Warlord

In “John Carter: Warlord of Mars” #1 John Carter returns to Dynamite Entertainment’s publishing line, but this time it bears creator credit to Edgar Rice Burroughs, a result of Dynamite Entertainment’s agreement with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Already familiar with the Burroughs’ group through other creative endeavors, writer Ron Marz displays another sort of familiarity in his knowledge of Barsoom. Marz introduces readers to the conflicts on Barsoom (which some call “Mars” or maybe even “G’loot Praktaw”) through Dejah Thoris, the princess of Mars, and as of this comic, John Carter’s wife. Dejah is inflicted with a truth serum that incites her to reveal the truth of all she knows to an invader. The identity of that invader is revealed at the end of the book, setting this series up for a very personal conflict to come. The vehicle of the truth serum makes for a fantastically natural plot device to enable readers to quickly and efficiently get up to speed on the adventures of John Car

I’ve never read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars” stories, although of course I’d heard of the old pulp novels back in the day, and knew some of the basics. Reading “Warlord of Mars” #1, though, showed me just how many of the basics I still didn’t know about the character. Like, for instance, that he was a captain in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, which had recently ended as the comic begins. Arvid Nelson could have probably left that part of the story out, or at least skimmed it over in his adaptation of Burroughs’ prose into comics, but instead we leap right into the middle as Carter and his friend and fellow former Confederate officer James Powell get into a fight with several Union officers while stopping for a beer in Arizona Territory. It’s interesting, because at a glance it’s hard to not focus on just Carter being a Confederate soldier. As the story unfolds, though, it becomes clearer that Carter has two very specific allegiances, and the