Directed by David Yates As we were waiting for this movie to begin, I told a friend that, "I hope this is a good Tarzan movie. I've seen too many badTarzan movies...." I’m a bit
conflicted about this movie. Overall, I enjoyed it, and in certain respects it is the
very best and most balanced portrayal of the dual character of John Clayton – the “Lord of the
Jungle” raised from infancy by a tribe of mangani
“great apes,” vs. the cultured, educated English Lord Greystoke in Parliament – that I
think has ever been captured on screen, beyond even Greystoke from thirty-plus years ago. It wasn’t perfect, by any
means – I don’t think the trope of him being able to virtually “talk” to just
about any kind of jungle creature, including perfectly mimicking their various
calls, has any basis in the original novels, and I found the melancholy
character at the beginning of the movie, pretty much having turned his back
entirely on his former life in the wild, alien to the character I remember. He
also seemed at the same time less formidable than the demigodlike figure of the
books – and comics – and able to survive punishment from full-grown bull “apes”
that would surely have shattered bones and probably killed a man. In a way, it
seemed more realistic – and yet more cartoonish at the same time. But on
balance, Alexander Skarsgaard’s portrayal was perhaps the definitive Tarzan
character. Jane, portrayed by Margot Robbie was a bit more problematic.
Stunningly beautiful, yes, but feistier than she really should have been –
would have been in the 19th century – when, yes, this was set,
rather than properly in the early 20th century. But modern audiences
are not going to accept the more passive female lead – “Like a damsel,” in her
own words – that the original books made her, simply because it was a different
time. On balance, again, I liked her portrayal within this movie.
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[Link to previous month][Link
to this month's DC Comics]
Buck
Rogers #1 of 4 (Hermes
Press)
They
say that a functional definition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again expecting a different result. I may fit the
bill. I have never cared for the writing of Howard Chaykin – and
yet I have tried various of his comics over the years thinking that
if he's as great as everyone thinks he is maybe I'll like this one.
His art I actually kind of like, and in fact think it fits very well
for something like we have here, the retro-flavored attempted revival
of a beloved quasi-pulp character who deserves much more modern
exposure. But I find myself invariably put off by the generally
politically-charged revisionism that he usually imposes on such
projects as he undertakes, which is invariably pretty much
diametrically opposite to my own values. Add to that my belief,
based on various things I've read and heard about him (seemingly
confirmed in an about-the-author blurb appended to a two-page
interview here, that “[h]e has a terrible reputation
among fans for profanity, limited patience with nonsense, and spite”)
as well as from him
(see below), that I would not like him very much as a person, and I
can't give you a good reason that I keep giving him repeated chances.
But I do. Almost invariably with the same result as here –
visceral revulsion.
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Cover D by Sean Chen
Masks
#6 of 8
Frankly,
not a whole lot happens here except that the Master gloats over his
plan. I still think he's the former District Attorney who was once
the masked crime fighter known as the Clock, and that ultimately
there will be a confrontation between him and the more recent D.A.
Tony Quinn, the Black Bat.
I
have two friends also buying this series. Unfortunately, I'm pretty
much the only one enjoying it, I think. And the truth is that
there's not much here. Were I not such a fan of the original source
material and characters – even some that this series pretty much
introduced me to, such as Miss Fury and the Black Bat, I can easily
see myself agreeing with them.
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Cover A (25%) by Alex Ross
Masks
#5 of 8
This
issue seems to be an even more radical departure from the original
pulp trilogy, but I guess that's only to be expected given the
different dynamic resulting from the protagonists being a “league”
of heroes rather than a single central figure. In fact the Spider
himself does not appear – he's missing in Albany, and by issue's
end the Green Hornet, Green Lama, and Miss Fury have all been
captured in their civilian identities, while the Shadow, Black
Terror, and Kato are in an intense battle with the Black Police in
the same very significant building, whose most notable resident is lamentably absent. Separately, this issue marks our first time
seeing the Black Bat and Zorro in action.
I take
the very last page, showing Britt Reid, Jethro Dumont and Marla Drake
before what I take to be the mastermind of the Empire State, to also
drop a huge hint as to his identity – the Clock, a former hero
himself (see issue #3): “In a better world, we would have been allies,
you and I. / But it's clear that I'm the only
one willing to do what is necessary.” And he holds a pocket watch.
This
issue also seemed to go even more quickly. That's my main complaint
with this series – each chapter is too sketchy a read. Would it
strike me so had I not read the original? How will it read as a
collection?
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Masks
#4 of 8
Cover
B (25%) by Jae Lee
Well,
this marks the halfway point, and the story skips right along. There
are no new heroes introduced, but Rafael Vega ducks into a costume
and prop shop to evade the Black Police, then kills his pursuers with
a sword and seems to be outfitting himself as Zorro. Also, the
Spider in Albany discovers that the governor is the lackey of a Man
in the Mirror called the Master. Green Hornet, Kato, and the Black
Terror terrorize the mayor of New York into revealing the existence
of the Master as well, for which the Master remotely kills him.
Green Lama and Miss Fury fight the Black Police, then are picked up
by the Shadow and Margo Lane. And D.A. Quinn discovers that he can
see in the dark when he's attacked by the Black Police, giving him
the advantage.
My
wording above was deliberate, “the story skips … along.”
Again, there's considerable sketchiness to the narrative. Not the
art, which is just fine. Perhaps only because I have the “proper”
mindset and background for this, I'm loving it. I wondered what
those without the background would make of it, and my fears were more
or less confirmed by talking with a colleague who is also getting it.
He's kind of regretting picking it up. He's largely not familiar
with the characters (except the obvious ones), and he hasn't read The
Spider versus the Empire State.
