Created by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa, the character first appeared in the story "The Manhunter from Mars" in Detective Comics #225 (November 1955).

He has also been featured in other DC Comics products, such as video games, television series, animated films, and merchandise like action figures.

In live action, the character first appeared in the television pilot Justice League of America, played by David Ogden Stiers.

Martian Manhunter aka John (J'onn J'onzz) Jones debuted in the back-up story "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" in Detective Comics #225 (November 1955), written by Joseph Samachson and illustrated by Joe Certa.

[Note 1] The character is a green-skinned humanoid from Mars, who is pulled to Earth by an experimental teleportation beam constructed by Dr. Saul Erdel.

J'onzz eventually reveals his existence to the world, after which he operates openly as a superhero and becomes a charter member of the Justice League.

[11] The detective John Jones is ostensibly killed in action by the Idol Head of Diabolu, an artifact which generates supernatural monsters.

J'onzz abandons the civilian identity as he decides fighting this new menace will take a great deal of his time.

He last participated in a mission in his original tenure in #61 (March 1968), shortly before his solo series was discontinued (The House of Mystery #173, May–June 1968).

[23] While staying on Earth, he decided to revive his John Jones identity, this time as a private detective, but had to explain his 20-year "disappearance".

The series also added a number of elements to his back story that have remained to the present (such as J'onzz's obsession with Chocos cookies, due to Shazam's influence).

Later series use retroactive continuity (retcon) to establish that his real form is private and that, even on Mars, his "public" appearance was the familiar version.

The 1992 miniseries American Secrets is set in the character's past, exploring a previously unknown adventure against the backdrop of a changing America during the 1950s.

Written by Gerard Jones and with art by Eduardo Barreto, the series finds the Manhunter drawn into a murder mystery that rapidly escalates into paranoia and alien invasion.

In 1997, J'onn J'onzz became a founding member of Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's new JLA where the team fought a group of White Martians, the Hyperclan.

Martian Manhunter began as an ongoing series in 1998, written by John Ostrander and illustrated by Tom Mandrake (with fill-in art provided by Bryan Hitch among others).

The first issue revealed that there was a "real" human John Jones, a police detective who is murdered by corrupt colleagues, and that J'onzz subsequently assumed his identity to complete an important court case.

Several weeks before World War III, Martian Manhunter disguises himself as a young girl and tries to defeat Black Adam telepathically in Bialya.

[40] In Brightest Day, he is a very prominent character, finding a water source on Mars and meeting and talking with the daughter of Dr. Erdel, Melissa.

[40] While reunited with his lost family, J'onzz discovers that they are false and realizes that they are a ruse and the death corpse is carved of Martian symbols of love and hate from D'kay's influence.

[48] J'onzz defeats D'kay by forcing her into the Sun, saved from the same fate by the White Lantern Entity, who informs him that his mission has been accomplished, and returns his life to him.

Martian Manhunter is transformed by the Entity to become the element of Earth to protect the Star City forest from the "Dark Avatar", which appears to be the Black Lantern version of the Swamp Thing.

When Despero incapacitates Firestorm, Element Woman, and the Atom, Martian Manhunter appears and defeats him with a telepathic assault.

Working with his JLA colleagues in Justice League of America, he investigates the activities of the Secret Society of Super Villains, led by the Outsider.

While inside Firestorm, for the duration of the Forever Evil-themed issues of the Justice League of America title, Manhunter and Stargirl shared a close adventure interlinked with one another's memories as Despero assisted the Syndicate with keeping the JLA imprisoned.

The monster, taking the shape of J'onn J'onzz's son, revealed that it was the physical manifestation of Mars, saying that it needed help, only to believe that the Martians were unworthy of life.

After this plan was foiled, J'onn is revived with all of the remaining constructs merging back with him, finally coming to accept that he truly is the last Martian.

J'onzz possesses a wide variety of abilities native to the Green Martian race such as super-strength, nigh-invulnerability, superspeed, flight, regeneration, shapeshifting, intangibility, invisibility, telepathy, telekinesis, and heat vision.

J'onzz is capable of linking the minds of all superheroes at once from a distance of the Moon to all corners of Earth, even once scanning the entire galaxy to see if anyone was not experiencing a brief moment of transcendent bliss.

The Arrowverse and Young Justice incarnations of Martian Manhunter received figures in Mattel's "DC Multiverse" line.