Marvin The Martian

Marvin The Martian, sometimes referred to as "Marvin Martian" or simply "Marvin," is a character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons.

Origin
Director Charles Jones noted that while Bugs' major enemy, Yosemite Sam was loud and violent, he was obviously no threat. So he decided to create the opposite type of character; one who was quiet and soft-spoken, but whose actions were incredibly destructive and legitimately dangerous. Marvin The Martian made his debut in the 1948 cartoon Haredevil Hare.

History
Marvin hails from Mars, but is often found elsewhere. He is often accompanied by his dog, "K-9," and sometimes by other creatures (one gag, first used in Hare-Way To The Stars,being freeze-dried Martians that become full-size on addition of drops of water). Marvin wears a parody of a Roman soldier's uniform (a reference to Mars being the Roman god of war) with old-fashioned basketball shoes. His head is a black sphere with only eyes for features. On numerous occasions, Marvin has tried to destroy the Earth (it obstructs his view of Venus) with his "Uranium P.U./-36 Explosive Space Modulator.", which resembles a mere stick of dynamite (The original reference to "Uranium P.U.-36" changed to "Illudium P.U./-36" in subsequent cartoons. Some people mistake the sound of "P.U." for a "Q" and say "Q-36." However, the weapon's name is derived from the letters "P.U." which coincidentally is the atomic symbol for Plutonium—named for the planet Pluto). Marvin is consistently foiled by Bugs Bunny. He has also battled for space territory with Daffy Duck in Duck Dodgers In The 24th Century and Duck Dodgers & The Return Of The 24th Century.

Recent years
In 2000, Marvin starred in a series of webtoons that aired exclusively on the Warner Bros. Homepage. Currently, he appears on two recent animated shows on Cartoon Network - as a toddler in Baby Looney Tunes, and in the Duck Dodgers Yelevision series. In the latter, he works for the Martian Queen, Queen Tyr'ahnee, whom he has a crush on. The latter also reuses his original name from The Hasty Hare. Over a decade prior to that, he guest-starred in a Tiny Toon Adventures segment entitled "Duck Dodgers Junior," where he was accompanied by an apprentice named "Marcia The Martian." He was also in an episode of Taz-Mania episode and did a cameo in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (What's The Frequency, Kitty?). Marvin appeared in the game Bugs Bunny Lost In Time where he was the boss of Dimension X. He also appears as the main villains of the videogames Taz-Mania 2: Escape From Mars and Galactic Taz Ball (both of which coincidentally starred The Tasmanian Devil) Marvin was also cast as the ineffective referee in Space Jam, and had a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? during the final scene with other toons, and then later had a major villainous role in Looney Tunes: Back In Action where he is hired by the ACME C.E.O., Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin), to defeat D.J. (Brendan Fraser) and the gang at Area 52, so Marvin frees himself by using his ACME Disingration Gun. At ACME, Mr. Chairman orders Marvin to put the Blue Monkey diamond in the ACME satellite. Bugs and Daffy take a spaceship to prevent Marvin from putting the Blue Monkey in the satellite. First, Marvin battles Bugs and Daffy at the spaceship. At the ACME satellite, Marvin uses his ACME Bubble Gun to incapacitate Bugs. At the battle, Bugs uses his lightsaber to pop Marvin's bubbles. During the battle, Marvin gets Bugs stuck by his bubble and defeats Daffy Duck, but Bugs frees himself. In the end, Marvin gets stuck in his own bubble.

Retroactive naming
Marvin was never named in the original shorts (he was called "Commander X-2" in 1952's The Hasty Hare), but decades later when the character attracted merchandising interest he obviously needed a name, so the current one was selected.

Voice
In his debut-appearance, Mel Blanc gave him a stuffy, denasal voice, but later the Martian adopted a more regal-sounding, snooty, almost British phrasing. Marvin was originally voiced by Mel Blanc, and in recent years has been voiced by Joe Alaskey, Bob Bergen, and Eric Goldberg. Other voice-actors like Dan Castellaneta sometimes imitate his voice in parodies of him.

Trivia

 * In July 2008, Warner Brothers declared that, sometime in the future, they are going to make a live-action/animated film about Marvin trying to destroy Earth, but getting stuck in a gift box.


 * Green Arrow has been known to call the Martian Manhunter, his frequent Justice League teammate, "Marvin".


 * Writer George Burden humorously notes that Marvin is certifiably insane: "Now, Marvin The Martian is an interesting study. He has a one-track megalomaniacal desire to conquer the world and will calmly disintegrate anyone who gets in his way, without remorse. He is clearly delusional if he believes that, even with advanced technology, he can do this single-handedly (or, at most, with the help of his dog). Marvin most likely suffers from a psychotic disorder, delusional disorder of the grandiose type, diagnostic code 297.1. His dog on the other hand shares his master's delusion in that he slavishly follows him despite Marvin's illness and clearly should be labelled a shared psychotic disorder (folie à deux), 297.3."


 * Marvin the Martian also had an early concept of color. His helmet and green circle that surround him used to be goldish and he used to wear a green shirt and green pants.