Martian Manhunter is a beloved member of the Justice League, one of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe, and a compelling character in his own right. Naturally, then, any creator who toys with the idea of killing him off is playing with fire (pun intended), as was the case when he died in Final Crisis.
Yes, it's yet another Morrison story, and though Final Crisis is a beloved book, the demise of J'onn J'onnz still sticks out like a sore thumb. He's killed off by Libra's Secret Society early on by being burned alive, but went on to make his return in Blackest Night literally a year later.
In this case, it isn't so much the gap between J'onnz's demise that makes this resurrection such a boring one, but instead the nonchalance in which it was treated. At no point in Final Crisis were readers ever led to believe that the Manhunter was gone for good (barely anyone stops to mourn his passing), and by the time he returns in Blackest Night, even J'onn himself looked unsurprised.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
