Man this shit got serious,
fast.
Just to speak up on the subject: I don't think Marten is a saint, and in fact enjoyed his lashing out at Faye because I felt like he was finally developing and going places. Only through great adversity... well you know the rest. Though I don't see him as perfect, I'm very invested in his growth as a character, very much so because of the reasons that FrozenPeas brought up. Marten very much reminds me of how I was during my high school years: very passive and non-confrontational, to the point that it was a detriment to my life. Thus I see a bit of myself in Marten, and am interested and rooting for him in regards to his growth as a character. I'll be dead honest: the last few months of comics have been frustrating me to no end, because Marten really hasn't been going anywhere. Just sulking at tsb and avoiding Dora. That's why I squeed like a little girl when Dora showed up at the party. Finally, he has to face his fears and move on.
Jeph displays his talent for character writing in that he gives each of our main cast members some type of hurdle they must overcome in order to grow and be satisfied. For Dora and Faye it is event(s) in their past that they have to move on from. For Hanners and Marigold, they have to overcome fundamental issues of their personality (crippling OCD and social anxiety, respectively.) Marten, however; I fell has the most difficult challenge in that he has to deal with both of the aforementioned. Both his past relationships, and his fundamental character traits of passivity and non-confrontational attitude need to be overcome for him to really "grow-up". I'd go on, but I don't want this to turn into Part III of my "The Fundamental Character of Marten" essay/rant.
I'll wrap up by saying that in no way is Marten perfect of a saint, and I do see that far too many people give him more and more slack. However I don't see how he's done anything to deserve having everything and anything ripped away from him, and for that to be called "justice." We've seen repeatedly that Marten feels lost in his life, and is trying to find direction and purpose. In that quest many people fall to dark places trying to find their way.
...Wow I type way too much. This is the reason we can't have nice things.