Random Rant - Absolute Martian Manhunter

     I haven't done anything on this blog in a while, that's because I didn't feel the need to write. Stuff still happened in my life, a lot actually I just didn't feel like "blogging" but now I'm back and I really want to talk about Absolute Martian Manhunter.

    I got this during FCBD, and it was the last one at the store. I was surprised to actually find it though unfortunately I couldn't find issue two, though there was a pretty good reason why. It had been manhandled and obviously read through multiple times by idiots. Please to everyone reading this, A COMIC SHOP IS NOT A LIBRARY! DONT READ THE BOOKS TILL YOU BUY THEM! But I'm content with a beater I at least was still able to read it.

    I'll start with a summary, so you actually know what I'm talking about. The story has you follow John Jones, an FBI agent that investigates terrorism, after being caught in an attack. Though the explosion has barely any effect on him, but instead of being happy John is just apathetic. He then is offered paid time off but refuses it. Once he's home he lies to his wife about being forced to work, his son who is making clay sculptures, the ones of him and his mom are normal but the one of John, his dad, is a green cyclops like thing. John the next day proceeds to interview people who knew the terrorist and the Martian powers start setting in. John is given random bits of information, and he doesn't know why, on top of that he believes he is hallucinating a green smoke. When looked over by the doctor he appears to be fine. But when John is talking to the terrorists Mom he decides to breath in the smoke. It overtakes him and he rushes out of the apartment; out in the City of Middletown there is tons of smoke, and it overtakes John until he falls to the ground of what he sees as an unrecognizable city. We then see it, the Martian, Mindhunter.

    Now that were on the same page, I want to discuss three things: the protagonist, where this is going, and the ideas, as these are usually the selling points for me in a comic.

Protagonist:

    John Jones is honestly a very unlikeable protagonist. He is a workaholic with no cares for others. You see this when he is offered paid time off. The average person would take paid time off no matter what, its literally free money, and he might just have good work ethic. Though if he has to fight to work when his boss is concerned and feels that John deserves and needs time off something is clearly wrong with him. Plus, this leads to him neglecting his family altogether. When his wife is in tears because she thought he was dead, he doesn't care! He just proceeds to continue smoking. His neglect is so much that his coworkers call him the "Martian" of his family. His son also sees him as that when the figure of him is a green cyclops that looms over everyone. John Jones is someone with no redeemable qualities, hopefully later the Martian will make him better.

Where is the story going:

    Issue One gives no breathing room as to where the story could go you get a well set up character and a glimpse of powers but no real direction, this here is the stories main weak point. I'm guessing later issues will lead to something more interesting but currently anything can happen. Let's pray I find issue two somewhere.ng:

Ideas:

    This is Absolute Martian Manhunters strongest part. It is the most fun part. An FBI agent with now gained telepathy could create the ultimate detective, on top of that having the Martian be completely separate creates what I hope for as a dynamic duo. And the form of telepathy is very odd, but still cool. Seeing it be a smoke where everyone's thoughts are some sort of stink that comes off of them. Though the scene with multiple people with it makes me think of Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.

I like Absolute Martian Manhunter, it is a very interesting idea that needs direction, I assume this problem is fixed in Issue two because that is modern comic writing, "Why do a full story in twelve pages so we can make the comic and anthology when we can spread the story into six issues!!!"