Got my month-end shipment of comics released in January a few days
ago and decided this month I would read the few Dynamite titles I get
first – mainly because I've been anticipating the addition of Lord
of the Jungle to their little “family” of titles based on the
works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. That addition has furthermore
compelled me to make a slight change to the icon I'll use for this
group.
Lord of the Jungle
#1
“1:
The Savage Home”
This
is a solid first issue, basically a pretty standard and beautifully
rendered retelling of the story in Tarzan
of the Apes
from the abandoning of John Clayton Lord Greystoke and pregnant Lady
Alice on the coast of Africa by mutineers to the invasion of their
little cabin by a tribe of great apes on their son's first birthday,
their killing of Greystoke (Alice having passed away the previous
night), and the exchange by a grieving she-ape of her own dead infant
for the living baby she finds find there. It follows the book fairly
closely except for the addition of one incident – a small group of
Africans shows up looking for a new home, having been displaced by
“Leopold's devils” [in-text note: “King Leopold II of Belgium,
ruler and owner of the 'Congo Free State'”] and is promptly
slaughtered and eaten by a group of savage ape-like men. “<WHAT
ARE THESE THINGS?! … THEY'RE NOT APES, THEY'RE NOT MEN – WHAT
ARE THEY?!>”
The use of the name “Kulonga” for one of the Africans threw me
for a loop, since that's the name of the warrior who killed Tarzan's
ape-mother Kala years later in the novel, but this clearly was not
the same character. Since at this point we'd not explicitly seen the
great apes that would raise Tarzan yet in this story, only an
ambiguous ape that attacked Greystoke and triggered Lady Alice's
labor, I immediately wondered if this adaptation was going to follow
Philip José
Farmer's speculations in his faux-biography
Tarzan Alive
that the “great apes” or mangani in the Tarzan
stories were really a dwindling remnant tribe of Australopithicene
hominids or somesuch. That proved not to be the case – when they
do appear a couple of pages later, they are clearly apes. I'm not
sure what this insertion portends at this point, but I'm along for
the ride. Actually, I do have a suspicion, but why would they
introduce the Beast-Men of Opar this early?
A
couple of other notes. First, in addition to the reference to
“Leopold” being an addition elaborating on the historical context
of Europeans' colonial exploitation of West Africa during the late
19th
century, “Kikongo” is correctly given as the name of the local
African language in the Belgian Congo. Second, nowhere in this book,
either in the story, in the indicia, or anywhere, is the name
“Tarzan” ever used. I'm not surprised it's not on the cover. I
figure the legal situation for the cover is similar to that of the
John
Carter
stories that Dynamite draws on for the Warlord
of Mars
series. If I understand it correctly, they or anyone are free to use
names and stories and so forth from the early books in the series,
the ones published pre-1923 I think, but the ones after that are
still under copyright and owned by the estate of ERB. The trademarks
on Tarzan,
John
Carter of Mars,
and so forth, however, are owned by ERB, and can only be used in a
marketing sense under licence. Its also my understanding that Disney
currently holds both licences. It's quite complicated and confusing,
but it explains why there can be two currently published franchises
of Mars
comics – Dynamite's and Marvel's – and why only Marvel's
can use the trademarked titles while Dynamite must use more generic,
euphemistic titles. On the other hand, if I understand it correctly,
there would be no bar to Dynamite calling the character “Tarzan”
within the pages of the comic. That might be coming. Or, it occurs
to me, it could be like the movie Greystoke,
which if I recall correctly never uses the name “Tarzan” either,
in that case because it does depend on the apes having their own
primitive, but human-like, language, which would come off pretty ridiculous in live action. There's no evidence that these
great apes do – in this issue they utter only monosyllabic grunts,
“Oo
– oo – oo. Ah – ah – ah.”
I'm curious to see where this is going.
By
the way, you read that right on the picture – $1.00
– a
buck well spent, too.
Warlord
of Mars: Fall of Barsoom
#5 of 5
“Book
Five: Victory and Defeat” [Previous
Issue]
Well,
we find out what the Jeddak of Horz's dastardly plan is – to hold
off on activating the Atmosphere Factory until all non-Orovars on
Barsoom are dead. The creepy cannibal mad scientist has devised a
means of suspended animation that will allow the Jeddak and a select
few to survive until all other life on Barsoom has gasped its last.
Needless to say, his plan is thwarted by Tak Nan Lee and his new
ally, the red savage woman Anouk, whom we find out is from the Helium
tribe that now assumes overlordship of the Factory. Meanwhile, Van
Tun Bor manages to save a good portion of the “non-select” people
of Horz and other cities, but gives his life doing so. In an
epilogue 100,000 years later, a warrior who doesn't really appear to
be red (is it John Carter?) fights in the ruins of the city of Horz,
in the shadow of a magnificent statue of Van Tun Bor and Tak Nan Lee:
“My sword seems especially inspired today. … Perhaps from
fighting in the shadow of such noble looking men. … I wonder who
they were. … A pity no one's left to tell me.” There are,
however, descendants of the white Orovars, looking on from the
shadows as he mounts his flier and speeds away.
Overall
I really enjoyed this series, although to tell the truth it really
doesn't contribute anything essential to the legends of Barsoom. I
really didn't expect it to. It was just a chance to tell a good
story of the fall of a civilization and the birth of another. Well,
and exploit the Mars
franchise, of course. I guess the bit about the Jeddak's plan (kind
of like how many James
Bond
movie villains'?) was a little lame, but oh well.
Warlord
of Mars: Dejah Thoris
#9
“Pirate
Queen of Mars, Part 4 of 5: Priceless” [Previous
Issue]
Dejah
Thoris and Phondari trace back where the Malagor coin came from,
discovering an underground world where the crews of the warring
brothers who lost the Horde of Segotha have carried on the conflict
to the present – we are reminded in a footnote that Barsoomians do
not die unless they are killed. Just now one side finishes off the
other in a particularly gruesome fashion. Dejah Thoris and Phondari
discover the treasure, and what seems to be the prize beyond price –
pearls unknown on Barsoom since the drying of the seas. Dejah
Thoris, however, believes the prize beyond price is actually
Segotha's beautiful daughter, taken from him by the moon pirates. It
doesn't really matter right now, because just then Xen Brega bursts
in with a hungry look in his eye.
Phondari
once again deftly deflects Dejah Thoris' question regarding how the
moon pirates can possibly survive the trip from Thuria to Barsoom.
Kaor! ... or in the language of Burroughs' great apes, tand-unk van! (or something like that!)
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