Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Martin Mystery

Go To

The Characters from the paranormal world of Martin Mystery.


    open/close all folders 

     The Center 

Martin Mystery

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/martin_mystery.png
Voiced by: Samuel Vincent (English), Alexis Tomassian (French)

A teenage guy who has a wild passion for monsters and the paranormal, but after unwillingly solving an "amazing out-of-this-world mystery," later revealed to have been a mutant humanoid chameleon named Venoso, he finds himself working as a paranormal investigator for "The Center."


  • Abhorrent Admirer: Most girls he hits on are quick to rebuff him, with Jenny being the most vocal in disliking him, though there are moments where she's at least tolerant of him on a platonic level.
  • Agent Mulder: His mind always defaults to supernatural causes whenever the trio encounter something out of the ordinary. Something supernatural usually is involved, though the actual theories he throws out are usually fairly off-base.
  • Age Lift: In the source material, he's a college professor. This show makes him a teenager.
  • Alliterative Name: Martin Mystery.
  • Anime Hair: His hair is spiky and as tall as his head.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: No matter how much she insults and hurts him, Martin cares deeply for Diana and will do anything to protect her.
  • Best Friend: To Billy.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Step to be more specific with Diana.
  • Book Dumb: More and more as the series goes on. One later episode is even dedicated to how he's brilliant and learns much in the field even though he does nothing but fail in class.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his flighty and immature personality, he's repeatedly called the Center's top agent and can back it up with a success rate of near one hundred percent.
    • Adaptational Dumbass: In the original comic books he's a college professor. Compare that to the extremely Book Dumb and immature Martin of the cartoon.
  • Butt-Monkey: Happens to him very often, but sometimes it's warranted.
  • Casanova Wannabe: The guy constantly hits on whatever girl strikes his fancy. He's always shot down, sometimes quite violently.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: To Diana's undying chagrin - though he always gets focused when the mission needs him to be.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: On the outside, Martin is immature and not a very good academic, but when it comes down to his missions, he is often shown that he is more then capable and competent enough to get the job done often with a push of his sister being in danger.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Often this to impress his crush, Jenni Anderson.
  • Genius Ditz: Par excellence. His overall behavior in the series in his school life points towards an incredibly poor record in-school, but he can read Ancient Egyptian among other talents he displays in the field. It is apparent that he just has no retention of anything outside his field of interest.
  • Guile Hero: He mostly takes down the monsters through his cunning and trickery.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite acting like your typical hormone-addled, self-centered teenager most of the time, at his core he's repeatedly demonstrated to be a fundamentally decent and heroic person. Best illustrated when a Jackass Genie uses her powers to force the cast to voice their deepest desires so she can twist those wishes in order to make their lives a living hell. Java wishes to fit in better (and gets turned into a living jigsaw puzzle). Diana wishes to be the smartest person in the world (and suffers a severe case of My Skull Runneth Over). Martin? Even in his brainwashed state, he takes two glances at his friends' conditions and wishes he knew how to save them.
  • Likes Older Women: Implied. He seems to have a bit of a crush on M.O.M..
  • Keet: Martin is a very energetic guy who's enthusiastic about his line of work.
  • Made of Iron: Played with: while he endures a lot of violence from Diana (and frequently, other girls), it's mostly of the slapstick comedy variety. That said, he has gotten injuries or weathered attacks from various monsters and kept going.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Despite everyone else in the story claiming otherwise.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: An inversion, actually. In the original comics, he and Diana were lovers who eventually got married—but in the cartoon series, they're siblings (or, if you want to get technical, stepsiblings).
  • Sibling Rivalry: With Diana, of course. On his part, he tends to prank and tease her quite a bit.
  • Spiky Hair: As seen above and it's shown to be a personal style choice. It's rare that we actually see Martin's hair down even with he's drenched in water, slime or whatever, unless it's amusing.
  • The Trickster: It's his brains rather than his brawn that usually allow him to defeat the Monster of the Week.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: In the ‘’Totally Spies!'' crossover, Martin actually does meet a girl who likes him in return in the form of Alex, whom he shared mutual interests with. However, he had to leave when the Center called him on another mission, but at least the two parted on good terms.

