People share a lot of things these days. Apartments, clothes, cars, meals, responsibilities, beliefs…but your mind is always your own.

Usually.

This week, DC’s burgeoning Absolute Universe expands with arguably its boldest and most boundary-pushing title yet, Absolute Martian Manhunter. Written by DC newcomer Deniz Camp and spectacularly drawn by Javier Rodríguez, it’s a surreal, surprising dive into our pushed-to-the-brink society that may have you questioning your sanity and the way you view others in equal measure. A true reimagining of the hero at its core, it’s almost certain to garner acclaim and provoke refreshingly complex conversations among comic fans. In other words, it’s exactly the sort of book readers hungering for something fresh have been waiting for.

To help set the stage, we chatted with Camp about just what inspired his new take on John Jones, why Rodríguez was the only artist he could see drawing it, and how it addresses one of the biggest problems we’re facing today.

The Absolute Universe is a particularly exciting corner of the DC multiverse right now. How did you get involved with it, and was it always Absolute Martian Manhunter?

It was always Absolute Martian Manhunter. Scott Snyder had liked some of my previous work and got in touch. He told me that they were looking for radical new takes on DC characters where anything was possible, and asked if there was anything I was interested in.

It’s funny, a lot of people have told me that Martian Manhunter is a surprise character, but for me, it was obviously Martian Manhunter. I just thought there was a ton of potential there, especially with the freedom that Absolute provides. It’s a really big swing and probably the biggest change of any of the Absolute characters, but I was really inspired to take advantage of that freedom because it doesn’t come along very often. While at the same time, we’re celebrating what I think is really interesting about the original character and concept. I’m going back and reading all of the early Silver Age appearances from the first detective stories. I thought there was something with this character that can see into people’s minds, but has a truly alien perspective that even Superman doesn’t possess, that was really powerful and interesting.

It was the first character I pitched. It was the only character I pitched, and Scott got back to me within a couple of days and said, “We’re doing it.”

You alluded to this, but the Absolute version of Martian Manhunter sounds quite different from the character we know in the core DC Universe. How did you come up with such a unique take on the character?

I just thought about what worked about the character and maybe what was a barrier to popularity for the character. I wanted to maintain what worked while at the same time, leaning into the alienness of Martian Manhunter.

My big concept was basically splitting the character into two. There’s a human character named John Jones and that character is being invaded by a creature that calls itself “the Martian.” Another big twist is that it’s not even really a Martian, it’s just a creature that’s so alien that it could only be understood in human terms as “Martian.” Martian is the stand-in because it’s the archetypal alien symbol for John. The creature looks through John’s mind and sees alien equals Martian and so it calls itself Martian, but it’s even more alien than that.

The Absolute Universe reenvisions DC characters to be a more direct response to the problems of today. How does Absolute Martian Manhunter reflect this?

John Jones is an FBI agent who studies stochastic terrorism, which are seemingly unpredictable acts of terror. The book is about why people do the things that they do, especially in relation to school shootings, suicide bombings and things like that. It’s really about, what does it mean to exist in a world that seems to be going out of control, where there seems to be so much anger, fear and rage?

The Martian is here to tell you why that is and to try to help people understand why other people do the things that they do and deliver maximum empathy for them while also trying to make things better.

You’re working with Javier Rodriguez, and you’ve said working with him was one of your conditions to doing the book. Why is Javi the perfect artist for Absolute Martian Manhunter?

I have been a huge fan of his work for a long time. I knew that I wanted this book to feel sort of like the 1960s and ’70s inner space science fiction, like 2001 or the work of Thomas Pynchon, so I knew that I wanted somebody who could capture that feel and Javi’s work has so much of that. But he’s also just such an amazing storyteller. He has such a strong idea of what comics can and should be. I knew he was perfect for it, but I didn’t realize how perfect he would be and how much I was going to learn working with him. He understands comics on such a deep level that he knows exactly what this book needs and exactly how to get to it.

We’ve really created this symbiotic relationship where we talk all the time, exchange ideas and almost try to one-up each other. I write full scripts, but he takes them and transforms them and elevates them so much, and then when I get them back, I feel the need to also try to elevate and try to one-up what I did before. It’s been a dream collaboration. I think Javi’s one of the great artists of our time.

You’ve mentioned Thomas Pynchon and ’70s sci-fi, how would you describe the tone of the series? Are there any existing DC comics that you’d say influenced Absolute Martian Manhunter?

Pynchon is the big one. Philip K. Dick is there along with ’60s and ’70s sci-fi like 2001 and other Kubrick films. In terms of comics, definitely the work of Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan. There’s a lot of Shade the Changing Man and even Human Target because there’s so much in it about identity. But I also really feel like we’re playing with the language and the iconography of comics in general. For example, in comics we have thought bubbles that people don’t really use anymore, but we’ve brought them back. We’ve made them an important part of the book in a completely new way, which I’m really excited about. So, while we’re influenced by a lot of things, it’s also really influenced by our love of comics in general and most importantly, the world around us. That’s the big touchstone. We want to make this feel both timeless and really timely.
 

Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodríguez is available this week in print and as a digital comic book.