J'onn J'onzz had once been a content man. He was about to finish his psychology degree, he had a loving wife & two wonderful children, a boy and girl, and everything had seemed perfect. That was the point when he suddenly found himself developing super strength and related powers. J'onn tried to hide it, but the Martian United World Government had it's eyes, ears, and minds everywhere. One of their agents approached him about how he could better serve their world by being part of an elite taskforce. J'onn though refused, wanting to help people through healing their minds, not through fighting. But the government refused to let such a useful asset go. They burned down his house, overwhelmed when he sought to rescue his wife and children, made him watch his wife burn in the flames while he was helpless to stop her, and made him believe that his children were killed as well. Then they took him, broke all other resistance, made him psychologically afraid of fire, then molded him into their perfect weapon. To all official reports, J'onn J'onzz died with his family in that freak house fire. And the Martian Manhunter was born as he was sent to his first task in fighting the enemies of the state: the criminals (that didn't pay their bribes), the political dissenters, and the White Martian 'abominations'.

For some years, the Martian Manhunter did his duty, serving the government that forged him and trying to stay numb to the grief and guilt, in part to make sure his grieving parents did not suffer the same fate as his wife. There seemed to be no escape, no way he could get out. Until an Earth scientist accidently managed to teleport Manhunter to Earth then died of a heart attack after seeing what he'd done. At first, Manhunter fearfully wondered how he could get back to Mars. But then he realized, there was no way his government could realize that he was here. They would have no reason to suspect that he was anywhere but on Mars. He could take this chance and just, disappear. He made sure to bury the scientist then took time to get use to Earthen life and find out more about the planet he'd found himself on. Then he forged himself credentials of US citizenship and decided on the name John Jones, close to his original name and so less likely for him to forget that that's what he was called. After that, he decided to become a police officer in the local city because a, he felt he owed the nation something for coming in on such false pretenses, b, being a police officer would make the best use of the skillset he now had, c, it wouldn't take too long to become a police officer, d, a police station might be a better place to keep an ear out for if the Martian government did try to find him on Earth, and e, being a psychologist would be too obvious a move if they did hunt him down (and he wasn't sure if he could pursue that office back even if he wanted to).

And so he became Police Officer John Jones, well liked by his fellow non-corrupt officers and by those citizens he met regularly, and now has just risen to the office of Police Detective. And while the pressures of the job are challenging, he finds himself almost content again. But what will come next to snatch it all away from him?

There were a couple things that inspired this version of the character. For one thing, I wanted to explore more the fact that he comes from Mars and so is used to lighter gravity worlds. Hence why his strength and durability while great by Martian standards is less by Earth standards. He then on Earth has needed to adapt to using his psychic powers and cunning even more as most of his strength is used in seeking to not collapse under Earth gravity. In that way, he becomes more interesting fight wise than just a 'psychic Superman to use when we don't have Superman'.

Then the other major idea was doing a different spin off the 'can't go home' part of his backstory. The golden age of course had there still be a functioning 'utopian' Martian society but the ability to travel between Earth and Mars hadn't yet been developed and so as far as he knew, he was trapped unless a miracle occurred or one of his own scientific projects worked. Then the more typical DC universe just has him be the last of his kind. So I decided to play with a scenario where Martians do still exist as a society but the government is an Soviet-esque authoritarian regime. And J'onn's powers were something they wanted to control for their own purposes. That then leads to J'onn taking the miraculous escape he was given and fully seeking to make a life for himself on Earth while staying out from under Martian radar as he does not want to be the weapon they turned him into.

Plot wise, I see him as striving to keep a low-profile and let himself heal but then other supers, both hero and villain, become more and more active and he finds himself needing to confront himself in order to emerge and help as he needs to. And the more he comes out into the open, the more that will draw the unfriendly eyes he was trying to hide from. Of course, his initial foes are gangs, gang leaders, and various common criminals. Then he develops human villains, some from the gangs that are out for revenge, that want to take advantage of him for their own ends, most of them seeking to trap him into the sort of life he had escaped from on Mars, others seeking to use his telepathy for their own different ends like with Bette Noir. Then there are also Martian villains who seek to bring him back home or kill him once he's discovered. I could see Malefic as the lead Martian scientist that was behind the experiments, torture, and brainwashing J'onn went through and so being J'onn's greater arc villain for that aspect of his story with Cay'an as one of his one of his subordinates and D'Kay D'Razz as another of his experiments. Then there could be White Martians who retreated to Earth from Mars with some seeking revenge on J'onn once they realize that he's on Earth as well. Then of course, J'onn's son and daughter are left open. The daughter could be this universe's equivalent to M'gann/Miss Martian, for instance.

But I am more flexible on exact villains. Just I could definitely see those roles for the Martians that come after J'onn and of his existing rouges gallery and connected characters, those seem like the best fits for the plot beats I'm thinking he'd be going through. Mostly though, I am imagining him as someone that can work with other heroes when they could use a police detective or just some extra help. I've placed him in New York because that seems the most central city where heroes could come across him and then he could also sometimes be shipped out temporarily to nearby cities like Gotham and Metropolis for certain cases. For instance, I could see him being sent on a Gotham arsonist case where Firefly's involved as his first meeting with Batman, which of course also puts J'onn directly in the line of fire for his biggest fear. I would be willing though to place him in another city if desired. Basically though, he's a guy that finds himself unable to not help others when he can and then through those connections gets the help and healing he needs against his own demons.