Diana Lombard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diana_lombard_1.png
Voiced by: Kelly Sheridan (English), Dorothée Pousséo (French)

Martin's stepsister.


  • Action Girl: It depends on the episode, but she's usually athletic enough to keep up with Martin.
  • Agent Scully: Is the first to attempt to find rational explanations whenever the trio stumble across something out of the ordinary, usually to counteract Martin's wild conspiracy theories.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite her job being to investigate the supernatural, she typically disbelieves Martin's theories about the paranormal and tries to come to a scientific logical conclusion about what they're investigating.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Martin constantly annoying her, Diana loves him deep down and is very willing to save him whenever he is in need of help.
  • Badass Bookworm: Academically smarter then Martin by a long shot.
  • Book Smart: In comparison to Martin's Book Dumb, her knowledge mostly comes from academics: if there's scientific or historical knowledge needed, Diana will be the one to supply it.
  • Brainy Brunette: Pretty much.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Step to be more specific with Martin.
  • Cute Monster Girl: In the season three finale, Diana gets mutated into a very cute lizard-girl.
  • Damsel in Distress: She is often the first to be either kidnapped or transformed and have to be usually saved by Martin.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Usually towards Martin.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Her frequent slapping and assaults on Martin would be a lot less funny if the dynamic was reversed.
  • Even Girls Want Her: Subverted. Djini pretended to be her secret admirer. The spectator needs to remember that Djini is a female genie.
  • Extracurricular Enthusiast: To the point that she laments in one episode that being an overachiever makes it impossible to every club activity in Torrington.
  • Genius Sweet Tooth: At one point tries sugar as a study-aid, and is quickly enamoured.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Pretty much any time Martin does anything remotely goofy or odd, expect her to express obvious irritation if not full-blown anger. In the very first episode, when Martin spills a bit of chocolate on her shirt, she proceeds to start beating him up in the middle of the cafeteria.
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager: Much, much less than Martin, but Diana has been shown to have a healthy appreciation of attractive males to match her stepbrother.
  • Jerkass to One: Most of her jerkassery is generally centered towards Martin himself and is sometimes but definitely not always, or even usually, provoked.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Diana has a tendency to be short-tempered and irritable (though she generally reserves it for Martin), but she's a kind person who tries to help the people who are affected by the supernatural.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed. While Diana is an attractive girl that has her moments of fanservice, Clothing Damage and can really doll up when the occasion calls for it, she's actually much more likely to suffer Body Horror in most episodes, even compared to her male companions.
  • Neat Freak: Invasion of her dreams by the Sandman immerses her in a disordered vision of her Torrington bedroom, in which she's overslept for an exam and can't get her room clean.
  • Not So Above It All: While she's typically the more mature and responsible one of her and Martin and is definitely more academically-inclined than her stepbrother, Diana can arguably be just as petty and immature. She just does so in a more dignified way.
  • Only Sane Woman: In comparison to Martin and occasionally to Java and Billy, especially when the latter is under Martin's thrall.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Despite being intelligent and capable, she has a tendency to get put in Damsel in Distress situations and is overshadowed by Martin. This comes to a head in the third season finale, when being out-performed by him in an evaluation leads her to feel unappreciated and causes her to defect from the Center.
  • Prehensile Tail: In her lizard form in the finale.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: Inverted—in the original comics, she and Martin were lovers who eventually got married, but in the TV-series, they're stepsiblings.
  • Sibling Rivalry: To Martin, naturally. Not the pranking type, like Martin, but she more than makes up for it with put downs and petty snippiness.
  • The Smart Girl: Diana is one of the brightest students in Torrington.

