, enemies of the desert-dwelling Green Martians. In Pre-Crisis continuity he caused the destruction of the martian race.
  
  Someone thankfully dropped the widespread but erroneous first name of "Ben," and mentioned his role in Mars I's destruction.
  
  
• Darkseid - An evil alien "god" who invaded Mars years before J'onn came to Earth. He is responsible for driving Malefic insane.
  
  Great for staying character-specific for such a broadly influential villain.
  
  
  
  
• Despero - A Justice League of America villain who murdered the parents of J'onn's protégé Gypsy and his team-mate Commander Steel. J'onn in turn is responsible for some of Despero's most humiliating defeats, leading to a strong mutual enmity between the two characters.
  
  Ditto
  
  
• D'kay D'razz - A female green Martian, D'kay was imprisoned on Mars by her fellow green Martians because 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 had even the company of those who imprisoned her. D'kay goes insane as a result of the complete isolation until she was beamed to earth by Dr. Erdel. Once on Earth, the assault of thoughts thrusts her into greater extent depths of insanity, and she attacks Dr. Erdel and his daughter, leaving her permanently scarred as D'kay escaped. In desperation, D'kay stole the identity of a human and completely erased all memory of her previous identity. J'onn's death in Final Crisis message put cracks in these telepathic memory blocks, but she did not regain her memories until J'onn's resurrected in Blackest Night. D'kay 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. D'Kay's body is distorted and includes an extra mouth at her torso which manifests from her broken mind. She has carved the Martian symbols of love and hate onto her body.
  
  Jeepers!
  
  
  
  
• The Getaway King - aka Getaway Mastermind; Monty Moran, a criminal scientist, uses futuristic gimmicks of his own design to help his gang make safe and spectacular getaways from crimes he has them commit. The Martian Manhunter helps nab several members of his gang in two incidents. Then he trails a third unit of the gang to Moran’s hideout, where he learns of the getaway genius’s ultimate gimmick: a force-field. Using his powers invisibly, J’onn J’onzz herds Moran and the rest of his gang into the hands of the police.
  
  Solid
  
  
• The Headmaster - Real name Thaddeus Romero Hoskins, an arrogant elitist born to a rich family, Hoskins graduated M.I.T. at the age of fifteen. However, Hoskins' social skills never developed properly, and he felt alienated by all around him. He feared mankind will die out if they stayed on earth, becoming extinct like the dinosaurs.
  
  Hoskins was inspired to develop a robotic model for military application that consisted of an inhuman head attached to spidery legs. Dubbed a "headman," it could decapitate enemy soldiers in the field and reanimate their bodies to act as cannon fodder for its controllers. Those in scientific circles, including John Henry Irons, were unaware of the robot moving beyond the theoretical stage. Later, Hoskins body was discovered, his head detached by a laser, and his brain missing entirely.
  
  In a powerful new bipedal shell, Hoskins renamed himself "the Headmaster," and set his master plan into motion. He re-purposed a former NORAD installation, dubbed the Ark, and designed as a nuclear bomb shelter. From here, the Headmaster set to work on a massive spaceship that could carry the finest examples of humanity off their home planet. In need of a work force to carry out the task, the Headmaster created an army of headmen. He then sent them out to kill and commandeer the bodies of homeless people to construct his craft.
  
  The murders of two police officers, who stumbled upon one of Headmaster's victims under the control of a headman, attracted the attention of private investigator John Jones-- secretly the Manhunter from Mars. Using his shapeshifting abilities to assume the visage of a derelict, J'Onn J'Onzz staked out an alley until he was attacked by a headman. After being wounded in a struggle with the device, the Martian Manhunter took its remains to the JLA Watchtower for further study. With the aid of Steel and Oracle, the Manhunter located the Ark and its contents. The Headmaster met with J'Onzz, hoping to convince him of the merits of his plan, so that he would not lose precious time by abandoning the base. Dedicated to the preservation of all life, equally treasured, the Manhunter from Mars declared himself the Headmaster's implacable foe. A scuffle ensued, which ended with the Martian Manhunter burying the Headmaster under his own space ship. The damage Headmaster took deactivated his headman, and pieces of his robotic armor were uncovered after an explosion leveled the Ark. It is unclear whether Hoskins' brain was still within the Headmaster body, or if he is perhaps still at large. Martian Manhunter #1,000,000 (cameo, as the Headman, November 1998,) Martian Manhunter #1 (full, December 1998)
  
  This should be a wiki entry unto itself. A beast!
  
