The Justice League movie is in good hands

Unfortunately, the sarcasm tag doesn't work in the title. [Link]

But then the hits kept on coming as the conversation turned to a fan-favorite DC Comics character. Goyer was asked how he would translate the J’onn J’onzz aka Martian Manhunter to film. As Goyer is one of the people in charge of bringing the DC Universe to live action, this was definitely a topic where his ideas carried weight. In response to being asked about the hero, Goyer asked, “How many people in the audience have heard of Martian Manhunter?” After hearing some light applause and cheers, he added, “How many people that raised their hands have ever been laid?”

Way to fall back on outdated stereotypes of your core viewing audience.

After this, Goyer explained his take on the hero: “Well, he hasn’t been rebooted but he’s a mainstay in the Justice League. He can’t be fucking called the Martian Manhunter because that’s goofy. He can be called Manhunter… The whole deal with Martian Manhunter is he’s an alien living amongst us… So he comes down to Earth and decides, unlike Superman who already exists in the world now, that he’s just going to be a homicide detective… So instead of using super-powers and mind-reading and like, oh, I could figure out if the President’s lying or whatever, he just decides to disguise himself as a human homicide detective. Dare to dream!”

To clarify, the Martian Manhunter has actually been rebooted if you include television. Even if you ignore the unaired Justice League TV-pilot, there have been a couple different versions of him across DC’s cartoon range and a live-action version with a notably different origin and nature who appeared in Smallville, played wonderfully by Phil Morris. It’s true that in the comics the Martian Manhunter did adopt the human identity of homicide detective (and later private detective) John Jones. But he did actually use his powers to solve cases and stop crimes in this capacity, he just did it clandestinely, and he continued to spend half his time operating as a costumed hero. So he actually didn’t choose to simply ignore his powers and just be a human being.

Goyer went on: “I would set it up like The Day After Tomorrow. We discover one of those Earth-like planets… So maybe like… we get the DNA code from that planet and then grow him in a petri dish here… He’s like in Area 51 or something and we’re just basically… doing biopsies on him. Then he gets out and he’s really angry and he fucks She-Hulk.”

So to recap. She-Hulk is just a sex power fantasy rather than a character with agency who from the beginning went down a different path than her cousin, The Hulk. Martian Manhunter being the last survivor of a race which died out on Mars over a thousand years ago is goofy, but putting him Area 51 and using the same plot as many alien visitor movies is not. And God forbid superheroes embrace some goofiness and absurdity.

This is why Warner Bros. doesn't get comic book movies. They hire people who don't seem to actually like the material.