DC's Justice League isn't well known for its relationship drama, which is why it's so surprising that Martian Manhunter has an incredibly explicit relationship with one of his teammates. Though J'onn J'onzz doesn't have a famous romance like many of his teammates, the one he does have is positively R-Rated.

Debuting in the late 1980s, the Justice League International was a far more lighthearted group of superheroes who were prone to crack jokes as often as they fought evil. Fans of the team fell in love with the dynamic between heroes like Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice, Guy Gardner, and Martian Manhunter. Though they've been disbanded for some time, the Justice League International returned in The Human Target. After bodyguard Christopher Chance was poisoned while trying to protect Lex Luthor, he's led to believe the murderer is a member of the JLI. With only twelve days to live, Chance teams up with Ice to find out who poisoned him. Chance eventually discovers that whoever poisoned him borrowed a large sum of money from Blue Beetle, leading him to none other than J'onn J'onzz.

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In The Human Target #5 by Tom King and Greg Smallwood, Chance, Ice, and J'onn sit down for dinner. It might seem hard to trick a psychic, but the Human Target actually outsmarts Martian Manhunter. Knowing that the hero would be uneasy, Chance actually lets J'onn read his mind. However, because of a skill he learned when he was younger, this infiltration of his thoughts actually lets him read J'onn's thoughts in turn. Chance learns that J'onn has been sleeping with Fire and that she had actually convinced him to borrow the money from Blue Beetle for her. The comic then makes it very clear that Fire having complete control over J'onn's greatest weakness is a large part of what keeps him coming back to their torrid affair.

Martian Manhunter is manipulated by his romance with Fire.

What makes this romance so surprising is that J'onn is often such a stoic hero. Even on occasions when he does show genuine emotion, it is very rarely if ever romantic love or sexual attraction. Due to the hero's dead Martian family, romance is obviously something that doesn't come easy to him. Given all that, the fact that he would have a relationship with clear hints of sadomasochism is surprising even though it's a perfect fit for a noir thriller like The Human Target. While several other Justice League members have dated each other or even gotten married, none of them have a relationship quite as R-Rated as this one. The only relationship that comes close to anything like it in DC is the time Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy dressed up as Green Arrow and Speedy, but even that was more of a joke.

As jarring as the romance between Martian Manhunter and Fire might be, the real tragedy of it is that it's clear that Fire is just using J'onn. J'onn's also a mind reader meaning there's a good chance he knew from the beginning and chose to ignore it. Maybe Martian Manhunter's R-Rated affair with Fire is proof that members of the Justice League should keep their relationship professional.