The new and official trailer for “the Snyder Cut” of Zack Snyder’s Justice League landed last weekend. And while it showed off a ton of new footage, including a brand new Steppenwolf design and our best looks yet at other evil denizens of Apokolips like Darkseid, Desaad, and Granny Goodness, it didn’t quite solve all the mysteries or reveal all the surprises still waiting in the new film. Fans will continue to have to wonder whether a human Green Lantern will make an appearance for a little longer, and there was no footage of Martian Manhunter.
But a new Justice League #59 variant cover from DC Comics, with art by none other than Jim Lee, seems to have given us our first full look at what J’onn J’onnz, the Martian Manhunter, will look like in the movie. Director Zack Snyder has long confirmed that Martian Manhunter was always intended to appear in his Justice League movie, and that the character had technically already made an appearance. Snyder’s plan had always been for General Calvin Swanwick (played by Harry Lennix and first introduced in Man of Steel) to be revealed as the Martian Manhunter in disguise.
In 2019, Snyder revealed via storyboards that a visit from Martha Kent to Lois Lane would in fact have been from Martian Manhunter/General Swanwick. We’re finally going to get that moment on screen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
“I found out that it was a possibility, or at least that Martian Manhunter was going to be in it, when [Snyder] revealed through the storyboard that Martha Kent is coming by visiting Lois, and then after she leaves, she reveals herself to be, in fact, Calvin Swanwick, or the Martian Manhunter,” Lennix told Variety in a recent interview.
