Alter Ego: Protex
Occupation: Alien Invader
Group Affiliation: The Hyperclan, White Martians
Base of Operations: Varied
First Appearance: JLA #1 (January, 1997)
Height: Variable, but presents at approx. 6'5"
Build: Variable, often slim but muscular
Eyes: Variable, presents as light brown or red
Hair: Variable, presents as strawberry blond
History:
Before humanity had come into being, the early life forms on Earth indicated the potential for super-humanity, an entire race of veritable gods. At the time, White Martians had colonized the planet, and saw fit to manipulate and abuse the indigenous life as they chose. Under Commander Protex, the White Martians conducted horrific experiments that ended in "a biological catastrophe" that caused the metagene to lay dormant in most humans. Seventy White Martians working out of the now infamous Antarctic base Z'Onn Z'Orr were tried for their crimes and sentenced to "The Still Zone," an extra-dimensional prison outside the normal rules of space and time. Lacking much if any land mass or resources, the convicted White Martians were allowed a mothership by their accusers, the Green Martians, whom they would long outlive. Across millennia of incarceration, most Martian life was wiped out by a plague, and Earth evolved to its current state. It was only then, through unrevealed means, that these primitive White Martians finally freed themselves.
Aware of both the threat of the metahumans that had managed to come into being, despite their best efforts, as well as the ready access to the Martian's greatest weakness of fire, the next course chosen was subterfuge. Protex was intent on reclaiming Earth for his people, but those twin threats needed to be addressed. Seven White Martians were chosen to join Protex in assuming a more humanoid form, and the group presented themselves first before the White House as extraterrestrials from far further out than Mars. This Hyperclan were the last survivors of their unknown planet, and had long journeyed to find a world that they could save from itself, as they could not prevent the ecological ruin that befell their home. The Hyperclan immediately began a campaign of "fixing" parts of the Earth, such as bringing precipitation and vegetation to arid deserts, to a cheering population. They did this without any formal request or authority, all the while asking questions as to why Earth's metahumans hadn't done this before. At the same time, White Martians disguised by armor destroyed the Justice League's orbital base, while the Hyperclan itself openly tried and executed metahuman criminals like Judgment. As the leader and spokesman for the Hyperclan, Protex was always the media-forward face of the team, as well as the one most likely to engage with any critics.
The plan was not foolproof, as one White Martian briefly assumed the identity of Bruce Wayne. During "The Id Case," J'Onn J'Onzz unknowingly reversed the brainwashing of the White Martians, who spent the next several weeks regrouping and planning. Protex's Martians developed a means of altering the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere in such a way as to suppress combustion-- affecting the ability of some lifeforms to breathe, suffocating plants, choking engines, and eliminating the Martians' primary weakness. The Martians also began abducting human telepaths. "At first, we gathered them to fully safeguard any detection-- only to make a fascinating discovery. Ingesting their healthy human brainmatter, it seems, allows for the first step in a rather glorious genetic mutation-- one that can multiply our telepathic powers a millionfold-- over distances measured in light-years. That was our true goal all along-- to gradually extend our control and sovereignty over the entire galaxy... all without ever having to physically leave a planet-turned-citadel where we were utterly invincible... because its atmosphere cannot support fire."
Still, the White Martians effectively countered Earths' other metahuman forces, such as the JSA, Titans, and Young Justice. Protex eventually captured the JLA at the Fortress of Solitude, and with a telepathic prompt from J'Onzz, banished them to The Phantom Zone. Once there, the League could finally plan a strategy without eavesdropping, and were released by The Atom. Finally, Protex and the White Martians were lured to the moon, which was then dragged into near Earth atmosphere and ignited. Given the choice between immolation and banishment, Protex ordered his Martians to take physical form to be cast into the Phantom Zone.
Later, most if not all of the White Martians were massacred by Fernus the Burning Martian, although Protex's specific fate has not be revealed.
Weaknesses: Protex has a catastrophic vulnerability to fire, causing diminishment of his abilities, and eventual death with prolonged exposure.
Distinguishing Features: Protex presents with golden, almost illuminated skin, and was especially aesthetically pleasing to humans, with one remarking on his resemblance to The Doors' singer-songwriter Jim Morrison.
Weapons: Protex deployed a variety of Martian tools and technology, such as The Flower of Wrath.
Vehicles:
As the leader of the White Martians of Z'Onn Z'Orr, Protex had access to the wonders of that base during its existence, as well as other, seemingly much less durable Martian watchtowers. He lived on the White Martian mothership in the Still Zone, which contained numerous away vessels.
Quote: "How long has it been? How long since we stood here the first time? What was the human species then? No more than dormant potential in the genetic material of jellyfish! How little they have changed. But remember the barges heaped with spices and precious metals? Remember the music of the brass gongs and the toiling of the warmills? Life was good then. Life will be better."
Created by: Grant Morrison & Howard Porter
In this version of the Martian Manhunter's origin, J'onn J'onzz was ambushed, convicted of trumped-up charges by an all-Pale jury, and sent into exile. J'onzz's absence allowed Mars to die, and despite Blanx's motivations, it's hard not to see their final battle amidst the ashes of the red planet as a clash between the sole remaining representatives of two races. The Justice League of America helped round up the evil Pale Martians, and turned a blind eye to J'onzz's use of lethal force against Blanx. John Jones had been a paragon of white authority, working under a similarly hued police captain and alongside a blond haired, blue-eyed patrolwoman. Blanx was a paler shade of white though, practicing prejudice with self-interest of the sort that the Love Generation was loudly condemning at the time. I suppose this was the beginning of J'onn J'onzz as Israelite, as Native American, as last chief of a race largely wiped from the cosmos.
