Martian Manhunter week Part 3-B: Fernus the Burning

[thelazyreader]

Continuing from my last post, here are some scans from the second half of JLA: Trial by Fire by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke.



Recap: A powerful telepath has been manipulating people across the world to forcibly put an end to its problems, lobotomizing criminals and making world leaders peacefully resolve all their disputes. With the Martian Manhunter in an oddly weakened state, the Justice League is left defenceless from assault. Ultimately it becomes clear that their formidable opponent is a Martian, and in fact, none other than J'onn J'onnz himself, now turned into a monstrous being calling himself Fernus.

After getting their asses kicked in the initial confrontation, the League have regrouped at the Fortress of Solitude. Their prisoner, Vandal Savage reminisces about how he encountered a crashed Oan ship and fought a creature much like Fernus back in his caveman days.



Superman figures the 80-odd White Martians they had earlier trapped in the Phantom Zone might know more about Fernus, only to find that he's already entered the Zone and killed them all.



And he's invited Aubrey along to watch her new and improved boyfriend at work. Bad Krypto!



Time for a heroic rescue. Green Lantern(the other John) earlier dissapeared when the League teleported to the Fortress. Now he busts in to interrupt Fernus's fun, with his wounds healed, an energy construct over his head and his mind now immune to telepathic attacks.



After saving their bacon John(not J'onn, take note) takes the League to a safe place. He reveals that Ganthet intervened to save him and taught him how to re-route his brain to shield it against telepathy. And finally explained what's been going on: there's a dark history regarding the Martians that even J'onn knew nothing about.





J'onn, like all Martians, has most of Superman's powers plus others like telepathy, telekinesis, matter-phasing, invisibility and shapeshifting. The only thing that balances all this is his weakness to fire. But in his 'true' form, as a Burning Martian, he thrives on fire, devastation and suffering. And once he's caused enough chaos and destruction he gains the strength to reproduce. Asexually.

The League realises that unless they find a way to stop Fernus they'll soon be facing an army of Burning Martians. Since they can't beat him in an actual fight, they take Manitou Raven(the team shaman) to Stonehenge to work his magic.



Of course, he knows all their secret identities. And we get to see things from his perspective as he mind-controlled lynch mobs at the heroes' family members to keep them preoccupied...



...while he telepathically triggers the launch of the Earth's nuclear missiles.



Meanwhile, we finally see what Batman was doing during this debacle. After teleporting away from the Fortress he made his way to the home of Ralph Jonhs, aka, Plastic Man, to seek his assistance. To his shock Ralph can't remember ever being a superhero and insists that he's just an average guy.



Batman finally gives up and leaves to help with the nuclear missiles. Plastic Man's son Luke wants his dad to fight, leading to a poignant exchange between him and Batman.



Poor Luke. Meanwhile, as the others try to stop the nuclear missiles Manitou Raven brings Atom and Major Disaster into the astral plane to find J'onn/Fernus.







Fernus detects their prescence and they find themselves in a battle for their souls(literally) with J'onn's many alter egos, now under Fernus' control.

At Ralph's home Luke tries to convince his dad to go back to being Plastic Man. Another great exchange:



And as the League struggles to stop the Burning Martian, the tide is turned by an unlikely savior.



Fernus is amused at the idea of Plastic Man being Batman's secret gambit and commands him to stretch till he snaps. He stops laughing when Plas ignores his telepathy and smashes him through five apartment blocks.



Turns out Batman had planned for this scenario long ago and had nominated Plastic Man to the JLA for the specific purpose of being their contingency plan against the Martian Manhunter. Plas manages to tie up Fernus, but the Martian has one more trick up his sleeve. He telepathically planted the belief in the JLA's minds that they'd dealt with all the missiles, when there was one left.

'And here we... go'.





It's the Flash's turn to shine. That's one of the most impressive speed feats ever seen in comic books.

Though no lives were lost, seeing the mushroom cloud finally puts all thoughts of restraint out of the League's minds.



'Whatever it takes.' It has to be really bad when even Superman gives up on saving J'onn and decides on killing him instead.

