The fourth planet of the Terran system is known by the Humans that inhabit the third planet as Mars after one of their ancient war gods. To their science it is barren and devoid of life. An endless wasteland of red rocks beneath a pale sky that is wrapped in a tenuous atmosphere, a remote forbidden place. It was not always so! The race that others would know as the Martians rose aeons ago evolving from glorious winged creatures that flew free in the skies of Mars, while life on Earth was still in its infancy, they survived the wars and other threats that seek to destroy civilisations and rose to be a complex and very open society. This was based on the very physical nature of the Martians, they displayed physical powers that placed them on a par with Kryptonians and Daximates but they also were in complete command of their bodies that allowed them to shift form and function with a very thought. Battle for those ancient Martians was not like the brutal and brawling battle of other races but was more of the dance of Martial Arts where the Martians would shift from one "battle" form to another with standard forms with such names as the Flesh Vortex and the Storm of Hammers. As is the way for many civilisations a split formed within Martian society between the more philosophical Green Martians and the militaristic Pale Martians. In retrospective any differences between one Martian and another are purely philosophical such distinctions as race and gender have little true meaning for a race that can shape shift between male and female or pale and green, only the underlying psychological aspects truly remain. Matters between the two factions came to a head when the Pale Martians while using Earth as a source of materials upset the natural evolution of the Human race towards being a seeming race of superbeing to rival the Martians the themselves. The effect was that only a fraction of humanity would ascend to the position of a superbeing. For this crime of destroying the evolutionary possibility of another race, the Pale Martians were sentenced to eternity in the Still Zone. The Still Zone, the Phantom Zone call it what you will, is a dimension that exists apart from our normal space time continuum that has been used in ancient days by long forgotten titanic races as a prison for things best forgotten - it was in this endless eternity that the Pale Martians were imprisoned until the day when they would one day escape as the Hyperclan. The remaining Martians consolidated their civilisation into a utopian existence that lasted millennia. They were philosophers, artisans, performers and listeners. The gift of telepathy opened up their society so there were no secrets, on very level, every aspect took on a spiritual aspect and the worship of their gods played an integral part of their lives. Chief amongst their pantheon was H'ronmeer god of death and C'eridyall goddess of life, while behind all was the Unnameable One. They were a people at peace with each other, their gods and their environment. A peace that tragically would be shattered by the coming of the Great Plague... Separated from the Martian race by both time and distance the self taught human scientist and dreamer Saul Erdel sought to create a machine that would reach across space and the dimensions to seek other intelligent life. He had more failures than success, but at some point in the 1950's he reached the point of no return and initiated the machine. Much to his surprise the machine finally worked, transporting alien life to him in the form of a male alien carrying the body of little alien girl. The alien collapsed, and regained conciseness after Erdel had buried the girl. In an instant the minds of Erdel and that terrified alien brushed against each other telepathically and all was laid before the stunned scientist. The alien Erdel found was actually a Martian with the name J'onn J'onzz (or at least that is the closed that our non-telepathic language could get). After J'onzz was nursed back to physical health, Erdel offered to send him home but the Martian still broken inside by the memories of the plague and the death of his daughter destroyed the equipment rather than be sent back to the Great Plague. Afterwards J'onzz mind just shut down to protect him from any further emotional injury. In this catatonic state Erdel used the telepathic bond between the two to craft a new identity for J'onn, to paper over the cracks in his shattered mind and to craft the personality of the Martian Manhunter. A process that was to a part suggestion by Erdel and subconscious wanting by J'onn to leave behind the hurt of his past, even to the extent to morphing his physical form into the beetle browed humanoid that the would come to know. J'onn now believed himself to by J'onn J'onzz military leader of the desert dwelling Martians in a civil war against the pole dwellers lead by General Blanx (imagery drawn from the ancient myths of the Pale Martians). Defe