Java

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/java_3.png
Voiced by: Dale Wilson (English), Sylvain Lemarié (French)

A 200,000 year-old caveman and a friend and aide-de-camp to Martin and Diana who works at Torrington as a cook and a janitor.

Billy

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/billy_20.png
Voiced by: Samuel Vincent

A tiny green alien who works for "The Center" as M.O.M.'s personal secretary.


  • Ambiguous Situation: Given his origins revealed in "They Came From Outer Space", it's not exactly clear if the brief bits he gave about his past, including being a model on his homeworld while retaining his current cuter appearance, were part of the constructed backstory the Center gave him or not.
  • An Alien Named "Bob": An alien named Billy.
  • Ascended Extra: In-universe. At the beginning of the third season, he begins appearing as a regular at Torrington, after gaining a Full-Body Disguise that makes him look human (even though's he's about one foot and six inches tall).
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's a former space pirate overlord.
  • Canon Foreigner: Created for the cartoon.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: You can't be a former space pirate overlord, and not have this.
  • Expy: Only visually; being a small green alien with a large cranium who gets about on a hovering chair, he somewhat recalls Dan Dare's the Mekon, although in demeanour, he's very different.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. Billy seemingly takes his own life to save the world from aliens taking over Earth, but as the trio and M.O.M. were grieving over their loss at the Center, he surprises them again by showing up, being thankful the ship's eject button worked.
  • Hero-Worshipper: to Martin. Billy thinks Martin is the bravest, coolest guy ever. He dressed up as Martin for Halloween and has a big poster of him in his room.
  • Lovable Coward: Not the type to run headlong into danger, but still a cool guy besides. Somewhat ironic given his past, but it could be explained by way of him suppressing his more aggressive traits.
  • Nice Guy: You won’t find a nicer person on the show.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Looks like a child, and his human disguise is a teenager, but he's actually probably the oldest recurring character on the show. He was the alien at Roswell, and that was after years commanding an alien army - for all we know, Billy could be almost a hundred years old.
  • Running Gag: He always appears out of nowhere on missions, scaring the main trio.
  • Space Pirates: Once the leader of a vast army, but it became too much for him, and after years of behavioral adjustment at the Center, became the Billy we know and love.
  • That Man Is Dead: As far as he's concerned, the space pirate overlord he once was no longer exist. Which his former followers don't take very well, and try to take over Earth as a result.

M.O.M.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mom_2.png
Voiced by: Teryl Rothery

The multi-tasking director of "The Center".


  • Benevolent Boss: Holds a good relationship with the trio.
  • Berserk Button: Every single time Martin breaks something in her office.
  • Big Good: As the multi-tasking director and the head of "The Center", M.O.M. oversees the investigation of paranormal activities throughout the world. Likewise, she is in charge of maintaining peace with Earth and other planets and galaxies.
  • Biker Babe: Rides a motorcycle in the episode It Came From Inside the Box.
  • Canon Foreigner: Created for the cartoon.
  • Da Chief: Her role as director of The Center.
  • Dude Magnet: She's attracted the fancy of both Martin, and Jerry Louis.
  • Fun with Acronyms: According to Jerry in the crossover episode of Totally Spies, her name stands for "Mystery Organization Manager".
  • Good Wears White: Her main outfit is a white scientist lab coat with white pants and white boots, and she is shown to care for her agents and have a strong sense of responsibility as the head of "The Center".
  • Lethal Chef: It was once suggested that she take up cooking to alleviate her stress. The office looked like it had been attacked, and the "cookies" she baked looked like they were made of sludge.
  • Meaningful Name: See "Team Mom" below.
  • Ms. Fanservice: She's a tall, athletic, curvy woman who is sometimes seen sporting bikinis.
  • Mythology Gag: In the original comic the organization "Somewhere Else", effectively the prototype of "The Center", once had a director going by the codename "Dad". A female director.
  • Omni Glot: Mentions in one episode that she aims to learn one alien language a day.
  • Ship Tease: With Jerry Lewis, who is WOOHP's boss, in the Totally Spies! Crossover.
  • Team Mom: She is Diana and Martin's boss, and seems to be close to them. Still, she got a bit heavy-handed when she once tried to play the role literally.
  • The Stoic: Never panics, and almost never reacts to anything beyond either authoritative seriousness or vague amusement. Can lead to her being The Comically Serious.
  • The Worf Effect: For being the Center's leader, she does get captured or possessed by many of the Monsters of the week whenever she's involved in a mission, although most of the time, she isn't expecting it.
  • Work Aholic: Doesn't seem to have a life besides work, as she spends all her time at the Center.

