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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: May 11 2005
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 1:36am | IP Logged | 1
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This evening I found myself drawn into JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. I found it strangely… respectful. But one thing got me pondering. A completely redesigned Amazo is syphoning off the powers of the “metahumans”, the Martian Manhunter among them. And I found myself thinking J’Onn’s powers aren’t really “meta”, are they? They’re part and parcel of his Martian physiology. All his people have them. So this would be akin to syphoning off a normal human runner’s speed—or my own ability to draw! (Amazo also stole power from Cyborg—who isn’t really “meta” either!)
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Marc Foxx
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: April 16 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 2
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I don't have a lot of knowledge about Amazo, but wasn't the conceit that he stole or duplicated the powers of Justice Leaguers and there was a story where he (it?) was defeated when they disbanded the League?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: May 11 2005
Posts: 135179
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | 3
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Amazo was somewhat mishandled right from the get go. On his first cover (my intro to the JLA) his creator is seen draining powers from captured JLA members--including Green Lantern. One could make a strong argument there that Hal Jordan's powers were "mechanical", not "meta".
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Wallace Sellars
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Joined: May 01 2004
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | 4
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JB, if you had writien a J’Onn J’Onzz series, would you have him use the John Jones secret identity?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: May 11 2005
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | 5
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JB, if you had writien a J’Onn J’Onzz series, would you have him use the John Jones secret identity?••• Can’t see much sense in doing otherwise, W’Allace!
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Brian ONeill
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Joined: July 04 2024
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | 6
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I've seen a story where J'onn's younger brother, T'Omm J'Onzz, appeared. Wish Uncle S'Pike J'Onzz had dropped in.
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Marc Foxx
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | 7
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Brian ONeill wrote:
| I've seen a story where J'onn's younger brother, T'Omm J'Onzz, appeared. Wish Uncle S'Pike J'Onzz had dropped in |
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That's not unusual...
Edited by Marc Foxx on July 25 2025 at 8:42pm
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Mikael Bergkvist
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Joined: May 29 2025
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: July 25 2025 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | 8
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How would Amazo’s powers really work? I think maybe he is like some quantum AI, imitating patterns like normal AI does, and reformulating a base source of energy to match that which he identified as a pattern, rather that stealing powers. Rather then, he is stealing their base energy and pattern adjust to be able to use it. Like a quantum universal converter. But I’m a nerd, maybe I need to take my pills…
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Jack Caleb Day
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Joined: June 07 2025
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| Posted: July 29 2025 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | 9
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Always had similar thoughts about power draining/syphoning stories and how they question my Suspension Of Disbelief. Glad to know a veteran of the industry like yourself share's my thoughts.
This always weirdly bothered me even as a kid; I get why The Flash or Black Lightning would have their powers drained but I always felt like Superman or Martian Manhunter would not be able to lose their powers this way. E.G draining a pigeon of superpowers shouldn't stop it from flying as it's part of their default species physiology.
Also related to MM's own powers directly; how standard they are for his species actually somewhat various. In most cases they are but the Rebirth Martian Manhunter series has him as an enhanced Martian who's abilities are beyond those of regular Martians, though the rest still shapeshift and read minds. A Silver Age story I remember reading stated that Martian's have no powers on their homeworld ala Kryptonians and gain them from Earth's atmosphere; but this was very quickly dropped.
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Eric Jansen
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Joined: October 27 2013
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| Posted: August 28 2025 at 5:27am | IP Logged | 10
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Martian Manhunter is a strange case. The aborted DCEU really drove home the problem--where was J'onn J'onzz when the Justice League was risking their lives to stop Darkseid.
In the comics, Superman (since the 50's, when J'onn first appeared) has been saving the world on practically a weekly basis--while the Martian Manhunter (who's arguably MORE powerful than Superman) sits on his thumbs most of the time.
Since CRISIS, the problem extended to "Shazam" and Power Girl too. Usually, Superman and Supergirl were so powerful that one or the other's absence in a worldwide threat had to be explained. After CRISIS, there's half a dozen people running around DC titles who might do a better job than Superman!
Why isn't J'onn J'onzz "Earth's greatest hero"?
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Brett Stuart
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| Posted: August 28 2025 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | 11
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In Justice League of America #224, the villain was stealing the Justice League's powers and in the end could only be defeated by Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Red Tornado because he couldn't take their "mechanical" powers.
Written by a young Kurt Busiek, who might have been thinking along the very same lines as our host.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: May 11 2005
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| Posted: August 28 2025 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | 12
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Why isn't J'onn J'onzz "Earth's greatest hero"?••• Why hasn’t he been nabbed by ICE?
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