Previously the series was titled John Jones, Manhunter from Mars, but Manhunter had to abandon his secret identity of Detective John Jones in his last story in Detective (#326, Apr/64), the introduction of the Idol-Head of Diabolu. The story-line of new menaces spawned from the Idol-Head with each full moon continued through HOM 158. (A few issues like #153 and 154 took a break from the ongoing Diabolu storyline.)
A new arc (vs. crime organization Vulture) began in #160 and ran for the remainder of the feature, through HOM 173.
So far the only two writers I've seen on Manhunter from Mars are Miller and Wood, although that's from only a sampling of the Detective run. If, as sheer rumor has it, Joseph Samachson had anything to do with the first story (in Detective 225, Nov/55), it was not in scripting it—Jack Miller did that, to judge by the style.
The artist on every story in the Manhunter from Mars series in the Fifties and Sixties was Joe Certa.
J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter from Mars in House of Mystery 143-158—Writers
| June/64 | #143 | The Giant-Maker | Jack Miller |
| July/ | #144 | The Weird World of Gilgana | Miller |
| Sept/ | #145 | Secret of the Purple People | Miller |
| Oct/ | #146 | The Doom Shadow | Dave Wood |
| Dec/ | #147 | The Orchestra of Doom | Miller |
| Jan/65 | #148 | The Beings in the Color Rings | Wood |
| Mar/ | #149 | The Man-Thing That Unearthed Secrets | Wood |
| Apr/ | #150 | The Supernatural Masterpieces | Wood |
| June/ | #151 | The Doom from Two Worlds | Miller |
| July/ | #152 | Iwangis—Creature King | Miller |
| Sept/ | #153 | The Giants Who Slept 1,000,000 Years | Miller |
| Oct/ | #154 | The Mirror Martian Manhunter | Miller |
| Dec/ | #155 | The Giant Genie of Gensu | Miller |
| Jan/66 | #156 | Look What Happened to J'onn J'onzz! | Miller |
| Mar/ | #157 | Manhunter, World's Greatest Clown | Miller |
| Apr/ | #158 | Origin of the Diabolu Idol-Head | Miller |
Always an underrated character. Kind of too bad they had him come from Mars. That was kind of limiting once we started sending rockets there. The Diablo head was a good plot device for a while. It was good to see J'onn J'ozz without the redundant John Jones disguise. I liked his extra powers like invisibility, the ability to change shapes, and telepathy that made him different from most of the DC super heroes like Superman and Mon-El.
ReplyDeleteYes; I thought those differences, as well as the different-style costume, helped him fit in well alongside Superman in the early Justice League of America.
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