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Deniz Camp is, bluntly, one of the hottest comic creators around right now with his Image Comics series 20th Century Men earning all manner of acclaim and his current Marvel reboot of Ultimates bringing even more attention to his blend of traditional comic heroics and a more progressive, socially aware sensibility. Turns out, it’s not only Marvel’s alternate reality he’s looking at, however; he’s now been announced as the writer for 2025’s Absolute Martian Manhunter.

Illustrated by Javier Rodriguez, the new series is the latest expansion of the DC All In alternate universe line that launched with this month’s Absolute Batman, and will join the already announced Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, Absolute Green Lantern (written by Al Ewing), and Absolute Flash (written by Jeff Lemire).

The Martian Manhunter is certainly an unexpected choice to be given the Absolute treatment; primarily seen as a Justice League mainstay, he’s arguably the first Silver Age creation for the publisher, debuting in 1955’s Detective Comics #225. Outside of comics, he’s shown up in the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series, as well as Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which retroactively established a supporting character in earlier movies as the character in disguise.

At the panel, Camp said, "Martians in this world, they're not really from Mars. This is one of the most dramatic re-imaginings in the Absolute Universe. FBI Agent is invaded by an alien consciousness that selects 'martian' from his mind to describe what it is. The book is about a complete outsider's perspective on the world combined with a complete insider's view of the world." The series is Jones "slowly going insane, but in a really fun kind of way."

The news was announced at New York Comic Con 2024’s DC’s All In/Absolute Universes panel.

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