Just a kid's show?
Martin Mystery is a series of a teenager, his sister and a friend who become investigate the paranormal for an organization called the Center. Or that is what it appears to be. The Center and the paranormal activities are in reality the imagination of a boy who couldn't cope with the death of his mother.
When Mrs. Octavia Mystery was pregnant of Martin, everything seems to go well. But during labour, complications occurred. Something went horrible wrong. Martin's mother slipped into a coma and lost a lot of blood. As quickly as possible she had to be operated. Martin was brought to this world with the help of caesarean operation, but the mother passed away. His father Gerard went mad from despair. He flee from the pain by working as hard as he could. He neglected his son, his work seemed more important. Martin's grandparents took care of him for the first 4 years of his life, before the father realized the graveness of his mistake. When Martin was 6, Gerard met a woman, a miss Lombard. She was divorced and had a daughter Diana. The two got married and Martin and Diana became stepsiblings. But Martin never saw miss Lombard as a mother. The feeling that he caused the death of his mother and the neglect of his father in his early days had caused him to flee in a fantasy world. Away from the guilt, he grew obsessed by the paranormal world. He fantasised about being a hero for once. His father had hoped it was only phase, that Martin would grow out of it. But he didn't. When he was 15, his desperation created a world where he was the hero. He was no longer able to distinguish his fantasy from the reality around it. He created the Center.
M.O.M.: She was the leader of the Center. Her appearance and her moniker were based on his own mother. That's why he called her mom. The moniker Mystery Organization Manager was made up later. He modeled her after a picture of his father and his mother together, short after they were married. That's also the reason why she looks so young in the series. Her attitude and the damage Martin causes to her experiments is due to his feelings of guilt. He feels guilty for her death. He had the feeling that he causes all her misery. That he couldn't do anything right. That he was a disappointment to everyone. The evolution to top agent was the result of his growth of self-esteem.
Billy: The green alien and Martin's biggest fan. When his father told him he would remarry, he explained to his son that Miss Lombard had a child of her own. Martin expected it to be a boy, someone younger than him, someone who would look up to him. The disappointment was great when he found that the child was of his own age and even worse, a girl. That's why he imagined Billy. At little sidekick that looks up to him. An alien, like in the science-fiction comics he grew fond of.
Java: Java was the janitor of Torrington High. His real name was Jan Vandevoorde, as his father Dirk Vandevoorde moved from Belgium to America, after short after World War II. Hoping for a better future for his family. Jan was born in the US and suffered from Acromegaly. He is a big, strong fella but with a low IQ. He's afraid of most technology, afraid that he might do something wrong. When he first met Martin, he liked the young boy for his bright imagination. Martin believed Java to be a caveman due to his stature and it was Martin who gave him the nickname Java to match this new fantasy. Jan had no problem with the nickname, he was charmed by it and the imagination of the young boy. In no time they became Martin's best friend. He went along with the imagination as he knew how painful reality could be.
Diana: Diana was his caring step-sister. She took care of her step-brother and went along with his fantasies, only to keep him safe. She knew that this was no game for Martin but without supervision of an adult he could hurt himself. And Java wasn't a real help either. He was kind but easily impressionable and would go along with most Martin said.
Jenny: Martin's crush. Jenny saw Martin as a freak, as a child that never grew up and that's the reason why she disliked him.
Vivian Michelle: She was Martin's first crush. But she rejected him kindly. She was just not interested in him. But that rejection fell hard with Martin and spawn the seeds of the monster that later became Venoso. She was the embodiment of that rejection.
Kaitlin: Kaitlin was the first girl that actually liked Martin. She liked his odd behaviour and admired his imagination. She was really in love with him. But for Martin, it was impossible from someone as beautiful as she would for someone so flawed as Martin. He dumped her in a mad episode and refused to ever talk about it again.
Marvin: Marvin was the boy Martin wanted to be. The Marvin we saw, was actually named Lucius Marvino. A happy, care-free teenagers of Italian origins who was good with girls. He was only made even more perfect in Martin's mind. He had to be flawless, because Martin wanted to be flawless. As a flawless man doesn't kill his mother, just by being born. He was the perfect Martin, the Martin the real Martin never could be. That's the reason why he hated him so much.
It had to be noticed that of all monsters he fought through the series, none were of religious origins. After the death of his mother and the realization that he was 'the one' who killed her, he lost faith. He did no longer believe in God. How could he believe in a god that abandoned him at birth. The origins of the monster varied from monster to monster. Some, mostly the aliens but also creatures as the Evil Druid were inspired by his love of mythology as well as horror, fantasy and sci-fi comics, books and movies. But others had a more sinister origins. Sandman and the boogeyman represented his fears, the Love fairies or the Siren the frustration of his suppressed sexuality as most girls found him repulsive. The shapeshifters represented his fear of people as a whole, the feeling of being alone in the crowd. The episodes where his father or his step-sister were in severe danger, were manifestations of his fear. But these are all harmless fantasies, you say? The worst had yet to come. His final enemy was Octavia Paine who created a Frankenstein-like Monster to attack The Center. Octavia Paine represented Martin's deepest and darkest emotion, she was Octavia's Pain! The pain of he felt for the loss of his mother. The pain he had tried to flee from. The pain that came back and finally got him. Her monster destroyed the Center, destroyed his fantasy world, taking everything away from him. This episode was just the series finale. Martin committed that very night suicide by hanging himself in his dorm at Torrington Academy.
Written by: Belgiansparten