Though readers didn’t know it at the time, the pages of Detective Comics 326 (April 1964) contained two tombstones.
One of them belonged to John Jones, the police detective who’d been the alter ego of the Martian Manhunter since he’d been trapped on Earth by The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel in Detective Comics 225 (Nov. 1955).
His 101 adventures in that title ended with The Death of John Jones, Detective, in which a criminal steals the Babylonian idol head of Diabolu, a mystical artifact which has “…all the evils of mankind … locked up inside it,” according to the tale by writer Jack Miller and artist Joe Certa.
The idol, after empowering thief Vince Durskin with destructive eye beams, will release a fresh giant menace each month (a schedule convenient for comic book publishers). The first of these is a giant, glowing gaseous being that devours everything in its path — including, apparently, Detective Jones, who is engulfed by the creature when he shoves a boy out of its way.
Reappearing as the Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz turns Durskin’s beams against the gas creature and saves the day, though not his former identity, which he abandons.
Mourning him are police Captain Harding and policewoman Diane Meade, Jones’ friend and quasi-love interest since 1957. The Manhunter’s obviously alien nature probably made the editors leery about featuring more than a hint of romance. Yes, Superman was equally alien, but he didn’t look it.
Also saddened was the Manhunter’s little orange extra-dimensional pal Zook, who’d been hanging around him for more than a year — this even though Zook was aware that John Jones was merely a disguise for the still-living Martian Manhunter.
Zook was sweet, but not terribly bright.
While his friends say goodbye to a man who never really existed, the Martian Manhunter pledges himself to stopping the monthly menaces that will be released by the lost idol.
And so he does, in a new cover feature starting in House of Mystery 143 (June 1964), when Zook himself becomes the giant menace.
Another former back-age feature superhero, Aquaman, had gotten his own title in 1962, so the Martian Manhunter became the last of the original Justice Leaguers to star in his own comic book.
J’onn J’onzz battles the Diabolu monsters through House of Mystery 158 (April 1966), when he finally destroys the idol. In House of Mystery 160 (July 1966), he begins his new running battle against VULTURE.
When the feature began, J’onn J’onzz had functioned as a human police detective with secret alien powers. The existence of the Martian Manhunter wasn’t revealed to the world at large until Detective Comics 273 (Nov. 1959), presumably because DC needed him to play the role of public superhero when the Justice League of America debuted in Brave and the Bold 28 (Feb. 1960).
Concerning his origin, comics historian Michael E. Grost observed, “It is not clear if J’onn J’onzz is really a superhero in the conventional sense. One can also think of his stories as fusions between detective fiction and science fiction.”
“Certa dresses his hero in the suit, hat, and trenchcoat of a tough detective hero. He could not possibly look more noir. The Earth face and body assumed by J’onn J’onzz look like those of the tough but decent detectives seen in movies. He is very grown-up looking and not in the least juvenile. He resembles such tough-guy film actors as Charles McGraw.
“By 1955, the main body of Hollywood noir had almost run its course. Noir was the biggest in Hollywood from 1944 to 1951, although a more limited number of noir thrillers would be released through 1958. J’onn J’onzz looks and acts like the heroes of 1940s movies. He is a throwback to a type of character that had its Hollywood heyday over four years before.”
J’onn J’onzz was clearly a product of the Mike Hammer era. When revamped a decade later in the James Bond era, he disguised himself as an international playboy, Marco Xavier, to fight VULTURE, a SPECTRE-like super-criminal organization.
Detective Comics 326 was also the last gasp of the “old look” Batman, and an illustration of why that style had to go. The Batman story, written by Dave Wood and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, was silliness typical of the era, with Batman and Robin captured by pudgy yellow aliens for a space zoo.
Like a lot of other readers, I didn’t bother to pick up this issue off the newsstand. It just couldn’t compete with Superman hiding from Super-Luthor behind a statue, or Spider-Man being unmasked by Dr. Octopus, or the Avengers and the Fantastic Four battling the Hulk, or the first issue featuring this intriguing new character, Daredevil.
But I certainly did buy Detective Comics 327, featuring Carmine Infantino’s streamlined “new look” and editor Julius Schwartz’s new, more well-grounded approach to the quarter-century-old Masked Manhunter.
Batman’s overt science fiction was gone, and with it, J’onn J’onzz.
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