Young Justice has easily become one of the most beloved animated superhero series in recent times. The series has an excellent lineup of characters, all of which feel well-thought-out and have extremely interesting stories. It picked whatever aspects of a character’s back story they wanted, choosing from the several versions and sticking with them. If they were unable to find the correct pieces, they made changes, creating the intricate puzzle that is the series.
The perfect example of a significant change they made to an original story is Martian Manhunter and Mars as a planet. Going from a destroyed planet to a lively civilization on the brink of civil war, the change brought about a lot of interesting elements to the story.
The reason for this, however, would be quite surprising to many as it connects to a completely different character; Superman.
Young Justice Made Mars Full Of Life
In the Young Justice series, a lot of changes were made to the origin stories of characters as a way to make them all fit together. One of the most notable was what happened to Mars in this universe. The Martian Manhunter’s story has almost always stayed constant throughout all the versions; the planet Mars gets destroyed and J’onn J’onzz is the sole survivor who lives on Earth.
The animated series completely strayed away from this plot line. Instead, they chose to use the planet Mars, which is thriving and full of life, as social commentary. The series introduces Miss Martian or M’gann, who is a White Martian, a race of Martians that are in the minority and discriminated against on the planet Mars.
Being the niece of J’onn J’onzz, M’gann was able to escape from her home planet after enduring serious bullying and prejudice. Coming to Earth, she joins the superhero team and saves many lives.
Superman Became Alone In His Suffering
Although the change in Mars’ story added a lot of depth to the series and acted as a medium to portray real-world problems, it had another purpose. The co-creator of Young Justice, Greg Weisman, talked to DC about Mars’ society, and it would seem that the change had a lot to do with Superman’s origin story.
Martian Manhunter and Superman’s stories are almost synonymous; being the sole survivors after their home planets were destroyed. It would seem that this similarity was not something the creators of Young Justice wanted in their series.
“While developing the first season, we decided that Krypton should be unique in its destruction,” Weisman went on, “Having every alien come from a dead world brought us nothing new. But having M’arzz be a living, thriving — if troubled — society was bound to bring us stories.”
They wanted Superman to be unique in such an experience. Having no one to turn to who would understand what it is like to have their home destroyed. It is safe to say that this change makes Superman’s story all the more tragic. Co-creator Brandon Vietti added,
“If that society was extinct there would be far less dramatic weight hanging over M’gann. And we needed that weight to craft a truly unique coming-of-age story for her.”
Additionally, they wanted to make M’gann’s story have more of an impact on her psyche. Rather than making her race extinct, which has been done before, a civil war and prejudice add more depth to her character.
Young Justice is available for streaming on Max.
