Martian Meshugenah

So, today I was paid a surprise visit by that raconteur, bon vivant, and all-around man-around-town, Jim Wilson, proprietor of Let's Not Talk About Movies, that premiere movie review blog. He was on his way to the twentieth anniversary reunion for Bill Nye the Science Guy, for which he was the sound designer back in the day (not incidentally winning an Emmy for his efforts). A chance to see Yojimbo is always a Good Thing, and in this particular instance, I came away with material gain as well: once again, in what is becoming somewhat of a tradition, my great and good friend gifted me with a Martian Manhunter action figure. To wit, The New 52 version.

Here it is, all nice and pristine in the box:

And here it is a few minutes after Jim left, reduced from M/NM to CR/AP:

So let's see: The blue color scheme is now kinda purple, and he's a little more olive green; I can live with that. He's got pants; I liked the faux-Barsoomian near-nakedness, but okay. His cape melds into a tunic-collared shoulder-pad/pectoral-shawl thingie; I'm not really sure how that would work. I love the breechclout, although he really doesn't need it now that he has pants. The symbol is still there, and half of the classic cape harness, so we'll call that good. But here's the rub:

Is everyone in the DCnU this cranky all the time? To quote the comics reporter: "sometimes I look at silver age superheroes and wonder why they look so different and then I realize it’s just that they don’t look like assholes." In any case, the new figure will grace the Martian Men's Room with the rest of them.

In other Martian news, Yojimbo's visit was such a surprise that I completely forgot that I had a Martian for him:

Yojimbo is something of a Chuck Jones expert as well as a big fan, so when I came across this Marvin the Martian a few weeks back I couldn't help but pick it up for him, planning to give it to him the next time we met up. I wish I had remembered that today.

So, Jim, I leave you with this snippet of dialogue for which I am sure you need no citation:

[Presenting a gift-wrapped dynamite stick to Martian Commander X-2]
Porky Pig: Happy b-b-birthday, you thing from another world, you.
Marvin Martian: Ooh, thank you!