With the recent close approach of Mars last week, I wanted to post about my impressions of Martians in pop culture, beginning with my earliest memories of the Manhunter from Mars.
I first encountered J'Onn J'Onzz in 80-page and giant-size reprints of the Justice League of America where he largely employed only his super-breath. I read a mere two of his solo exploits in the very early 70s: first in an errant copy of 1967's House of Mystery, with its "Martian Marauders"; then in a Double Double comic, reprinting a World's Finest Neal Adams story with a back-up- "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel".
When I encountered him, J'Onn was impersonating playboy Marco Xavier, really the criminal Faceless and head of VULTURE. I didn't read his departure from the JLA or any of his subsequent 70s appearances until the approaching end of the decade.
In The Origin of the JLA Minus One, J'Onn looked more alien and forbidding but he didn't return to active duty ( other than his guest appearance in JLA 200) until the mid-80s formation of JLA Detroit.
Remarkably, most of those characters have appeared in live-action tv!
During the "dramedy" era of the Bwah-ha-ha League, J'Onn was effectively the leader, despite his "hilarious" addiction to Oreos. In the early 90s, Mark Millar (IIRC) depicted him as the Superman of the Southern hemisphere with his own Rogues Gallery, like Australia's Dr. Dreamtime.
The problem of existing in a world where Batman and Superman do what you do, for longer and better, was addressed in a sense by positioning JJ as an ersatz PoC in the 60s JLA. Despite my misgivings about the politics of that idea, it's how he was portrayed on live-action tv: in the Noughties, J'Onn was a semi-regular guest-star in Smallville, utilising his telepathic powers. More recently, he was played quite majestically in Supergirl by David Harewood.
JJ is most effective as part of a team ,which may be why his solo series don't really have any longevity. But he was out of the League when I was a child and a teenager and his outsider role was occupied by Red Tornado. For me, he's not the indispensable JLAer that DC seems to think him.
Doctor Who has its own Martian race- the hissing, armoured Ice Warriors who appeared twice in the 60s and twice in the 70s. In the Moffat Era, Mark Gattis revived the armoured reptilians in the Hunt For Red October -influenced Cold War and the Zulu-flavoured Empress of Mars. Gattis is so respectful but his revamp made then less original and more like the modern Silurians. Big Finish released a "Genesis of the Ice Warriors" in Lords of the Red Planet, which I listened to on the Inverness train a few years ago. I should revisit it sometime.
My most recent BF listen was the latest box set of Fourth Doctor Adventures. Since the monthly release model for the 4DAs has been ditched, this is a follow-up to January's set reviewed here, back in March http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.com/2018/03/bakers-seven.html
Again, there are four discs, starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. For me, to my surprise, the most successful play is by Justin Richards. In The Shadow of London, the Tardis lands in a fake London, built and staffed by Nazis in the final weeks of WWII. The Doctor discovers a grotesque experiment to create a upper-soldier.
While an extremely similar plot was featured in the Lucie Miller story Brave New Town ten years ago, this disc is the most memorable. It lacks any depth or moral debate and is a little plodding yet it's still the best one. (3/5 Talmars)
The Bad Penny is written by Dan "Strax" Starkey. It's a timey-wimey tale set in a hotel invaded by an alien Hadean. I can't describe it any further since I have no recollection of what happens. The late Keith Barron's in it. I thought it might be a Fawlty Towers parody but no. (1/5 Talmars)
Kill The Doctor! is an audio sequel to the legendary Pyramids of Mars from sweltering 1976 so it fits today's theme tangentially. It's really the first half of a four-parter, set on the oddly-named planet Drummond, where the populace are addicted to their hand-held devices (satire!)
Moral dilemmas about homelessness and poverty explored by the Doctor and Leela never quite pay off because the zombie population of the planet are soon on the attack. There's a likeable performance by John Dorney ( to my surprise) as a space cop and some amusing audio imagery of Tom zipping about on a skybike. Since he's on the cover, however, there's no surprises about the entrance of murmuring death god Sutekh and this supervillain already made a BF return in a Bernice Summerfield box set in 2015 https://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.com/2015/10/you-cant-handle-lapels-thing.html
It all feels quite over-familiar. (2/5 Talmars)
The Age of Sutekh The cliffhanger of part three positions the Doctor in the role of a god, echoing one of Sutekh's celebrated speeches. However, nothing interesting is done with this reversal, which is maddening.
There is a thin approach to storytelling here. Leela rousing the underdogs to attack is desperately predictable and Sutekh's defeat is an anti-climax, since it's over so quickly. Silent mummies do not function as a threat in audio. The climax relies upon the return of collective memories of characters whom we don't really know, rather than those of the principals, which is a fatal error. (2/5 Talmars)
The two-parter reminded me very much of The Mind-Runners/The Demon Rises in the previous box set where a space city's population was menaced by an alien intelligence. A more astute script editor or producer would have seen that and chosen one or the other. Frankly, this set squanders the talent and intelligence of Jameson and coasts on Tom's considerable charm.
It seems that either BF's fanbase and/or its creative team only wants cosy rehashes of their childhoods and nothing too demanding or ground-breaking. I have to warn you that Andrew Smith's 80s love letter Hour of the Cybermen has been risible so far.
More Martians- and adopted Martians- next time...
Coming soon: Like a Virginian
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