#whenever ppl want queer Supes I keep standing there being like. J'onn is right here guys. we have gay and trans Supes already

[jesncin]

hi!! would you kindly tell us the comics you used for your passionate defense of martians' gender fuckery?? i would very much like to read more!

Haha sure! J'onn and the Martians are a case of "they're genderqueer coded through science fiction shenanigans but because they don't have the constraints to be Representation they get to be really fun and interesting in a way most Corporate Canon Representation don't get to be". With that, here's the comics I pulled from for queer readings of J'onn and the Martians:

Justice League Infinity Takes place in the DCAU world, where J'onn takes a break from the League to live a quiet life as Amrit Jessawalia. This one's cute, I like it- and the writing feels really intentional that it's meant to be a queer reading of J'onn as it's written very compassionately.

New 52 Martian Manhunter Solo: Epiphany The great Monkey's Paw of J'onn Queer Texts. The New 52 Solo is unintentionally the gayest and genderfunky story of all time for J'onn, at the expense of being extremely convoluted and edgy. It's about J'onn splitting himself into multiple identities to escape death, and all those identities need to unite in order to become J'onn again. This is where J'onn kisses Aquaman, and his heart is represented by a woman. This story is so queer that is spawned this write up on Screen Rant about it.

Martian Manhunter 2019: Identity While this solo is polarizing in the MM community, I still recommend it because it has a lot of merits as a J'onn take. This is written by Steve Orlando, a Jewish bi man who purposefully integrated his Jewish heritage and queer identity into his reimagining of Martian lore. While J'onn isn't technically queer in this story, his narrative is paralleled with that of a bi woman (a cop, barf. Very copaganda run unfortunately), and Martian lore is reimagined as nods to Jewish culture and customs (which is incredibly cool). Martian shapeshifting culture is more thought out in this run, down to Martian pro-creation/pregnancy being a thing both J'onn and his wife M'yri'ah combined do together. This is the most explicitly intentional J'onn queer allegory I've read so far.

JLA 1997 issue 63 This is where the iconic "J'onn identifies as asexual" panel comes from. It's real!! Definitely unintentional representation moment but I think it's funny that this canonized J'onn as "not a cis man" just because the writer wanted to avoid Diana calling out J'onn for being sexist lmao

Carl Lumbly's Interview with Watchtower Database Highly recommend this interview because not only is it rare to hear from Carl Lumbly (the beloved voice actor behind DCAU J'onn) but he speaks in a way that's so profoundly poetic, it's clear J'onn is a character that personally means a lot to him. His headcanon for Martian shapeshifting culture is my favorite of all time, and I love how his take in particular respects the identities J'onn shifts into (maybe I'm making a comic inspired by his take because it's that good). He talks about how he informed J'onn's characterization with his immigrant experience, which I adore as well. My hot take is that Black actors have contributed the most interesting and nuanced takes on J'onn :y

Those are the big holy grail of Queer Martian texts (minus the really cringey transphobic Joan J'onzz story)! The rest is me reading into/projecting onto other Martian characters which is incredibly easy to do when they're a shapeshifter alien species that swap into men and women casually, haha.