Home, Homelessness & Anti-Fascism in Absolute Martian Manhunter
By ZeroMonster (flamevbirdv)
“Why do people do the things they do? —John Jones, Absolute Martian Manhunter #1
Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 by writer Deniz Camp and artist Javier Rodríguez was released on March 26th of 2025, and instantly captivated audiences-–including me. The cover was an explosion of color; the character of the Martian Manhunter was unfamiliar, yet alluring. Charming in its surrealness.
As part of the new Absolute Universe by DC comics it strove to create a new version of the established character of J'onn J'onzz, and according to Camp, this title is “...the biggest change of any of the Absolute characters…” (1). It was certainly successful among the fans that followed the birth of this new universe.
Camp’s strategy was basically to split the character into two. Throughout the first issue we can appreciate how the rigid and muted world of FBI agent John Jones is inundated by the Martian’s colors—green, red, yellow, blue, orange, and pink. The rigidity of John’s world is also noted in the careful, square panel layout that reads like paragraphs in a book when John is living his life—doing his job—post bomb attack.
The first time we see a different panel structure is when John goes back home to his family. We get a bird’s eye view of their home—modern, sleek, cold. It’s a house, but it doesn’t feel like a home. The contradiction between what John is thinking and what he’s communicating to his wife Bridget is maddening, which, as tumblr user jal-doodlez points out (2), it’s smartly highlighted by the way the window’s frame separates them in space as well as emotionally.
The next page gives us an insight into John’s son's life and is framed inside a house, with a cuasi-triangle as a roof, two squares, and a rectangle base. This is how we’re introduced to the idea that “home” is a big theme in this comic. To quote jal-doodlez’s meta post, “They establish home, safety, and shelter as synonyms. They’re stating (that) home is not just a location but a feeling.” This is a recurring thread through the first six issues of the series, and it may as well continue in the future.
Later, in issue #2 we’re introduced to a new color—white. The antagonist. The world inside Absolute Martian Manhunter resembles the real world, and thanks to the Martian’s powers John can see it all around him—despair, fear, paranoia, rage. It’s in this same issue where one of the characters commits a mass shooting in plain daylight. It’s an act of hatred and intolerance, plainly explained to us by the killer himself: “They’re trying to replace us! They seem to look and think like us, but they’re just pretending.”
This is both current day fascism and an in-universe admittance that “real” aliens are among us. It is fascinating.
In a series of interviews compiled in the book “MetaMaus”, the author of the very famous comic about the holocaust—“Maus”—Art Spiegelman was asked why he chose the medium of comics to tell his story, to which he answered, “Most dramatic films have a hard time with the Holocaust as a subject because of the medium’s tendency toward verisimilitude and reproduction of reality through moving photographic images…Movie makers can get involved in some kind of crazy trying-to-rebuild the camps, as opposed to creating it as a mental zone, which Mans does.” (3).
This is also the strength of Absolute Martian Manhunter, where “the little green man” in John’s head doesn’t differentiate between "here” and “there”, “outside” or “inside”—“What happens in your head also happens.” This is used throughout the comic to explore today’s rise of fascism in a way that is narratively satisfying—this is a superhero comic, after all—and abstract in a way that triggers a response in the readers.
We revisit the theme of “home” again in issue #3. More specifically, we are presented with the reality of people who don’t have a home and, as a consequence of this vulnerability, they became the victims of immolation. These people are not the only ones affected by acts of arson, but they are specifically targeted because the White Martian is targeting every and any iteration of a home. And since homeless people’s only home is themselves, their bodies became the battlefield.
Tiktoker and online educator, Abbie Richards, has a short-video series called “Fascist Propaganda 101” where she talks about the techniques that the far-right utilizes today in mainstream media to manipulate people. One of these techniques, Richards mentions, is the weaponization of homelessness (4).
“Beggars often force their poverty upon people in the most repulsive way for their own selfish purposes. If this sight disappears…the result will be a definite feeling of relief and liberation. People will feel that things are becoming more stable again, and the economy is improving once more.” (5).
In this context, the attack on the shelter where the remaining people seek refuge at the end of issue #3 gains a new perspective. The people inside are shown to have been driven to homelessness by abuse, addiction, mental illness, and rejection of their queerness, among other factors. These are the kind of people that the Nazis called “asocial” because they didn’t conform to their social norms, and they were persecuted as a scapegoat for the failures of society.
As Richards mentions, the uncomfortable feeling that homelessness sparks in us is used to incite the idea that there’s a problem that only the far-right can solve because they’re willing to do what needs to be done. In this case, using state violence against them.
This is certainly a reactionary, cruel, and extreme action that isn’t coherent with our understanding of the world—that one based in empathy, like the Green Martian’s. It’s certainly not coherent or logical. But that’s the point.
“The White Martian has decided on tragedy. I can make it no clearer.”
Addressing the root of homelessness means that we would need to look at the damage that capitalism, intolerance, and ignorance do to our communities and to ourselves as individuals. If we start thinking about the real reason why so many people live in extreme poverty despite having the resources to provide basic necessities to all of them, then we will arrive at the conclusion that it’s completely unacceptable and inhumane that they were even in that situation in the first place. And then we will start thinking about our own place in the system that let it happen, that makes it so that we’re all one mistake away from the same fate.
Absolute Martian Manhunter is a special comic; with layers, created with care and sculpted—literally, the design for the Martian was modeled in playdough by Rodríguez before it was put to page (6)—that invites to analyse the story, the art, and the world we live in. It’s a comic for people who want more. And that more is something we have to demand in our real lives as well.