  
  
  
• The Headmen- A robotic military group led by The Headmaster. The Headmen were spider-like robots created by Hoskins to do his bidding, with heads resembling the Headmaster's. Standing at roughly two feet tall, with long arachnid legs tipped with blades, the headmen were controlled by human brains wiped clean and "reprogrammed." The headmen were often assigned the task of decapitating derelicts, dipping their spiked limbs into their victim's chest cavity, and replacing their headspace with its own. The headmen could then animated the deceased bodies to perform most motor functions. To facilitate this act, the headmen were armed spectacularly. A laser beam emitted from their right ocular cavity could kill most people on contact, and were capable of momentarily blinding one of the most powerful super-beings on Earth. Their electronic eyes were further enhanced with thermal and radar imaging. The headman robots were physically resistant to incredible amounts of damage, and were both quick and agile.
  
  Clearly, this part was massively expanded from a single sentence. I also suspect a group editing effort. No way Tom would have dwelt so long on such grisly details.
  
  
• The Prophet: With minimal edits, this is a cut and paste of my entry, which I'm totally cool with. My only complaint is that he's out of alphabetical order in the entry.
  
  
• The Human Flame Added the line, "He was the first actual supervillain the Manhunter faced." Highly debatable, depending on your definition. I guess he was the first human in a funny costume with a mask.
  
  
• Kanto - Darkseid's master assassin, he fought J'onn during the attack on Mars. The two have been bitter rivals ever since.
  
  

• Ma'alefa'ak (also called Malefic) - Ma’alefa’ak is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the twin brother and archenemy of Martian Manhunter. He was created by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake. The character first appeared in Martian Manhunter Vol 2 #0 (October 1998). The brother of J'onn J'onzz, Ma'alefa'ak was the only member of the Martian race born without telepathy and a weakness to fire. Feeling ostracized because of his genetic differences, Ma'alefa'ak was the architect of an extinction-level event. This event is known as H’ronmeer’s Curse. H’ronmeer’s Curse was a plague of fire, this curse attacked Martians via their telepathic abilities. Whenever a Martian attempted to use their telepathic gifts or commune with the Great Mind, they would fall victim to the Curse, and ultimately burn to death. With the exception of Ma'alefa'ak's brother, J'onn and himself, nearly all Green Martians on the planet died as a result of Ma'alefa'ak's handiwork. For centuries, Ma'alefa'ak continued to live in the ruins of Mars, unaware that his brother had survived the plague, and had been transported through space and time to the planet Earth. Several years ago, Ma'alefa'ak learned of J'onn's existence, and followed him back to Earth in an effort to complete the genocide of the Martian race, by destroying its last surviving son. Ma’alefa’ak has tried many times to finish his work and kill his brother J’onn but hasn’t succeeded. Ma'alefa'ak has all the same powers as other martians except for telepathy. Ma'alefa'ak also doesn’t have the weakness of fire like other martians do. He worships Darkseid as his God, in turn undermining the independence of Martian history, and helped to inspire the Anti-Life Equation that has cost countless lives.
  
  Well James, if you didn't write it yourself, here's your Malefic entry! Actually, there are some telling inaccuracies though, like Malefic actually having had his telepathy removed as an adult for mind crimes, and that whole being dead thing omitted.
  
  
  
  
• The Marshal- Genetically altered to be the perfect Martian warrior, the Marshal towered over his soldiers. Tried to invade earth.
  Still slight, but effective.
  
  
• The Master Gardener: Unchanged
  
  
• Mister V - aka Faceless; leader of VULTURE.
  
  Serviceable.
  
  
• Mongul II - An alien Warlord who tried to force J'onn to give him the key to a super weapon.
  
  It was actually Mongul the first, and I strongly suspect my influence here. Hardly anyone else ever draws this connection, y'know?
  
  
  
• Professor Hugo: Unchanged
  
  
• Robo-charger: Another copy & paste from this blog, although Martian Manhunter encyclopedia entry rather than a Vile Menagerie one.
  
  
• Thythen: Copy & paste & you're welcome.
  
  
• Tor: What I do, I do for the good of all... things Manhunter.
  
  
• VULTURE - An international crime syndicate whom J'onn infiltrated for sometime before finally destroying them.
  
  
• White Martians - A warlike offshoot of the Martian race.

Whew! That's a BIG difference! The Vile Menagerie might not be canonized, but its subjects at least seem to be getting traction beyond my direct reach...