Marvin

Voiced by: Matt Hill

Martin's rival. He does virtually everything that Martin himself can do (better, of course).


  • The Ace: WAS this during his first two appearances.
  • Canon Foreigner: Created for the cartoon.
  • Doppelgänger: For lack of a better term, of Martin. Ironically enough, Martin's the only one who spots the similarity, while everyone is mostly focused on how great he is (of course, it doesn't stop M.O.M from punishing him for his screw-ups). As The Other Wiki states, he's like a Bizarro version of Martin: similar yet different.
  • Greed: Occurs when he intentionally looked for a Leprechaun's charm, in the hope it would bring him good luck. Of course, it results in a Karmic Transformation into a Leprechaun.
  • Loved by All: Absolutely everyone at Torrington Academy loves him, much to Martin's dismay.
  • Nice Guy: His characterization in his first few appearances, as part of his whole "like Martin but absolutely perfect" characterization. He loses this quite a bit after he gets Reassigned to Antarctica.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: Well, the Arctic, but that's it's the same basic thing.
  • Recurring Character: Technically doesn't affect the story line in any way, but still is an example. Appears twice in Season 1, twice in season 2, with only one appearance in season 3.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: He's this in his first two appearances.
  • Unknown Rival: Doesn't seem to be aware that Martin is jealous of him or even that he dislikes him in his first few appearances. He tends to respond to Martin's jeers with oblivious kindness. The rivalry becomes a lot more mutual after Marvin is Reassigned to Antarctica.

    Supporting Characters 

Gerard Mystery

Voiced by: Michael Donovan

Martin's father and Diana's step-father.


  • Invisible Parents: Not Gerard, per se, but we never see Diana's mother in the entire series.
  • Like Father, Unlike Son: Their interests are completely the total opposite of each other, which results in some conflict in the episodes he's with Martin, which is both of his appearances (his video call with Martin and Diana on the Christmas episode doesn't count).
  • Parental Favoritism: Unintentional, but he seems closer to Diana and gets along better with her than he does with Martin, who is his biological son.
  • Science vs. Magic: Firmly on the science side, until he finds out about the Center.
  • Skeptic No Longer: After the second time he gets involved in the paranormal (which involves him being possessed by a pre-historic worm), he is finally told of the Center.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Looks like an older Martin with facial hair.

Jenni Anderson

Diana's best friend, whom Martin is always trying to get a date with. Generally a minor character in the various episodes' framing devices (though sometimes a Damsel in Distress when Torrington itself is under attack) but in any case still one of the very few notable (if not the only) recurring Torrington characters.


  • Depending On The Episode: How inseparable she and Diana are, whether or not she and Martin are also friends, how nice she is, etc.
  • Jerkass to One: Depending on the episode. Sometimes she's outright nice, sometimes she's only a jerk when Martin bugs her too much, and sometimes she can be mean with little provocation. She gets generally meaner to Martin the more the series went on, however.
  • Satellite Character: She's either Diana's friend or a girl Martin is hitting on, occasionally both. There's little to her character beyond these roles.
  • Unknown Rival: Once was the indirect spark of yet another paranormal crisis when a girl named Darla who jealous of her being more popular with boys wished she could be more like her, and instead placed a dangerous curse upon herself. Jenni remained totally unaware of this - and in fact did not even mean to do the thing that made the girl jealous in the first place.
  • Valley Girl: Talks like one. Sometimes acts like one, but not always.

