A romantic interest, a snoop, and a pest — Lois Lane filled all those roles for Superman in the 1950s and 1960s. And Diane Meade did the same for the Martian Manhunter.
Like Lois, policewoman Diane Meade was in the same profession as her superhero’s secret identity, working alongside him. She was added to John Jones’ small supporting cast in John Jones’ Female Nemesis (Detective Comics 246, Aug. 1957).
“That’s a little overdramatic,” Bennet Marks observed. “She was basically an inconvenience — he couldn’t switch identities in front of her, openly use his powers during a case, and so on.”
The Martian Manhunter’s little six-page exploits didn’t leave a lot of elbow room for plotting. But together with Roy Raymond’s debunkings and the Dynamic Duo’s adventures, they made Detective Comics the most entertaining anthology title on the newsstand, for my money (a dime, then).
“J’onn J’onzz found himself stranded and took the persona of police detective John Jones while he bided his time for a means of returning to Mars,” recalled John Wells. “Over time, he’d develop a small supporting cast that included Captain Harding (beginning in #228), police officer Diane Meade (#246), and another-dimensional child-like creature named Zook (#311). His base of operation — Middletown — would not be named until Detective #322.”
“Diane Meade, the police chief’s daughter, herself joined the police force, and in her first case, as part of a probationary period, was paired with Detective John Jones,” noted author Wade Greenberg. “Despite some initial awkwardness — she smoked, which did not please our hero, who shared with all Martians a vulnerability to fire which robbed him of his superhuman powers — Diane proved to be as smart and capable as any policeman (or should we say brawny boy in blue?), and our hero found himself as much attracted to her inner qualities as her outer beauty. (But, he mused, would she find him attractive if she knew he was really a Martian?).”
Unlike Superman, the Martian Manhunter didn’t look human in his real form, so any suggestion of romance always felt a bit off.
This was during the era before the Martian Manhunter had come out as a public superhero — he always operated invisibly.
Diane turned up again three years later in John Jones’ Pesky Partner (Detective Comics 275, Jan. 1960). While the Caped Crusader was dealing with the problem of becoming the magnetic “Zebra Batman” on the cover, the Martian Manhunter — now a famous superhero and a founding member of the Justice League America — grows to giant size to save a driver trapped on a bridge. And Diane grows suspicious.
“It wasn’t a coincidence for you to disappear just when the Martian Manhunter appeared!” she tells Jones. “Besides, he’d have to choose an earth detective to disguise himself!”
“Now, now — you needn’t worry!” she tells him. “I won’t give you away!”
But Jones thinks: “If she ever unwittingly revealed what she suspects, her life would be endangered by criminals! For her own protection, I must prove that I’m not the Martian Manhunter!”
And of course he does.
Again, the parallel to Lois didn’t quite work, because there was no reason to presume that a being as strange-looking as the Martian Manhunter even had a human identity. So why suspect one?
In the Superman titles, characters frequently seemed to develop powers identical to Superman’s. Usually, those abilities were genuine (although of course temporary). But sometimes they were a hoax, and Superman, Supergirl, or Krypto had to scramble to make it seem that the character had superpowers (for whatever convoluted reason).
The Girl with the Martian Powers (Detective Comics 282, Aug. 1960) fell into the latter category.
Because Diane has to testify against a criminal who, not unexpectedly, wants her dead, the Manhunter concocts a hoax to convince everyone — including her — that she has temporary superpowers.
While the Masked Manhunter is stymied by the dilemma of having become a “Negative Batman,” John Jones finds himself caught up in The Courtship of J’onn J’onzz (Detective Comics 284, Oct. 1960).
This time, it’s a carnival fortune teller who causes the trouble.
“I see a handsome, young man,” the woman tells Diane, peering into her crystal ball. “He is under your father’s supervision… You have been wondering how to attract his attention!
“Why — she means Detective John Jones!” Diane thinks.
A series of Lois Lane-like dangerous stunts ensues. Luckily, the Martian Manhunter’s virtually innumerable superpowers are sufficient to cope with them.
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