Tuesday, August 28, 2012

J'onn J'onzz Writers: House of Mystery 143-158

House of Mystery 143 J'onn J'onzz splash page
J'onn J'onzz' name at this point in his career is pronounced John Jones, not a French-style Jean Jeans as per the animated Justice League. Not only that, he's an actual Martian, rather than a member of an extra-solar race residing on Mars, as later "realism" demanded.

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-MakerJack Miller
July/    #144 The Weird World of GilganaMiller
Sept/    #145 Secret of the Purple PeopleMiller
Oct/    #146 The Doom ShadowDave Wood
Dec/    #147 The Orchestra of DoomMiller
Jan/65#148 The Beings in the Color RingsWood
Mar/    #149 The Man-Thing That Unearthed SecretsWood
Apr/    #150 The Supernatural MasterpiecesWood
June/    #151 The Doom from Two WorldsMiller
July/    #152 Iwangis—Creature KingMiller
Sept/    #153 The Giants Who Slept 1,000,000 YearsMiller
Oct/    #154 The Mirror Martian ManhunterMiller
Dec/    #155 The Giant Genie of GensuMiller
Jan/66#156 Look What Happened to J'onn J'onzz!Miller
Mar/    #157 Manhunter, World's Greatest ClownMiller
Apr/    #158 Origin of the Diabolu Idol-HeadMiller

2 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. Yes; 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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