So few of us get to live out our childhood dreams. Steve Orlando is one of them. In December, his dream project of writing the Martian Manhunter kicked off with the current maxi-series of the same name, an exploration of the character’s origins on Mars told in parallel with a detective story on Earth. But do dreams match up with reality?
At Flame Con, the first and largest comic-con for the LGBTQ+ community, I caught up with Steve to see how things were going on this dream project, where the series is headed, and much more – – including some news about another iconic DC character he will be writing later this year!
In December, we announced you got to live your dream with the debut of “Martian Manhunter,”which was your favorite DC Comics character from your childhood. Ten months in, is the dream all you expected?
Steve Orlando: It definitely is. So many new people are coming to meet J’onn J’onzz via this book that Riley [Rossmo] and I along with Deron [Bennett] and Ivan Plascencia been putting together. DC has been incredibly supportive. This is Martian Manhunter as true, innovative and subversive sci-fi. I couldn’t be happier with the book and I couldn’t be happier with its reception.
There is a theme of cultural adaptation throughout the book. J’onn J’onzz is a man of Mars, he’s trying to adapt to life on Earth without losing his Martian essence. It’s a theme a lot of folks can relate to, probably with a little more poignancy or urgency with the world we currently live in. What larger message you want fans to take from this series?
SO: To me, the book is about accepting your identity, the good and the bad. As someone who’s half Jewish and someone who’s bisexual, there’s a literal meaning in that I can pass through the world and not necessarily have people immediately know. There’s a level of privilege to it, to have a secret inside. And it’s about accepting that and unifying it with your personality.
But even if you’re relatively in the mainstream, we all have mistakes, we all have things we’ve done in our past that weigh on us. And the point about “Martian Manhunter” is to unify everything in your background, and find a way to take pride in it and become that hero, become the best version of yourself. No one is perfect is the fact. Whether you are wrestling with your own identity when it comes to your sexuality, or just something you’ve done that you wish could have gone a different way, anything from your past, the point is that you can’t ignore those things. You have to engage them and find a way to turn them into fuel for the future. That’s Diane Meade’s journey. It’s also Martian Manhunter’s journey.
We currently see J’onn J’onzz on TV’s Supergirl as played by David Harewood. But if there is a Martian Manhunter movie, who would you want to see playing the character?
SO: Oh, man, it’s really hard. Um, you know, I would really love . . . what the hell’s his name. I completely forgot now. David does and incredible job, and for a long time the answer was Djimon Hounsou. But the real answer is that I think it should be Trevante Rhodes from Moonlight. And he has a lot of what J’onn J’onzz has. And he pulls through a complicated a complicated acting job in that film. Someone who wrestles again with masculinity, with identity, with how to be exactly who he is, if it doesn’t fit in with the expectations of the community. I think what he offers there, in addition to having an incredible physicality and presence on the screen, even in a movie like Predator, which he was in, he would be an incredible Martian man on earth.
We’re now in the final third of this series. What can fans expect as we close out this tale?
SO: We know what the external conflict is and we know what the internal conflict is. But in the final act, the internal becomes external. To finally confront Charnn, J’onn J’onzz has to confront everything he’s done in this past. But of course, he’s a telepath, so when he goes inside his own mind, those things become real beasts from his past to defeat.
Continued belowEvery issue that you haven’t seen is very unique and tone. Issue #8 is a little more quiet and personal, dealing with the human John Jones and his relationship with Diane Meade and Diane Meade’s bisexuality. Issue #9 is an alien autopsy, so this is in many ways this is sort of our Tarsem Singh issue. Issue #10 is our Edgar Rice Burroughs issue, where J’onn goes inside his own mind with Diane to unify his personality. And then #11 and #12 is sort of the mad race to save Ashley Adams, to save Middleton as Charnn sends the Vultures to round up everyone in town.
The hallmark of the series has been that you have it grounded in these quieter character moments, introspective moments. How do you balance that with providing the action to keep folks on the edge of their seats, because that’s what brings them in to superhero comics?
