Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 490 The Historical Taboos of the Martians

It's like how, to deal with a Kryptonian, it's best to prepare a bunch of Kryptonite and challenge them to a duel under the red sun.

To deal with such a burning Martian, a globally frozen place like Uranus would be more suitable than Earth.

The flames surrounding the furnace still burned fiercely, but their intensity was no longer as wild and intense as at the beginning.

This can be considered as achieving Joey's intended goal.

Even if his flame was not a traditional flame that needed oxygen to sustain itself, but rather a fire of the soul emanating from within, it could not withstand the extreme low temperature of -200 degrees Celsius around him.

The methane-like substance, briefly ignited by the Martians' high temperature, was extinguished shortly by the extreme cold, creating a bizarre storm of red and blue colors.

As the furnace flames rapidly contracted due to the environment, Joey had already crossed the white, misty expanse within his field of vision and punched the furnace squarely in the head.

Both he and Martian Manhunter are among the best of their respective races, and the planet's deep, liquid-like atmospheric pressure is nothing to them.

On the contrary, the low temperature really affected the Martians' performance. In addition to the flames, even the ability to deform and etherealize objects, which require molecular motion, was greatly limited.

The furnace, weakened to the extreme by the environment, was no longer as composed as it was on Earth. With its body restricted, it was powerless to fight back and was knocked to the ground by a single punch.

He sprang to his feet and leaped away, ready to escape this planet that was extremely unfavorable to him, but was immediately grabbed by Joey and pulled back to his heels.

With a deafening roar, Uranus, a place rarely visited by meteorites due to its small size and remoteness, was transformed into a scene resembling a meteorite impact by Superman's slam as he seized the furnace.

Just like before the mutation, the Forge that Martian Manhunter transformed into remains the core and leader of all Burning Martians, holding absolute dominance in the mind network.

Once we've dealt with him, dealing with the rest of the atavistic Martians will be a piece of cake.

So Joey raised his fist again. To be honest, he had no idea how to calm this burning Martian down, so he could only try to bring him back to normal by constantly beating him.

The furnace, unable to move under the pressure of Superman's unrestrained fists, tried several times but could not break free. He realized that in terms of physical strength, Martians obviously also had their own limits.

He is very strong, but at least not strong enough to go toe-to-toe with a berserk Kryptonian.

So the furnace had to find another way. With all its might, it pressed its hand against Superman's forehead, unleashing a mental blast that gathered the entire Martian mental network, bombarding Superman's mind.

Although it was a psychological attack, the impact was as tangible as a bang, and the moment it erupted, it dispersed the irregular atmospheric vortex that had gathered due to the fighting over the past half day, blasting the two of them away.

At the moment of the emotional explosion, the two people's minds began to collide and clash.

As Joey was throwing a punch, his vision blurred, and the target of the punch suddenly transformed into Ron Jungs, the Martian Manhunter, who was still somewhat human-like.

"Be careful!"

Martian Manhunter ducked and dodged Joey's incredibly painful punch: "Don't do it yet! I'm not that me!"

Joey now understood that he had been pulled into the realm of the mind by that mental burst.

Then he raised his fist and swung it at the Martian Manhunter who had suddenly appeared before him, yelling, "You say it is?!"

In a completely unfamiliar territory, all Joey could do was continue to use super violence. Who knew if this Martian Manhunter was a trick by the Furnace?

"That's really not me!"

Martian Manhunter raised his hand to parry, then deflected the force, and dodged: "Think about it, do you think that monster who takes pleasure in sadism and violence would discuss a government shutdown with you?"

"You have a point."

Joey missed again with his punch and could only sit down and try to reason with them: "Where are we now? Where is that monster?"

"This is 'The Great Mind,' a place where we Martians once connected spiritually."

They are now in a very strange place, the spiritual center of the Martians, but with the extinction of the Martians, this place called "Great Mind" is nothing but a ruined ashes.

"That's where the fire started."

Recalling the past, Martian Hunter, caught in the mistakes of yesteryear, looked on with a deep sense of desolation: "Perhaps it was all my fault."

The Martians were indeed wiped out by a fire virus that spread from the mind network. Anyone who used telepathy would be infected and then burned alive by the flames that ignited in their minds.

What Martian Manhunter has never publicly stated is that the creator of this mind virus is his twin brother, Malafak Jungs.

In the Martian concept, twins should be one. Since one fetus is divided into two, they must represent light and darkness respectively.

Perhaps this idea was correct, or perhaps it influenced the two brothers, because Ron Jungz grew up to be a righteous and upright man, becoming a respected hunter.

By the standards of the peaceful, philosophical Martians, Malafak Juntz, who became a wizard, was a born bad seed.

Malafak then committed a heinous crime that was unspeakable to the Martians, and Ron Jungs, who had always doted on his twin brother, stopped indulging him this time and reported Malafak's crimes to the Martian Council.

This ultimately led to Malafak being punished, with all his memories of these events being erased, along with his telepathic abilities.

But one thing remained: the deep-seated hatred he felt for his own people, which stemmed from this incident.

Therefore, having lost his memory and telepathic abilities, Malafak developed the Burning Virus, a virus capable of destroying the entire Martian population. Any Martian who connected to the telepathic network would inevitably be infected and die.

"Martians, who have been connected to each other through their minds since birth, are truly social animals. For them, being separated from their mental network for a long time is as terrifying as being locked in a claustrophobic space."

So even with warnings, more and more Martians, unable to tolerate it any longer, took a chance and ultimately met their doom.

It was during that time, when Ron Jungs was dealing with the corpses of his surviving people, that an accident brought him to present-day Earth, where he made contact with the Kryptonians.

After witnessing the atrocities his avatar committed on Earth, Ron Jungz, a green Martian, began to ponder: "Perhaps Guardian Ganther was right in his actions?"

Perhaps Ganser wasn't entirely wrong; the Martians' current state is their own fault.

He had already seen his true nature as a Martian, and the savage and destructive power that would erupt from him once he was freed from his constraints.

The Earth that Superman is now fighting to the death to protect, if it weren't for the intervention of the historical Gansher to restrain the Martians, wouldn't it have been burned to ashes by the primitive burning Martians ten thousand years ago?

Ganther merely imbued the Martians with a spiritual seal of fear of fire, but it was one of their own who truly led them to their graves.

Martian Manhunter's deep thought convinced Joey that the person before him was indeed Ron Jungs, and not some mental illusion created by a burning Martian.

Regarding his thoughts, Joey, who was currently standing on Earth's side fighting against the Kryptonians, the Guardians of the Universe, and even these Martians, could only sigh: "If only the world were simply black and white—"

Unfortunately, the world never works that way. Sometimes, the difference between a hero and a villain is just a tiny bit of variation.

All Joey could do was try his best to make things better, just as he had told Diana.

"If I may ask, I'll be so bold as to ask a question." Joey, who was talking to Martians in "Great Minds," was also curious: "It's clear that you Martians have extremely high moral standards—what exactly did Namarafak commit that would be considered an unforgivable crime by your standards?"

"It's not just one, it's many."

Today, Martian Manhunter no longer wants to discuss many of the truly embarrassing details, but the root of his brother's actions lies in—

"The most important and core issue is that he is trying to find something that is taboo to all Martians."

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