Martian Manhunter #12 (DC)

The latest exceptional Martian Manhunter story ends, well, exceptionally.  DC uses the guy sparingly, but when it does, increasingly so, the results are among the best in superhero comics.

Rob Williams creates the logical conclusion to the story he began with his first issue, J'onn J'onzz once again at war with the remnant of his home planet, Mars.  From the beginning, Martian Manhunter was always a variant of Superman, last survivor of a doomed population, and a stranger in a strange land on Earth as a result.  Because he's green, J'onn has always had the ability to present what being alien really means to this particular superhero archetype, and writers have frequently been drawn to that popular aspect of his backstory: life on Mars.

At least as far back as Grant Morrison's JLA and the spinoff Martian Manhunter series from John Ostrander, other Martians make a constant hell for this guy.  Williams produced a whole host of aliases for him as he combatted the latest threat, at first keeping the fact that they were J'onn a secret, and therefore creating some unique new characters and versions of him, including the instantly iconic Mr. Biscuits, who sadly didn't make it to the final issue.

No, in this finale, Williams reveals that the whole thing was literally in Martian Manhunter's head.  He suggests that the superhero actually went mad.  Unlike Superman, he didn't spring forth from his home planet an innocent little baby.  No, Martian Manhunter was an adult.  He's lived with what happened to his people ever since. 

I think this is as plausible a conclusion to reach about him as any, and it's the perfect ending to Williams' story, which rightfully takes its place alongside the best of Martian Manhunter's stories, arguably at or near the top.  Maybe that sounds like faint praise, because this has never been one of the most popular of DC's characters, and therefore he remains somewhat obscure.  But with storytelling like this, who cares?