What can you tell me about that duality of John’s Martian culture and his new ties to Earth?įrom J’onn’s point of view - whether it’s fair or not for him to say this to himself - he was unable to save lives he was unable to save his family. And so one of my hopes is that my experience as a queer person can not just bring truth to J’onn’s journey, but also empower his journey and enrich his journey for people who maybe aren’t on the same path of self actualization as I was, but need that anyway, regardless of what it’s for. We’ve all had personal failures that we’ve had to overcome and rise above. And at the same time I think that if you are not queer, we’ve all had things inside that we’ve had to come to terms with. And so it’s 100 percent working with allegory to tell that type of story. So me writing the story, it’s unquestionably informed by my experience being queer, my experience being half-Jewish. And having something inside of himself that he has to wrestle with and overcome and eventually use to empower himself, that’s J’onn J’onzz’s journey as well. Anyway! But the point is, I understand what it’s like to have something inside of you that you have to wrestle with and come to terms with, but also maybe isn’t noticeable on the street to folks. Obviously, I’m half-Jewish, I’m bisexual - jokingly I will say I’m half-gay sometimes more or less than that, depending on what room I’m in and who else is in that room. On one hand, I always want the appeal of a book to be broad, so first off the answer is yes. Steve Orlando: It’s one characterization, and it’s a good one. Polygon: From what you’ve previously told me about this book, you’re writing Martian Manhunter as a metaphor for queer identity. But, as Orlando explained to Polygon, taking on John Jones’ problems is also a way for J’onn to avoid confronting his own. Orlando’s new Martian Manhunter series will see J’onn borrowing the form and identity of a human police detective, John Jones, and attempting to solve his last unsolved case. Which is ironic, considering that he’s both a telepath and a shapeshifter - someone fully capable of connecting with and mimicking humanity, if he were to choose to. But unlike Superman, he’s a character who often feels disconnected from the human race. And if you do, you probably know that, like Superman, he’s the last survivor of an extra-terrestrial apocalypse. If you know J’onn J’onzz(pronounced like “John Jones,” but with a soft G sound at the beginning, as in “genre”), the superhero known as the Martian Manhunter, it might be from the comics, or from his leading roles in shows like Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited or the CW’s Supergirl. Martian Manhunter is telling a universal story about identity and personal actualization, with a distinctly queer undertone to it. Whether it’s the Justice League’s castoffs teaming up with the surreal weirdos of the Doom Patrol, or a super-science enhanced vigilante waging a one-man war against the lord of Hell to rescue his super-powered boyfriend’s soul, Orlando’s books merge the high concept with the universal in unexpected ways.Īnd the writer’s newest series does just that, with one of the Justice League’s most powerful members. Steve Orlando’s superhero stories take the wildest corners of the comic book world and use them to tell deeply human stories.
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