Marvin was never named in the original shorts, although he was referred to as the Commander of Flying Saucer X-2 in The Hasty Hare (1952). However, in 1979, once the character attracted merchandising interest, the name "Marvin" was selected for The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie.

In a Tiny Toon Adventures segment titled "Duck Dodgers Jr.", Marvin is accompanied by his niece and apprentice--Marcia the Martian. Although Marcia's hat has a pink bow instead of a push-broom, her sneakers resemble those worn by her uncle.

Melvin the Martian is the general of the Martian army who comes to blow up Acmetropolis after his spacecraft is hit by a missile when Rev and Lexi mistake Tech's X3000 Automated Weapons System for a video game.

Marvin has appeared in a number of video games, serving as the main antagonist in the Genesis video games Taz in Escape from Mars and Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, the Super NES game Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, as well as the Game Boy Color game Looney Tunes Collector: Alert! He also appeared in Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time for the PlayStation where he was the boss of Dimension X.

Marvin's nasal voice in his first appearance is different from the one he is most known for, which is similar to the voice Mel Blanc used for the emcee in What's Cookin' Doc?, for just one line, when the emcee says, "Shall we give it to him, folks?"