What, No Martians Up There?

Trivia:
Marvin the Martian's mission was to destroy Earth. Why? Because it blocked his view of Venus.
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What does the word Martian mean to you? Martians are the stuff of hundreds of science fiction stories, books, comics, movies and video games. But the excitement of Mars has warn off as of late as a muse for fiction writers. Knowing what we know now about the desolate, Martianless red planet, it sort of spoils the fun.

Here's a few of the more bizarre Martian plots from Wikipedia:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) – Known as one of the worst movies ever made, as such it was made fun of on the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

"Omnilingual" (1957) by H. Beam Piper. Short story in which archaeologists excavating the remains of a humanoid Martian civilization find an entire library, but lack a Rosetta Stone.

Red Planet (1949). Robert A. Heinlein, Young adult novel. Includes some very intelligent Martians similar to those mentioned in Stranger in a Strange Land, who help human colonists free themselves of tyrannical Earth authorities.

In The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1969), previously uninhabited Mars is populated by brainwashed transplants from Earth, leading to the invasion of Earth by the newly-created Martian army.

The Martian Way (1952) by Isaac Asimov. Arrogant Earth people are scornful of the Martian colonists, who barely survive by salvaging "space junk", yet their way of life is what fits the Martian colonists for further space exploration, reaching Saturn first and eventually (Asimov implies) leading the way to the stars.



A Rose for Ecclesiastes" (1963) by Roger Zelazny. One of the last stories of this type, describing an Earth poet's study of Martian language and literature. The story is deliberately written as an elegiac farewell to the old conception of Mars, complete with canals and an ancient, dying Martian race.