Detective Comics 225 (1937) 225

Today commemorates a planet first explored by a mariner.

Mariner 4 recorded the first photographs of the surface of Mars in a flyby. National Red Planet Day celebrates the launch of that probe which took place Nov. 28, 1964.

Visible to the human eye, Mars has been the planet of legend. The Babylonian’s began recording celestial events some time around 400 BC. Before it was Mars, they referred to the fourth planet from the sun as Nergal, their King of Conflicts due to the planet’s red coloration. The Greeks and Romans made the same deduction referring to the red planet as Ares and Mars, gods of war, respectively.

Detective Comics 225 (1937) 225

As the possibility of space travel became more of a reality, Mars appeared the logical choice as the first planet to visit. In turn, we wondered if we would be visited by inhabitants from Mars.

In the DCU, that visitor came in the form of the Martian Manhunter, or J’onn J’onzz aka John Jones. His first appearance was Detective Comics (1937) 225 in the back up story The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel in 1955.

Dr. Saul Erdel inadvertently transported J’onzz to Earth. As a result of their meeting, Erdel is struck blind and the Martian is stranded.

Eventually J’onzz adopts Earth as his new home world, develops an alter ego and becomes a super hero using his new found powers. He is accepted in the caped community and joins the Justice League of America. Over the years, J’onzz became the cornerstone of the organization.

As the Post-Crisis era became the Post Zero Hour period, J’onzz was given his own solo series. It lasted 38 issues.

His origin, powers and story would continue to evolve through each following Crisis and company reboot.

A live-action incarnation, played by David Ogden Stiers, became a bootleg VHS curiosity when the Justice League of America television pilot was filed away before it could air. Another version appeared on the Smallville show. Lately he has guested in the Arrowverse as portrayed by David Harewood.

In our U, the only green men from Mars have all been imagined, though we have discovered its soil does have water to extract and fictional stories take root in real locations.