The White Martians are one of four fictional extraterrestrial races native to Mars in the DC Comics' shared universe. White Martians, also known as Pale Martians, appear in the comics of the DC Universe, chiefly JLA, Martian Manhunter, and Son of Vulcan. They first appeared in Justice League of America #71 (May 1969).
History As a race of shapeshifters, physical appearance has little meaning for Martians, and the Greens and Whites are only separated by underlying psychological differences and philosophies, with the former being more peaceful and the latter more violent. The White Martians' preferred form is that of angular, hairless humanoids with chalky white skin with bony, armor-like ridges or plates. It was eventually retconned that the White Martians and Green Martians were part of the same race, known as "The Burning". This race was belligerent and used fire to reproduce asexually. The Guardians of the Universe, fearing the Martians, split them into two species, gave them an instinctive fear of fire to prevent either from accessing their full potential, and altered their powers so neither could overcome the other. The timeframe for this genetic tampering was given as 20,000 years ago, contemporary with the early life of Vandal Savage on Earth. While the Green Martians were peaceful philosophers, the White Martians were savage warriors. A lengthy civil war between the two races ended when the few surviving White Martians were exiled to the Still Zone, a dimension that is similar to, yet distinct from, the Phantom Zone.
White Saturnians
White Saturnians called Koolars are descended from an underclass of worker clones created by ancient White Martian explorers. Green Martians cloned Jemm's people, the original Red Saturnians, from themselves, and the White Martians cloned the original White Saturnians from themselves. The Reds were treated as equals by their creators, but the whites were treated as slaves by their masters. The enslavement of the white clones led to a civil war on Mars.
Hyperclan The Hyperclan is a White Martian vanguard for an all-out takeover of Earth who masquerade as alien superheroes with the intent of displacing the JLA in the affections of the people of Earth. The Hyperclan members are known as Protex, Fluxus, A-Mortal, Züm, Primaid, Tronix, Armek and Zenturion, using the array of natural Martian powers to give each "hero" a seemingly different set of abilities; for example, Züm was a speedster, Armek was a massive armored figure with superhuman strength and could change color, and Fluxus was a shapeshifter. Their initial attack results in the destruction of the League's satellite and the death of Metamorpho and is preceded by a sickness that strikes all fire-based heroes and villains, such as Firehawk and Doctor Phosphorus, causing them to lose their powers. With the use of mind control and public relations, they nearly succeeded in brainwashing all of Earth into seeing the new Justice League as the villains, creating the illusion that the League were jealous of Hyperclan's pro-active efforts to eliminate villains and improve crop development in formerly barren areas. Despite the heroes scoring some victories in later confrontations, such as the Flash knocking out Züm with a punch at near-lightspeed or Green Lantern taking out Armek by exploiting the fact that they thought his ring was still vulnerable to yellow, Hyperclan eventually managed to capture all of the Justice League, keeping Superman tortured with a mental illusion of green kryptonite while trapping Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman in the 'Flower of Wrath', a device that would kill the heroes in hideous agony when it closed, with Martian Manhunter having apparently decided to betray the others out of recognition of the fact that he would never be accepted. However, Batman managed to evade capture after Hyperclan shot down the Batplane by taking advantage of their belief that he wasn't a threat because he was only human, deducing their true natures by their unwillingness to investigate his crashed and burning Batplane. Sneaking into Hyperclan's base, Batman knocked out one and then later three Hyperclan members by trapping them in a ring of fire. Putting the pieces together about Hyperclan's true nature, Superman eventually managed to throw off the Kryptonite illusion and free the rest of the League, aided by J'onzz, who had in reality realized Hyperclan's true nature when their base was revealed, pretending to betray the League and then posing as Armek to infiltrate Hyperclan. After Superman issued a public broadcast to the world that warned them of the threat and Hyperclan's weakness, the invaders were captured, and each of them was telepathically brainwashed by J'onzz and Aquaman to believe themselves to be human. Given strong mental blocks to inhibit their powers, the Martians assumed normal Earth lives all over the globe, although they were kept under observation by the League.
Sabotage of evolution In JLA series 2 #4, Hyperclan leader Protex tells Superman how the White Martians came to Earth in ancient times before humans existed and performed genetic experiments on terrestrial animals which crippled the evolutionary potential of the human race, resulting in them lacking powers. This was another reason for the war between the White and Green Martians, who were outraged by such biological vandalism. According to the storylines in Martian Manhunter (#25 - 27) by John Ostrander, and Son of Vulcan (#5), the White Martians performed experiments that altered the metagene, enabling only a select few to develop metahuman powers. As punishment for this, the White Martians were exiled to the Still Zone.
The Bruce Wayne Martian On subsequent occasions, the White Martians succeeded in breaking free of their psychological imprisonment. The first time, a single White Martian briefly believed itself to be Bruce Wayne due to the trauma of being caught in a flaming plane crash which erased the memory of its original human identity as an employee of Wayne Enterprises. Green Lantern, Steel, Big Barda, Orion and Plastic Man defeat the Martian and restore its original programming. The heroes make certain that the other Martians remain brainwashed, although Batman expressed some concern about their current strategy with the Martians.
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