Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader Korneel S. wrote in to ask the following:

Hello, sir!

Here's a question about comics:

Wikipedia tells me that Martian Manhunter has 9 senses ("compared to humans"). What are those senses?! And does he ever even use them? Their source they refer to is JLA Year One #6. Thanks in advance!

Here's the bit from the story...

Now, you see that comic book writers often do a little thing that you could often describe as "tossing an idea out there." In other words, they say something that sounds cool that really isn't meant to be anything more then, well, something that sounds cool. This is different than stuff like when Onslaught was first mentioned in the pages of Uncanny X-Men. Uncanny X-Men writer Scott Lobdell introduced the idea of a future threat called Onslaught, but Lobdell did not really know who Onslaught WAS. His theory was that he would figure it out as he went along. We see that happen in comic books (and TV series) a lot, as well. We see a future where someone might die and the writers have to then figure out WHO dies later on. That, though, is different from a tossed away line. A tossed away line is just something that sound cool that was never meant to be followed up on. The problem, of course, is that comic book fans can often be a bit obsessive about these things, so when a comic book (that was part of official "canon," although that miniseries was also the first series to introduce the concept of Hypertime, as the Blackhawks who appeared in that miniseries could not have really appeared based on the Post-Crisis DC Continuity at the time, so the concept of "Hypertime" would explain the seeming mistake, as the idea is that the Blackhawks from one timeline briefly intersected with the main Post-Crisis timeline and bled into the timeline for a brief moment of time, just long enough for their appearance in JLA: Year One. Hypertime was a cool idea) established the idea that Martian Manhunter has at least nine senses, it has bled into online Wikis and stuff like that. It even gained a mention in the official DC Comics Encyclopedia, but they sort of write it off as, you know, a throwaway line.

So, I asked Mark Waid about it and he explained that it was, of course, a throwaway line and thus, he did not have any extra senses in mind at the time. So that, in a way, is really the nice and easy answer to the question.

However, much like Tina Turner, we never do things nice and easy, so I said to Mark, let's come up with an actual answer right now. And so, we came up with the official nine senses of the Martian Manhunter, including a shocking TENTH sense!! These are all Waid-approved, so put that into your Wiki, people. ;)

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Okay, obviously he has the five main senses - taste, sight, touch, smell, and sound.

Now, here's the tricky one. His Martian Vision definitely counts as its own unique sense, since his Martian Vision sees well beyond normal sight (on top of the heat vision aspect of the Martian Vision).

However, it can't count as one of the alleged nine senses since the above panel shows that he has eight WITHOUT his eyes. The Martian Vision is part of his eyes, so if you count his Martian Vision as a sense (and we do), then it would actually be a TENTH sense.

Excepting Martian Vision, though, there still needs to be at least four other senses, and here they are. Amusingly enough, these are ALL courtesy of his second appearance ever, Detective Comics #226 (by Jack Miller and Joe Certa).

First off, there is his telepathy...

Next is his telekinesis...

Next is something that Mark dubbed "empathic precognition" (great name, right?), namely that he can not only see the future, but he can see DIFFERENT futures depending on variables...

Finally, and this is the most tricky one, but his "molecular hypnosis," which is differentiated in the story from both his telepathy and his telekinesis, which means it must be its own thing.

What we believe this to be is the ability to, in effect, impose his willpower on others. We see this in a future issue where he can project his body to different places. Basically it is a form of hypnotic projection. The most famous use of this power was when he convinced Despero that Despero had actually killed all of the Justice League and destroyed the Earth itself.

So there you go, from the guy who gave you "Martian Manhunter has nine senses," you have Martian Manhunter's nine senses plus a bonus one, to boot!

Thanks to Mark for playing along! And thanks to Korneel for the fun question!

If anyone else has a question about comic books that they'd like to see answered, feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!