The Absolute Universe is DC’s newest and most successful long-running Elseworld. Instead of the universe bending towards Superman’s hope, everything is infused with Darkseid’s tyranny. Every character and aspect of reality has been irrevocably changed, but it’s most obvious in the changes to the heroes. The thesis for the Absolute heroes is to break them down to only their barest essentials and change everything else. The heroes are the same at their core, but major aspects once thought immutable to them have been changed. Wonder Woman was raised in Hell, Flash doesn’t have the Family or the Speed Force, and Superman wasn’t raised by the Kents. Without a doubt, the biggest changes happened to Absolute Martian Manhunter.
In the Prime Universe, J’onn J’onzz is the last Martian, brought to Earth through time and space by accident and choosing to defend his new home with his incredible powers. In the Absolute Universe, however, he’s not a Martian at all. John Jones is an FBI agent in a failing marriage and on the edge of a breakdown. After getting caught in an explosion, his mind was expanded by his new mental partner, the Martian. Instead of being an actual Martian, he’s a being of pure thought who wants everyone to understand empathy. For a long time, it was thought that the Martian only had the power to affect people’s thoughts in a limited way, but Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 just showed that John has even more superpowers.
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
The Martian was captured by Agents who can operate on the mental plane of metaphors as much as they can in the physical world. In the absence of the Martian’s hope, John was left with Despair-the-Zero, who tried his best to make John give up on everything. He had a mental breakdown and convinced everyone in his life that he was insane, while the Agency uncovered his name from the Martian during his torture. Agent Rainbow tracked John to his motel with an army of psychedelic soldiers that were as real as they were an acid trip.
John tried to fight, but wound up getting captured. Rainbow gave him a speech about protecting the imaginary sanctity of borders and their power, and prepared to execute him by firing squad. Just when everything was at its darkest, a firefly the Martian sent found John, and his hope resparked. Rainbow unloaded a volley of bullets, but they simply phased through John. He freed himself and charged right through Rainbow and a wall. John got into his car and, following his connection to the Martian, drove into the realm of metaphor and broke into Nihilo Bay, the prison of despair where they kept him. Together, John and the Martian broke out of the infinite darkness.
The Martian’s Imaginary Strength Possesses Real Power
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
This isn’t the first time that John has done something superhuman in the series. He’s been mentally connecting to everyone since he first bonded to the Martian. He walked through fire and teleported in issue #3, and punched an intangible man and connected everyone’s minds in issue #6. However, all of these powers have always been as metaphorical as they have been physical. There’s always been the possibility that these powers weren’t actually real, but were just symptoms of John’s mental breakdown. Read through the series again, ignoring every supernatural element, and you’ll find everything that John’s done has been plausible for a normal human with strange flashes of insight.
Phasing through a storm of bullets and a wall, however, is irrevocable proof that he has superpowers that can affect the physical world in a meaningful way. He can do more than nudge people towards certain ideas or empathetic breakthroughs. John and the Martian can physically change things, which means they are officially putting the super into the superhero title. Of course, so far, their demonstrated powers are different than the original Martian Manhunters. They share the density control and telepathy, though both are demonstrated differently. The duo’s Martian Vision lets them see thoughts and memories instead of being heat vision.
John and the Martian also lack most of Martian Manhunter’s other abilities. They can’t shapeshift, aren’t super strong, and definitely can’t fly. On the power level, at least physically, they are definitely the weakest Absolute heroes shown so far. I can imagine Absolute Batman beating Bane in a fight, but not John and the Martian. That is, if they fight physically. Their powers are mental, or representations of metaphors made real. They can see into the minds of everyone and go there, literally rewriting parts of whoever they confront. John can even follow the Martian to those metaphorical places, now, which massively increases the potential damage he can deal.
John Jones is well on his way to becoming something much greater than a broken man. He can become a hero who can fight and save people in ways that no one else can, as John can get inside a person’s head, and the Martian can figure out how to help them understand the world around them.
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