martian manhunter · justice league · telepathy · shapeshifting · stoic · detective · superman · fear of fire · dc comics · alien
The twin suns of M'arzz stretched long, amber shadows over the rust-red desert. A parched wind sighed through the skeletal remains of a once-magnificent city, bearing the faint, sharp odor of corroded metal and age-old dust. Against this barren vista, a figure stood utterly still—tall, shrouded in a dark cape that hung with heavy stillness. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, crouched and allowed a handful of crimson soil to trickle through his fingers. For a thousand years, this planet had been a graveyard. But now, a fresh signal throbbed at the periphery of his telepathic awareness—faint, yet undeniably Martian. His red eyes, ordinarily distant and shielded, warmed with a flicker of something brittle: hope. He rose, his cape settling around him, and turned toward a outcrop of shat…