The meaning behind "Miss Martian"

A rather underrated DC character is M’gann M’orzz, aka, Miss Martian. Her most well-known version appears on Young Justice, but my personal favorite and the one I want to talk about in this article, is the version depicted by Sharon Leal on CW’s Supergirl. M’gann appears on the show in seasons 2 and 6 as a recurring role and in seasons 3 and 5 as a guest role. She never really becomes a superhero in the sense everyone else on the show and she never hides her identity so her code-name, Miss Martian, was worked into the story differently.

The two episodes where the name, Miss Martian, is used are both in season 2. In the episode “Survivors”, one of M’gann’s very first episodes, and “The Martian Chronicles”, her last episode of the season. The context of how this name is used hides a rather clever and unspoken meaning.

In the episode “Survivors”, we don’t yet know M’gann, who she is or what her story is. However, fairly early on in the episode, protagonist Alex Danvers discovers that M’gann is participating in an illegal, underground alien fight club where the spoiled rich of National City entertain themselves with senseless violence. In this fight club, M’gann is named Miss Martian. It is implied that M’gann participates in the fights willingly, which raises the question “Why?” in J’onn J’onzz, the last Green Martian. He demands an answer which M’gann refuses to give. It is near the end of the episode that J’onn realizes the truth. M’gann used the fights to punish herself. While never killing and undefeated, she likely has taken beatings and the rich society of the city sees her as a monster. She endures the pain and the cruelty of the fight club because it is her chosen punishment. M’gann is a White Martian. It was her kind that eradicated the Greens. A species full of nothing but hatred and anger. She hated her kind and she hated what she was. Most importantly, she hated that she was part of all the deaths of the Green Martians. So when arriving on Earth after she ran away, she found ways to punish herself.

By “The Martian Chronicles” M’gann has come a long way. She was forgiven for her crimes by J’onn and she has forgiven herself. She made friends and learned to accept their help and their love. She isn’t just drifting in life anymore, she is living it. And she has made a difficult decision. To go back to Mars, to her people, and find others like herself who don’t want to be defined by the cruelty and hatred of their kind. It is when she says goodbye to J’onn when he calls her Miss Martian again. But the context and his intent have made this time different.

See, in “Survivors” the name is used for M’gann in the fight ring. It is the name of the brutal alien who is the undefeated champion of the fight club, the version of M’gann that was punishing herself. “Miss Martian” had negative meanings, was associated with negative things, it was the name for a version of M’gann that she hated.

When J’onn uttered the name again, it had meant something positive. That version of M’gann was loved, by herself and others, she was strong and brave and beautiful. She didn’t hate herself anymore, she wasn’t a monster anymore. In that moment, on that balcony, J’onn had taken the name of brute, filled with negative meanings, and in a matter of seconds, transformed it to mean something beautiful.