Martian Manhunter #11
Martian Manhunter #11 cover

Date:

 October 1999

Title:

 “Pilgrims”
(Cover Title: “Back to the Future!”)

Credits:

 John Ostrander (Writer) • Bryan Hitch (Guest Penciller) • Paul Neary (Guest Inker) • Bill Oakley (Letterer) • Carla Feeny (Colors) • L.A. Williams (Assist. Ed [Assistant Editor]) • Peter Tomasi (Editor) • Tom Mandrake (Cover)

Plot:

 Cutting of the Hssfsstss, a sentient plant, relates how its species was raised up to sentience in the 20th century by Swamp Thing, and saved from extinction in the 30th at the hands of Leland McCauley via the intervention of J’Onn J’Onzz and the Legionnaires.

Only scenes involving Legion of Super-Heroes characters are dealt with here.

CHANGE HISTORY
Date of Change
Content of Change
09/23/99
 Posted
05/11/00
 Tracking updates from Legion: Science Police #2

Tinted cells and text indicate missing or incomplete information.

Character and Object Tracking

Heroes   

Locations   

Name

Previous Appearance

Next Appearance

Heroes
Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg) < > < >
Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen) < > < >
Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn) < > < >
 
Martian Manhunter (J’Onn J’Onzz) Legion: Science Police #2 None to date in 30th century

Supporting Characters
Leland McCauley < > < >
 
Cutting of the Hssfsstss None None to date
Foresters (at least 11) None None to date
 
One-shot or Untracked Characters:
     unnamed holovid reporter
     unnamed McCauley Industries mining personnel (4)
     United Planets xenobotany specialists

Locations
One-shot or Untracked Locations:
     unnamed planet (home of the Hssfsstss), three of its moons, and its sun

Alien Races and Creatures
Hssfsstss None None to date

Technology
McCauley’s holovid projector < > < >
Holovid cameras < > < >
Frameless glasses < > < >
 
One-shot or Untracked Items:
McCauley Industries mining base and associated ships
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Analysis Notes
General Only page 6:4-6:6 and 7-12 are dealt with here.
Chronological placement of this issue is impossible at this time.  According to Martian Manhunter #1,000,000, J’Onn “revealed” himself to the Legionnaires, maybe in conjunction with a battle of some sort.  This story is clearly not such a revelation, and while the Legionnaires do not great the Manhunter as a close friend, they do seem to know him, or at least of him.  It is possible that such a revelation of his existence occurred in an untold story, and that this story is coincident with other published Legion appearances from the same time.
7:3 Coloring error: the Forester speaking to the report should have brown hair.
8:3 McCauley knows enough about shape changers, image distorters, and illusion casters to be justifiably suspicious.  From his reaction, he at least recognizes J’Onn’s name, and he shows no surprise about it, so he probably knows of J’Onn’s “revelation” to the Legionnaires.
10:1 The figure on the ground next to J’Onn is the reporter.  J’Onn presumably protects her from this crash, the one in 10:4, and the explosion in 11:3.
11:2 The red flashes are J’Onn’s Martian vision being used from inside the mining base.
11:4 J’Onn once had a weakness to fire; it has come and gone at times.  He has presumably completely overcome it in the intervening 1000 years.
12:2 Note that McCauley is spouting off at a group including Saturn Girl, who has the ability - perhaps even stronger than J’Onn - to do a telepathic scan and verify the presence and sentience of the Hssfsstss.
The United Planets’ courts seem to operate much quicker than 20th century Terran ones, although Cosmic Boy may be overstating was is actually just a preliminary injunction against McCauley doing any further operations.
12:4 These suited characters are presumably United Planets xenobotany specialists.  The white triangles on their suits are presumably merely a logo, not a relation to the White Triangle xenophobes.
12:5 Time will tell whether the Hssfsstss join the United Planets.  They are likely to be only borderline sentient at this point, achieving full sentience between the 30th and 853rd centuries.
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