WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Infinite Frontier: Secret Files #4 by Brandon Thomas, Joshua Williamson, Inaki Miranda, Nick Filardi, Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
A test run from across the multiverse brought two different versions of the Totality into contact with one another in Infinite Frontier: Secret Files #4. That incident also brought them both on a collision course with Calvin Ellis, better known as President Superman. The Totalities attempted to avoid a fight with the Superman of Earth-23, considering the sole point of their experiment was simply to test an early warning system. To do this, the Martian Manhunters from two different worlds attempted to use a tactic similar to that seen in Jupiter’s Legacy, but Superman proved his senses are more versatile than anyone realized.
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The Totality of Earth-0 were testing their new early warning system for detecting breaches across space and time. Since what they were trying to detect was something that could lead to an apocalyptic scenario, they didn’t want to take a chance and be wrong when a real breach occurred. So they opted for a controlled experiment, creating their own breach so it wouldn’t lead to anything catastrophic. And it just so happened that another version of the Totality had the same idea at the exact same time, which brought both teams into contact.
To make matters even more complicated, Earth-23’s Superman, Calvin Ellis, showed up, prompting both secret organizations to try and hide themselves with the use of Martian Manhunter’s ability to psychically manipulate someone’s perceptions. This tactic is quite similar to one that Brainwave uses in Jupiter’s Legacy, where he distracts his opponents with psychic projections while other characters subdue their bodies, often brutally.
But while Superman admitted that his abilities were impressive, the Manhunter underestimated just how super a Kryptonian’s senses truly are. He revealed that when he suspects someone is feeding his mind an illusion, all he has to do is slow his perceptions down one by one. By isolating each one of his senses he can focus them to a laser point to locate his targets. And in most cases, as Calvin explains, his sense of smell gives his targets away. Apparently this ability made his senses so sharp that he can detect even the oil secreted from glands inside the body, being able to identify which species it belongs to and its function.
But even though he handily dismantled their attempt to deceive him, the Totality’s use of psychic distraction is less violent than Brainwave’s. While Brainwave can also create psychic illusions, he doesn’t hold back with his abilities as the Martian Manhunter does. He can and has induced aneurysms in his foes while manipulating them with his powers. Despite that skill, Calvin demonstrated a workaround to find Martian Manhunter before any severe damage could be done. As Calvin explained, psychic illusions work better on people with normal senses, so it stands to reason that Kryptonians are less vulnerable to psychic attacks as well.
Calvin’s revelation about his abilities shows that Kryptonian powers are more versatile than most people realize. If this new power Calvin demonstrated works like any other skill, then continual use of it will only enhance the scope of its capabilities, perhaps even one day managing to isolate his senses almost instantly to avoid being psychically manipulated.
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