Aubrey is torn between her love for J'onn and the her revulsion at the monster she unknowingly helped him become. Finally, the League gets their opening when all the flames in the city die down unexpectedly, weakening Fernus.





Fernus blasts her with psychic flame and then regenerates his body. The carnage has given finally given him the energy to breed offspring, and the JLA is out of ideas.

Wonder Woman: Please don't say "I don't know."
Batman: ... All right, I won't say it.

But seeing Aubrey collapsing has finally given J'onn the strength to regain control over the astral plane and separate himself from Fernus.



The League causes a tidal wave to wash over the city, nullifying the fire advantage and letting J'onn settle the score.



J'onn disintegrates Fernus with his Martian Vision and puts an end to the devastation. Thus he regains his old life, albeit at a great cost.



It's no Rock of Ages, Tower of Babel or Obsidian Age, but it's a good story by itself with some great characterisations. And the art by Doug Mahnke is fantastic. It's a pity Fernus was never revisited by other writers.

And so ends the MM week. Whew.
 

Comments

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how Imageshack works, but one of your scans refuses to load.

[thelazyreader]

Which one?

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

It came back now (the exchange between Plas and his son). Guess their servers are just having strain.

[protogarrett]

Thank you for posting all this. This was fabulous.

[icon_uk]

Hmmm, so tell me JLA, how do you feel about Batman's secret take down plans NOW?

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, that was the big problem I had with that story--granted, he probably could have made those files more secure, but considering how often his team-members get manipulated or hypnotized or whatever, figuring out what they can do in case one of the super-powerful is turned is not an inherently bad idea.

[jcbaggee]

See, I'm prone to agree with this. Everyone still points out how Batman was a dick for coming up with those plans, but pretty much every hero BUT Batman has gone rogue in some way, shape or form since then.

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

Exactly; it would have been pretty irresponsible for him not to.

Batman planning out (death)traps ahead of time is simply to compensate for not being able to suddenly fist fight everyone at a moments notice.
The other leaguers could probably get away with not having contingency plans for when the shit hits the fan since they already have the powers and abilities to stand toe to toe with their compatriots.

Although, that being said, some his plans could have been better since they seemed to rely solely on pre-emptive tactics, like waiting for Kyle to go to sleep, or things that probably shouldn't have worked, like putting Diana in an illusion and assuming she'll give herself a heart attack.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Err, his plans to turn J'ohn into the Human Torch would have helped in this instance how exactly?

[icon_uk]

Clearly he had to change his plans after his originals were found out. Yes he got lucky the old one wouldn't work in this situation but bear in mind that even if he'd used it and it failed, he'd still have Plastic Man on his side to deal with J'onn.

I was referring to the general principle of Batman have a plan to deal with rogue Leaguers which was such viewed as a dreadful thing for him to have even conceived of.

[cygna_hime]

Same way I always felt: like writing them down was the line that separated necessary preparation from world-shattering stupidity. Did Batman need to go consult the file on J'onn to remember this plan? Doesn't look like it.

[icon_uk]

Fair point on that one.

[thelazyreader]

Maybe he wrote it down so that someone else(say, Nightwing) would know what to do in case he got taken out early in the scenario.

Also, he's only human. He can't perfectly recall the minute details for each and every one of the hundreds of plans he's made, can he?

[nemryn]

Who takes down Batman when he flips out?

[icon_uk]

Dick, sitting in the Batcave's decontamination bath, which he has filled with bubble bath, wearing only a smile and a come hither expression... and Tim hidden under the bubbles with a snorkel and a baseball bat ready to pounce whilst Batman's brain is distracted by so many, many wrong thoughts...

[nezchan]

So we're assuming Tim would be immune to pure, 100% Grayson at such close proximity, allowing him enough attention to take care of Bruce?

That's gotta be a superpower.

[icon_uk]

When Tim finally grows a hormone (as Kon as put it), THEN they'll have to think a new plan...

[equinox216]

Legion and/or Booster Gold+Rip Hunter take a Time Sphere back to pick up Thomas and Martha Wayne for a day trip to the future.

[ravenous_raven]

See, I didn't have a problem with Batman making plans. I had a problem with the fact that 1. he was the only one that did it (is a pact with everyone to mutually make plans to cure/conquer the others so hard?) and 2. put everything down in hard-copy.