In a story from 1977, a friend of J'onn J'onzz appeared to be assassinated on the alien world Mars' survivors settled on. Rather than make the obvious assumption that one Desert-Dweller had killed another, J'onzz leapt to the wildly inaccurate conclusion that it must have been one of the super-heroes on Earth who knew of Mars II's location. Bad plotting and a desire to use a lot of guest stars surely played into his logic, but one has to wonder if it was just easier to blame another species instead of looking to his own people for the guilty parties, which is exactly where they were eventually found. The "assassination" turned out to be a misdirection to push a Desert Dweller army into massacring a blue-skinned people who inhabited the planet and seizing their superior city. Not a progressive sounding bunch, these Desert Dwellers. A similar ruse was used in 1984 to launch a war against the Earth, which the Martian Manhunter helped route. However, there was a good deal of distrust between the Alien Atlas and his former allies in the Justice League, likely fueled by J'onzz's tendency to run around battering people and making insane allegations against them. There was a lot of tension revolving around people's relative "Martianness," and J'onzz was ultimately abandoned by his people as they left Earth in shame.
In 1984, a cousin for J'onn J'onzz was created in "Jemm, Son of Mars," whose self-titled mini-series made ample use of the previously mentioned Bronze Age history of Mars. An editorial clash saw Jemm shift setting to Saturn, but the core story remained the same. White-skinned Saturnians were still sociopaths, while Red Saturnians were warmongers who feared and loathed them. Saturnians added some rather unhealthy sexual prejudices as well, with misandrist White females enslaving weaker men. A later retcon reunited the Saturnians with Mars, making Saturns' races cloned colonists of Mars, Red for Green, White for White. The typically pacifistic Jemm has been repeatedly manipulated into conflict with J'Onn J'Onzz, who was mostly understanding about the matter, although he did decide to have intimacies with Jemm's fiancé. The Saturnians defer the Martians as superior beings, which J'Onzz also took advantage of rather than dissuading.
From around 1985 until 1996, the Martian Manhunter was treated as being essentially the only Martian. In 1988, all Martians appearing in earlier stories were revealed to be figments of J'onzz's imagination planted by a psychic suggestion to deal with the trauma of living through a destructive plague. J'onzz learned that he had a wife and child, both of whom had green skin. Previously, the only two females linked to J'onzz in a romantic capacity had also been green-skinned.
In 1997, the old racial war was revisited with a vengeance, as monstrous White Martians were introduced and made a bid for Earth. Besides being bestial in form, the White Martians were portrayed as universally racist, sadistic, and generally amoral. The one exception, introduced nearly a decade later, was the heroine Miss Martian. M'gann M'orzz chose to a appear as a Green Martian because of the broad hatred of her people, and has continued this charade for years, despite her true race being known. While a "good" White, a future version of M'orzz revealed that she would eventually embrace her race and vicious White leanings. Miss Martian did not care to hear this, and chopped off her future self's head before indulging in an identity crisis with signs of emerging schizophrenia.
J'Onn J'Onzz had spent years mourning the absence of his people, but that did not stop him from mind-wiping the White Martians, imprisoning them, and merging temporarily with an entity called Fernus in a bid to exterminate them. In the "One Year Later" period, J'Onn turned against the Justice League to protect a group of murderous Green Martians, until he found out that they were really White, and they were never heard from again. J'Onzz also waited years before having any sort of direct contact with M'gann M'orzz, and has largely maintained that distance. Only in the non-canon cartoon Young Justice has there been a portrayal of genuine sustained warmth between the two, although Miss Martian appears to be a Green Martian and niece to J'Onzz in that series.
What we have here is a failure to communicate a positive direction for racial politics in the Martian Manhunter's neck of the woods. All White Martians are pure evil, aside from a couple of "good ones." All Pale Martians were Nazi goons, while White Saturnians were all kinds of creepy messed up. Red Saturnians weren't much better, just weaker, and most Green Martians were either massacre bait or knee-jerk violent reactionaries. The one yellow-skinned Martian was a killer outlaw, and J'Onn J'Onzz hasn't had a healthy relationship with any of them since 1968. J'Onzz did deign to have a fling with the White Saturnian 
When J'onn J'onzz first took human form in 1955, it was as a white man. When he killed off the John Jones identity in the early '60s, he eventually took on the role of Marco Xavier, another white man. After decades away from Earth, upon repatriating here, he reestablished the deceased John Jones identity while serving on a calculatedly multicultural team. It wasn't until the late '90s that creators flirted with other races or genders, none sticking for long. In animation and live action, African-American actors have tended to portray the Martian Manhunter, the 2012 direct-to-DVD cartoon Justice League Doom introduced a black John Jones, and New 52 DC Comics may follow suit. While I've tended to be critical of DC's dumping decades of continuity in an attention grab, J'Onn J'Onzz could benefit mightily from this new beginning. There were numerous isolated pockets of continuity in any given decade of publishing that rarely connected as any kind of whole, and the stuff that did carry over was often naive demonizing along racial lines. I sincerely hope that when we do finally get to know the Manhunter from Mars in the New 52, someone will have given thought to the greater scheme of Martian history, and will offer a more nuanced approach to the races of the red planet.
Post-Racial DC Comics?
