The voting thread isn't up yet, but here's my Justice Leaguer adapted to fairy tale deliciousness for Challenge Nine of CBRunway. I was assigned the Martian Manhunter and have come to realize he is my favorite DC character. Kind of.

I had to drop out of last year's CBRunway 3 at Challenge Nine, when I couldn't get my terrific Moonstar colored in time. Sad! I wanted to bring it hard for this year's number nine.

;

Hansel and Gretel
starring the Martian Manhunter

Poor H'onzzol and G'rt'al, abandoned in the forest as strangers in a strange land. It was G'rt'al's idea to use H'onzzol's last pack of Oreos as a trail, to somehow find their way home as they were led deeper and deeper into the woods. They would soon find, however, that the cherub-like woodland creatures enjoyed the tiered cookies as much as our boyish protagonist did, and the pair were now certainly lost. But what was that, in the clearing? They skipped along the path to get a better view -- and what a view it was, indeed! A giant cottage, quaint and perfect and built entirely of chocolately goodness! Swept inside by the charming (yet awfully imposing) old woman, H'onzzol and G'r'tal enjoyed their delicacies before finding themselves unable to move -- from pure gluttony! For some reason, the granny locked away the plump girl and demanded waif-like H'onzzol enter his new home: her blistering oven! Overcome by irrational fear, H'onzzol declined, but G'rt'al's youthful (and plump) demeanor tricked the granny into that oven! Re-stocking their depleted oreo packages, H'onzzol and G'rt'al rode a boom tube all the way home to Mars with glee.

The Martian Manhunter is one of my favorite DC characters, and it's sad that his story has always been a little tragic. Now matter how long he's been on Earth, he remains a Martian, both to himself and everyone around him. There was a real sense of abandonment and being lost, something that the story of Hansel and Gretel touches upon.

After realizing what made the Martian Manhunter work, I saw the peices fall into the place from the fable. J'onzz's love for Oreos was a fun, always human aspect of the character and they easily played the role of the breadcrumbs in the story. J'onzz and the Martian vulnerability to fire came into cute, storytale form with the old woman's cannibalism-enabling oven, which paralyzes H'onnzal with fear. Granny Goodness fills the evil old woman archetype snugly, and the role of Gretel called for a female companion, where Miss Martian, though not the essence of my entry, further adapts J'onzz into this fable.

Costumed in their eastern European clothing, cheaply made but made with love, the siblings of the fable look youthful but not naive, as seen with their cunning antics against the tawdry old woman and her showy chocolate delicacies. Also, oreo window cut-outs make me happy.