SO: Well, I think that’s the flavor. I came up as a Warren Ellis guy and Warren is someone who knows character moments and he knows big action. When you know the core of the character, both of those types of storytelling end up saying something about them. And in “Martian Manhunter,” our wild sort of innovative action still speaks to who he is as much as the scenes with Diane Meade.
So once you do the work to get into the core of who someone is and really know how they would react to any situation, you can make wild action, you can make quiet conversations in the kitchen. And each of them can be just as evocative and say something new about the character.
Turning to “Midnighter,” four years ago, io9 named that series the best portrayal of a gay superhero on mainstream comics. It’s the fifth anniversary of Flame Con in 2019. It’s also been 50 years of the Stonewall uprising in 2019. How is the arc of diversity and representation and inclusion in comics been since then? What can we celebrate of how mainstream comics have portrayed the LGBTQ community? And where do we still need to improve?
SO: Well, there’s a lot to celebrate. We have more representation even when five years ago when I wrote “Midnighter.” I’ve even had a great opportunity in the many books I’ve written since then to to push forward representation even more. What we really need is, and Greg Pak at this show I think four years ago said, the next step: a diversity of diversity. It was even nice when I got to work on “Midnighter” that he had the freedom not to stand for the entire queer community. The goal is always to tell one more well rounded, respectful portrayal of someone, and then do it again, and then do it again, and then do it again. So the work is ultimately never done.
But I do think we have some great moments that have come in the past five years, things I didn’t think I would see. Yes we had Midnighter, a gay man leading a book. We had The Ray, an openly gay character on the Justice League, created by two queer creators as well, myself and Stephen Byrne. And that’s not just me. We can talk about with Vita Ayala and Tini Howard and Leah Williams are doing at Marvel. We can talk about what Sina [Grace] is doing at Marvel, We can talk about the incredible work that people like Phil Jimenez have been doing since I was born basically.
So it’s a moment where both pillars of the creative community from these major publishers are still in the spotlight. And it’s also great that so many new people behind the scenes have gotten a chance to get in the mix and fight for the type of characters that they believe should be out there, and I believe should be out there. It’s just more. What’s next is always going to be more.
We talked about how “Martian Manhunter” was your dream project because it was your childhood favorite. But is there a character in comics right now that you haven’t written yet, and you look at them and you go, damn, I want to write this character. Who is that, and what spin would you put on him/her/them?
Continued belowSO: Well, for a long time, it was Wonder Woman, but I am getting to take that over long term, or at least for a longer term, starting in October. Actually, it’s the Phantom Stranger of DC. Because I always loved in the 80s, they did an issue of “Secret Origins” that was essentially like Rashomon. Mike Mignola did the cover, and it was always different takes on what his origin possibly could be and I love that storytelling vehicle. So I want to do a Phantom Stranger story that pushes that even further and imagine all of these different versions, and all these different answers to the same questions about that character. We’ve talked about who he could be, let’s talk about why he does what he does, or maybe how he reacts to one moment. You can almost tell like a very artful Crash-style story with that same character knowing that everybody sort of use him as a reflection of their own values, I think he’s really fascinating. When he’s unknowable, thus we project on him our own suppositions, and I think that’s really fascinating.
“Martian Manhunter” is going to wrap up at by the end of this year. You just mentioned you’re going to be joining “Wonder Woman” on a long term basis. Any other projects you can talk about on the horizon?
SO: I have “Gotham City Monsters” launching in September, which is Frankenstein and a variety of other creature characters from Gotham City, as well as the new LGBT character I created for that book, in the Red Phantom. I also have some new books that are going to be announcing at New York Comic-Con, so I can’t talk about that more. But I do have at least three creator-owned books you’ll know about hopefully by the end of the year.
“Martian Manhunter” #8 is available now at your local comic shop and digitally on comiXology. “Gotham City Monsters” debuts on September 11th. As reported in The Rundown last week, Steve Orlando will join “Wonder Woman” with issue #83 in November.