    Monsters and Villains 

Major Antagonists

This section is dedicated to a select number of creatures (or villains) that Martin and Co come across. The main ones posted here are those who at least appear in more than one episode, or have some significance to a character aside from one-shot monsters.

The Bogeyman

An entity that targets and kidnaps naught children. First appears in It Came from the Bog and later appears in Germs from Beyond.


  • Evil Sounds Deep: Brian Drummond portrays him with a Dr. Claw-like tone.
  • Revenge: His second appearance has him targeting Martin, Diana and Java for sealing him back in his book.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: He was imprisoned in a book that a child unintentionally opened and set him free.
  • Starter Villain: Though Martin and Diana are already experienced members of the Center when they meet him, the Bogeyman is the first antagonist to be seen in the series.
  • Telepathy: He seems capable on some level to read the thoughts of his victims, allowing him to know what misdeeds they've done. When Diana insists she's not a child but a young lady, she's shocked when he brings up she didn't do her lit homework.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He kidnaps children and leaves them in his dimension to presumably starve to death all for the simple reason for being what he perceives to be "naughty".

Djini

One of the few recurring creatures in the series. First appears in Crypt of the Djini, and later on in Return of the Djini.


Gastromo

Gastromo was the first monster that M.O.M ever caught as an agent, and appears in Beast From Within.


  • Big Eater: He makes his hosts into this to an extent, and he prefers to eat raw meat, since he requires a heck of a lot of iron.
  • Eaten Alive: His fate at the end of his episode. After being dropped into a saltwater aquarium and expelled from Martin’s body he’s devoured by M.O.M’s saltwater fish. Though this doesn’t mean he’s dead.
  • Puppeteer Parasite: Forcibly takes over his hosts, and through his touch, can also make other beings his slaves.
  • Salt Solution: Salt will force Gastromo to abandon its host body and reveal its true form.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: One linked to real life; slugs can't stand salt, and neither can Gastromo. Also, he consumes so much iron, the host becomes attracted to magnets.

Venoso

Venoso was the first monster that Martin Mystery ever caught. Appears in Lovespell from the Underworld.


  • Overly-Long Tongue: Of course, being a chameleon.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Venoso's primary ability, is to change her shape. Like a normal chameleon, she can take the color of her environment, making her invisible. She can also change her shape to look like whoever she wants to, like M.O.M, Vivian Michelle (Martin's first crush), and Martin himself.

Cliffhanger Antagonists

These villains and monsters are notable in the fact that their appearances invoke a two-part episode. There are four such two-part episodes in the series, each one headed by different villains.

Space Pirates

Members of a Space Pirate army Billy once led back when he was Ganthar. They appear in "They Came From Outer Space".


  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Martin and Co are absolutely no match for the Space Pirates, and Billy has to interfere to save them.
  • Kill It with Ice: Highly vulnerable to a fire-retardant like substance M.O.M was extracting from an insect earlier in the episode.
  • Kill It with Fire: After their combined form is frozen, Ganthar tosses them into some computer equipment, making an explosion, destroying them.
  • Planet Looters: Upon conquering a planet, they use up all available resources, and move on to other planets to conquer, leaving a line of barren worlds in their wake.
  • Shapeshifting: Capable of this, and even morphing into one super-alien.
  • Space Pirates: Obviously. They are a variant along the lines of Metroid Space Pirates.

Gatekeeper

Appears in Season 2 Finale, They Came From The Gateway. Due to the two-part episode's nature, it is likely they intended for him to be the final monster of the series, until they continued Martin Mystery for a third season. He is the Guardian of the Gateway, a pool located in Tibet that is the source of all paranormal evil.