If we're playing by comic-book rules, yes, everyone goes crazy/gets mind-controlled, so yes, we need contingency plans. However, only 1 person making them is just a bad idea. It's better to equalize the power field. There's no need to tell people what you plan to do to take them out, but there's also no need to be arrogant enough to think you're the only one who can stop everyone. Similarly, putting such things into computer files? Please, this storyline here even reveals that the mind is not secure, never mind computers in a cave that too many people (read: Talia al'Ghul) know the location of.

Batman making plans is smart. Batman making plans by himself for everyone else and then putting them somewhere that is not the least accessible place he can find is stupid and arrogant.

[jimthehedgehog.livejournal.com]

Surely there's a difference between ensuring that the team is balanced so that no one member can take down all the other members (a plan that can be practically out in the open) and documenting detailed ways to take down all of the league...

[darkknightjrk]

Great stuff--it's definitely one of my favorite arcs from Kelly's run on JLA. :)

[jcbaggee]

Any moment where Wally gets to be a badass is a plus in my book.

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

IIRC, the story ended with J'onn declaring that he no longer has a weakness to actual fire but just 'fires of the psyche', or something like that.

But it seems like that was eventually dropped/ignored from continuity.

Anyone know the reason why? Was it cause DC still thought it made him too powerful?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, he's died and been resurrected since then, so presumably that hit the 'reset button' on his strengths and weaknesses.

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

Well I meant in the period right after this story long before Final Crisis.

[thelazyreader]

I didn't read much of JLA after this because after Kelly's run it started going downhill for me. But J'onn was still vulnerable to flames associated with emotion(for instance, an orphanage burning down with children inside screaming), so he'd still be vulnerable in most supervillain encounters. Only he wouldn't become weak for absurd reasons like seeing a lit match or a candle.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh. Well, another argument you could make is that he may have accidentally reestablished the limitations while changing back from something else, since they had been an inherent part of his biology for so long that they were basically part of the genetic 'pattern' he recognized as his own. Or perhaps the changes were temporary ones. Or maybe the writers were being lazy.

[hybrid2]

Why cant we have books like this anymore?

[pyrotwilight]

Kinda odd an ending since Scorch has shown up alive since then.

[thelazyreader]

She was put into a coma at the end of this story arc.

[stubbleupdate]

Mahnke is THE JLA artist for me.

I want Major Disaster and the Fat Lady back in the JLA.

[lonewolf23k]

"Somewhere in the world, Superman has just uttered his first real Swear Word in years. That has to count for something."

Yeah, when the Big Blue Boyscout finally starts to drop an F-Bomb, you know he's pissed off.

[baihu]

Maybe giving him too much credit.

Actually I was hoping it'll be the C-word. Somehow it's way more amusing to me 8D

[goblinthebamf]

the first nuclear post-Hiroshima nuclear explosion
not in DC, Cheshire set one off in Qurac. (fear my nerd-fu)

thanks for the scans!

[icon_uk]

Also, apparently, nuclear tests don't count, and given this point in time, I think Montevideo had been wiped out, and the "Invasion!" planetary assauly may well have featured them too.

[thelazyreader]

Well, I can't be blamed for not following all the subpar events of the 90s. Even current DC writers seem to have trouble remembering them.

Corrected on the explosion part.

[junipepper]

I did not love the art throughout -- Wonder Woman looks alarmingly skinny, Supes seems oddly proportioned -- but those frames with Wally after the evacuation, those are amazing. His exhaustion and despair come through perfectly. Like he's haunted by the understanding that no matter what astounding feats he's able to manage, it'll never be quite enough. So well done.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Scorch is kinda awesome here. She's clearly torn between her love for J'onn and her desire NOT to see the world destroyed, thank you very much. The fact that it takes that far into the process for her to turn against him is a pretty good indication of the depths of her feelings for him. (For that matter, the latter is true, as well - the fact that it takes until that point for Fernus to turn against her, ravening force of evil and destruction that he is, is a pretty good indication of J'onn's feelings for her.) I like Scorch - it's a shame no one has really used her much.