Is J'Onn's moniker a bit too wordy?

[CRaymond]

I suggested Superman Blue because I want J'onn to be brought closer into the Superbooks. He’s already great on Supergirl, and I think he’s be a great friend to Clark, both in terms of power level and alien anxieties. If there can be several Green Lanterns and Captain Americas, let’s have J'onn be a Superman.

Ideally, he’d forego green alien appearance and just be a black man, but one step at a time.

Another idea is to merge Oan Manhunters with Martian ones, and have his near-god powerset be Oan in nature, and not indigenously Martian. His body can be shape shifting organic Nth metal, for instance.

[Buried Alien]

It's fine. Somebody has to have a more lyrical moniker to supply the spice of life.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Doctor Bifrost]

Since at least when Stanley Martin Lieber changed his public name to Stan Lee.

If you think that Stanley Martin Lieber changed his name to Stan Lee because his original name had too many syllables (and you're priming the pump by including the "Martin," since few people would include their middle name in any case), I'd have to question that. Because I know too many Jewish people who changed their Jewish-sounding names during that time period. (Like Jacob Kurtzberg. And my father's best friend Sol Katz - and that wasn't due to length of name.)

He could have kept his name and gone by Stan Lieber, which has just as many syllables as Gardner Fox and Bill Finger. The fact that he didn't is probably unrelated to the number of syllables.

(There are also some indications that, at the beginning of his comic-book career, Stan used a pseudonym because he still imagined the day he would write the Great American Novel, and being known as a superhero writer wouldn't help with PR. But dealing with anti-Semitism was almost certainly a part of it too.)

[Jon Clark]

I'd leave his Martian Manhunter name as official or even "J'onn J'onzz - The Manhunter From Mars", but in story 99% of the time no one would use it. He'd be J'onn to his friends. Manhunter to other heroes. Maybe even MM or Jonzz to people trying to sound flippant.

Not sure I'd make him the last Martian. He'd either not be a Martian at all (people mistakenly assumed he was from Mars and it stuck as his species name) or he was exiled prior to his people departing Mars (environmental factors and fear of nosey humans coming soon). Either way there are others of his kind out there, he just can't find them on his own.

In fact I sort of like the one Post-Crisis reworking where J'onn was mentally damaged by Erdel suddenly pulling him to Earth and in an attempt to help Erdel's Edgar Rice Burrough's memories gave the alien something pattern his damaged memories on. J'onn was from John Carter. The large green-skinned look came from the Burroughs' idea of what Martians looked like. It was implied that J'onn may have come from Mars in the past or even somewhere other than mars since so much of the "facts" we knew were now based on faulty memories.

[Jon Clark]

Powerwise I would drop everything superman like,I would explain his powers as Jonn has total control over his every molecule and a world class telepath.no optic blasts just mind blasts,no super strength just density control and shapeshifting,no superspeed or flight just levitation (through his density control) and invisibility.

I'd give him Superman's powers but use the Byrne take on the powers to differentiate them. So Superman's actual body is strong and invulnerable, but J'onn uses telekenesis to augment his muscles and create a skin tight force field. Same with flight. Although some density manipulaton might also affect invulnerability and flight in regards to making each easier to maintain. No real penetration vision but rather mentally seeing through a form of clairvoyance (maybe even seeing through other beings eyes telepathically).

[stephens2177]

I'd give him Superman's powers but use the Byrne take on the powers to differentiate them. So Superman's actual body is strong and invulnerable, but J'onn uses telekenesis to augment his muscles and create a skin tight force field. Same with flight. Although some density manipulaton might also affect invulnerability and flight in regards to making each easier to maintain. No real penetration vision but rather mentally seeing through a form of clairvoyance (maybe even seeing through other beings eyes telepathically).

Self telekinesis has been what I thought it was called.

[CaptCleghorn]

J'Onn's problem isn't his name; it's his lack of a suitable elevator pitch. If you can't come up with a set SHORT description of him then people don't know who he is. We all have an idea of who Superman and Batman are. Comic fans know who Hal, Barry, Ollie, and Diana are as well. But J'Onn? Nope. He's been used as a stranger in America, as the heart of the Justice League. He's been used as a straight-man for the Super-buddies. He's had some cosmic experience. He's been the hero of the southern hemisphere.

John Ostrander brought a lot of these facets together, but a set direction for J'Onn has never really stuck. If you ask 12 comic professionals for Matian Manhunter solicitations, you'd probably get 12 very different ideas. With Batman, you have a much better idea of what to expect. Now, can J'Onn have a run which brings him back to the A-List? Sure, maybe. Other heroes have come out of nowhere and hit it big. But if a MM series was starting in May 2018, we wouldn't have any iodea of the theme of the book.

As a character, J'Onn has huge potential is so many areas. The science fiction, the detective, the super powers, the political nature of his being an alien. All of these are well worth comic pages, but unless a wroter can properly balance the various aspects (hence the Ostrander mentions), they need to focus on a fewer parts of the character's nature and finding your favorites is going to differ for everyonem fans and writers both.

I like J'Onn. He's tied in with much of the DC Universe, but isn't tied TO any particular part of it. A gift and a curse.

[Trey Strain]

Shorter name, shorter height, fewer powers, more costume.

Those changes would help.

[Ascended]

You mean this look?

......I think so?

Its been over a decade. But that looks like the one I was thinking of.

Too much blue in that costume. If they had just made it black....well, it would've been the YJ cartoon version, which is imo the best design for J'onn yet.

[stephens2177]

You mean this?






Notice I threw in some Kon into your night for fun lol.

[sakuyamons]

What’s wrong with Martian Manhunter’s name? How is it “too long”?

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Shorter name, shorter height, fewer powers, more costume.

Those changes would help.

Might as well just create a different character. But, as many people have pointed out, if there is a problem with Martian Manhunter, it's not his name.

What’s wrong with Martian Manhunter’s name? How is it “too long”?

Its not.

[scary harpy]

The classic Martian Manhunter conundrum: this is not working...but we can't change anything.

We can't even be rid of the asinine fire weakness. Sure some want to go one direction...and just as many want to go the other. In the end, we lucky the awful costume was updated.

[jamgut]

Syllables haven't been an issue for Captain America, so I don't think that really impacts JJ.

[CRaymond]

What’s wrong with Martian Manhunter’s name? How is it “too long”?

Martian sounds corny. Manhunter sounds violent. J'onn is neither of those things.