  • Cliffhanger: His still being around at the end of the episode. As mentioned above, it is never mentioned what happened next during Season 3.
  • The End... Or Is It?: At the end of the episode, he is seen in the now shut down Center, eyeing Martin and M.O.M's U-watches. This is after he was supposedly frozen outside the Gateway in Tibet.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: As part of his nature, upon corrupting M.O.M with the Gateway's power, he turns all the creatures within it against the Earth, aiming to plunge the world into an eternal world of darkness.
  • Our Liches Are Different: Appears to be an undead spirit, and is humanoid in appearance, matching the standard appearance of Lich.

Borack the Faceless One

An entity located in another dimension. He holds dominion over all shadows, and surfaces once every 1000 years to attempt a take-over of the world. Appears in the two-part episode, Day of the Shadows.


  • Eldritch Abomination: Takes the form of a living shadow, and upon the day of his take-over, he is able to drag nearly every living being on the planet into his Shadow Dimension when there are shadows around them. Martin, Diana, Billy, and Kaitlin (Martin's temporary girlfriend), only escape this fate due to being around light on the initial night of Borack's awakening.
  • Fate Worse than Death: While in his realm, everyone is being slowly turned into shadows themselves.

Octavia Paine

Voiced by: Teryl Rothery

The series' official final villain. She is also one of the few human adversaries that Martin and Co have come up against. Appears in the third season finale, "It's Alive".

She's also the boss and founder of C.I.H.L. (Creature Intelligence Hybrid Laboratory), a rival agency of The Center.


  • Disproportionate Retribution: She was fired from the Center for not being a good enough agent. Her response? Spend years creating an Ultimate Monster to destroy the Center, and get revenge on M.O.M, also when Diana refuses to join her, Octavia has her turned into a half-human, half-lizard hybrid.
  • Evil Mentor: Is one to Diana, who she deceives into joining her organization.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Seems pleasant at first, enlisting Diana into her agency, promising her to get advanced school years over her classmates, giving her own U-watch and praising her when she completes her missions in her ow , but all of this was a facade to use her to capture the most powerful monsters to create the Ultimate Monster, and when Diana refuses to join her, Octavia has no problem with trapping her in her mutation machine and turning her into a half-lizard mutant.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: She turned Diana in a half-lizard mutant after ahe refused to join her. However, during their last confrontation, Diana is able to evade Octavia's laser blasts and eventually disarm and subdue her with her enhanced agility and lizard tail.
  • Manipulative Bitch: She manipulates Diana into joining her agency by lying that their goal is to get humans and monsters to coexist peacefully, and when she reveals Diana her true motives, she asks her:
    • Octavia: Are you really that naive?
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Attempts to use this on Diana to get her to join her, after revealing her true nature.
  • The Rival: Has a history with M.O.M. and is the boss of CIHL, The Center's rival agency.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The last we see of her is being defeated by semi-reptilian Diana's newfound abilities and being told by her that she'll be locked in a closet until her "perfect monster" is taken care of. It's totally unknown what happened to her afterward, thought it's likely she got arrested.

Ultimate Monster

A 30-foot hybrid monster created from the various monsters captured by Diana and sent to CIHL (Creature Intelligence Hybrid Laboratory).


  • Final Boss: Is the final monster to be fought in the series. It is also the most powerful one next to the Gatekeeper.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: It's made from various creatures captured by Diana. It has at least one physical feature of all of those creatures, and fortunately it also has all their weaknesses.

One-shot Antagonists

These antagonists appear in a single episode, and don't have much significance on the overall plot.

The Leviathan

A Sea Monster dwelling at the bottom of the ocean. It guards over an ancient treasure chest, and will attack any creature that steals from it.


  • Kraken and Leviathan: As the name suggests.
  • Non-Malicious Monster: It only attacks if its treasure is stolen, and it leaves Martin and his friends alone when the treasure is returned.
  • Swallowed Whole: What it does to a diver named Lance, and what it later does to Diana, Martin and Java.

Top