SeeleyOne wrote:I have to admit that I tend to like the Marvel characters a bit better. I have always been a Wolverine fan.
And I just cannot get over the thought that Superman is a munchkin "do anything" character.
/Martian Manhunter bad design rant on
Superman is not, if you want that, see Martian Manhunter, or perhaps Green Lantern.
Technically Manhunter is not built right. He is a TK/Telepath and in the book they handwave that into just being strength, same with Miss Martian who (at least in Young Justice) is a true TK user and the 'strength' she has is simply a function of that.
If that is the actual DC concept for the character, the way it is built in the HnV guide then I respond with: "that is why I don't like certain DC characters as they are straight up stupid. If I were an editor at DC I'd retcon the character completely and make it the way it should have been designed in the first place, ie the original idea is stupid and has no place in the lexicon of characters'. Martian Manhunter as a TK/telepath is fine. He should not have nor be 'superman' like in ability, but rather, much like Superboy, it is a mental TK 'kineticesis' or something like that, yet in this case a true telekinesis and telepathy. In other words, he is Jean Grey on steroids.
But really the way I'd portray the manhunter is much like a character I saw on Freedom Force video game, he is called The Stranger with powers of the mind and one of those being Telekinesis. A TK can have a force field too.
In the end, I'd scrap the entire Manhunter write up, call it an aberrant afterthought (even if its 'official, i'm saying that the official version is retarded) and take the TK/telepath archetype and add the 'martian manhunter' to it ie jack up some ranks in the core power, add the morph and add some mental stunts like the invisibility which is a function of the mental powers. Yet, the morph part is part of the martian physiology, as if all martians are like Mystique.
Then the manhunter part of the martian would be purged for the stupid name that it is. He is NOT a manhunter. Maybe if the character were originally envisioned as a villain, that first faced Superman as an alien who UNLIKE the kryptonian was hostile to the Earth much like Namor was to the surface dwellers and thus like Namor he has similiarites in personality perhaps, but unlike him he is the last of his kind (though that idea alone has been completely warped and made obsolete as in fact their are quite a few other martians).
So he is a martian, but not a manhunter and thus the original editor of the writer who created the character should have rightly told the writer 'that is a stupid name, no you need to think of something better'. That is why I like The Stranger, though other names would fit too, just not the actual name. The name doesn't have to include the term 'martian'.
The name, the resulting 'superman' like build of the character is wrong on many levels, and he is better done as a true mental character, not a character who has superman-like strength, eye-beams, etc. Its like the originality bus left the building. The attempt to make yet another alien who has powers/abilities 'like' superman so that he is a homage character who actually made it into real comics and part of the icon that is DC character library, much like Captain Marvel (who is a better and very well done character).
In the end, stupid character or not, he has made a few paychecks for DC and the creators, but still, there are reasons why I never read DC comics other than now and then, as I would never waste my time or money reading a Martian Manhunter comic. I'm sure there are some super-fans out there. Great, pick up a T-shirt that says 'Go Green' and then when your read Hulk comics it can pull double duty.
For the record, I do like how Miss Martian is done on young Justice, I suppose it is how Martian Manhunter SHOULD have been done in the first place. So kudos to the creator of that character.
Also the Neanderthal like face of the Martian Manhunter is dumb. The way the white Martian 'original' look of Miss Martian is, that's much more appropriate and less stupid. Green Martians should look similar. Now if you are going to turn yourself into a 'green human' like Martain Manhunter does, why choose to have a face like that. Its like seeing a Geiko commercial with the Neanderthal and thinking 'wow that must be what humans look like'. After spending time, any real time, with humans you'd realize that is NOT a human, and if the character was written half-way decent he'd have seen Earth TV first. Perhaps at first he'd look like that, and mid-way in the first comic he'd realize his mistake and change to a more appropriate human look. But that green skin, human like, and Neanderthal look if its his original form, well that is just sad for the Martians.
/Martian Manhunter bad design rant off
by SeeleyOne » Mon May 21, 2012 8:39 pm 
I actually rarely do any character conversions; this was all official builds into HeroLab. If I got the bug I suppose I could borrow my roommate's FASERIP stuff and do a load of conversions, but I'm pretty sure there's at least one poster on Roll Call who's already done it. 