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Cover C (25%) by Ardian Syaf
Masks
#3 of 8
(See
this post
for something that I just realized about this series, but discussed
there and will do no more than make a referral here....)
Hearing
more Justice Party propaganda spewing forth from the radio, the main
heroes still at Wentworth's home make plans and head out on separate
missions. Richard Wentworth and Ram Singh head for Albany to
investigate the governor's office. Britt Reid and Kato go to consult
with a newspaperman friend of Britt's. “Spooky,” Wentworth's (?)
name for the Shadow, heads out to “serv[e] justice.” Elsewhere,
in hiding, Anthony Quinn discovers that he's blind. He and Rafael
Vega recall previous vigilantes – the Clock
and Zorro. Quinn utters the fateful words, “Blind as a bat...”
Miss Fury and Green Lama fall into a trap laid by the Black Police,
are taken, and discover that the many captives of the new regime are
being railroaded out of the City. While Reid is fruitlessly trying
to get some information out of his friend, Kato ends up in a fight,
where he is joined by the Black Terror. Margo Lane and the Shadow
interrogate a fat cat supporter of the Justice Party. And on the way
to Albany, Wentworth and Ram Singh pass a concentration camp.
Cover A (25%) by Alex Ross
The
pace is maybe picking up a bit. We're now three-eighths of the way
through the series – it better. Of course, the trade-off is that
the story is now a bit sketchy, but overall I think it strikes an
acceptable balance. Do we really need full pages given over to
recalling the Clock and Zorro each when there are only twenty pages
of story in this issue? Nevertheless, I'm still liking this
immensely, and can easily see myself double-dipping and getting the
collection, which will hopefully come out as a hardcover.
I am a
bit disappointed I didn't get Cover A (25%) by Alex Ross, however.
It's thumbnailed on the inside back cover, but luckily Dynamite's
collections contain full-page “virgin art” versions of all
covers, so I'll get the art there … eventually.
The
last few pages contain a several-page preview of a new, original to
comics Dresden
Files
miniseries. As much as I love that series, and even though this is
at least plotted by Jim Butcher himself, I'm holding off for the
collection. It looks good, even if I was sceptical regarding a
pistol firing underwater. Apparently it can,
however.
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Right
into the comics....
Left to right, the Green Hornet, the Black Bat, Kato, the Shadow, the Green Lama, Miss Fury, Zorro, and the Spider.
Masks
#2 of 8
Well,
I was worried that the change away from Alex Ross' painted art to
Dennis Calero's more traditional art in this second, and I presume
subsequent issues, would be quite jarring, but it's a decent
transition, for the most part. I imagine it will be a bit more
noticeable in the inevitable collected format. I'm not familiar
enough with Calero to know if inking and coloring was adjusted here
somewhat to make that transition smoother, but it works.
The
story seemed a bit lighter this go'round. We have the introduction
of male and female vigilantes MissFury and the Green Lama in the first couple of pages, then switch back to the main
characters introduced last issue – the Shadow, the Green Hornet and
Kato, and the Spider – retreating from an ineffective battle
against the armored Black Police to Wentworth mansion. There they
reveal their civilian identities to one another – all but the
Shadow, who reveals only that, “I
am the Shadow.”
Heh. Meanwhile, Vega, the artist introduced last issue, ends up
sent to the gallows – along with others – but escapes with the
help of the District Attorney himself, Tony Quinn, who “didn't
devote [his] life to the service of the law to see it perverted by
thugs”
but who ends up blinded in the process (the first step along the road
toward his taking up the mantle of the Black Bat.) The main characters listen to the heavily propaganda-laden
newscast and pontificate on the inevitable rise of new heroes to
fight the ascent of evil. On the last page: Over a shot of Miss
Fury and Green Lama – “We already have allies we don't even know,
no doubt. Others who are fighting for what's right.” A glimpse of
the Black Terror
– “And there must be others in the shadows, waiting for their
moment to strike a blow against injustice.” Vega and Quinn, the
latter's eyes heavily bandaged: “And still others who will find a
strength within them that they didn't even realize they possessed,
and the courage to stand up. // I tell you, we might be the first,
but we won't
be the last.”
...Yeah.
Not a whole lot really happened in this second issue of eight.
We're a quarter of the way through the whole story and it's barely
set up. It didn't even feel like a full twenty pages – it is, I
counted, but it seemed really decompressed. Things are going to have
to pick up.
I've
really been looking forward to this series. Please
don't disappoint!
We
do get some nice rapport developing between the Shadow and Kato –
but Kato's master the Green Hornet ends up coming off as a bit of a
wimp here.
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Well,
it looks like even though I'm dropping Dynamite's
Shadow
title per
se,
I'm still going to be reading about him from Dynamite, at least for a
while. In addition to the first comic I'm reviewing below, this
month's pre-order solicitations has the first of an eight-issue
Shadow:
Year One
series written by Matt Wagner. I really liked Wagner's pulpish take
on DC's original gas-masked Sandman in the 1990s series Sandman
Mystery Theatre,
and hope for good things here even if I don't particularly care for
the more supernatural take on the Shadow that appears in Dynamite
comics. I will be getting it.
Cover A by Alex Ross (25%)
Masks
#1 of 8
It's
1938. The “Justice Party” has just effected its takeover of New
York City but is proving to be basically a criminal enterprise under
the guise of fascist totalitarianism that only masked vigilantes can
possibly oppose....
Ad for Norvell Page, The Spider vs. the Empire State
If
that sounds familiar, check out my reviews of the 1938 trilogy of
pulp tales that appear here,
here,
and here
as republished a while back under the title, The
Spider vs. the Empire State.
I was a bit disappointed, given the relative fame (or infamy) those
original Spider
stories, sometimes called the “Black Police Trilogy,” enjoy among
pulp fans as well as their recognized historical importance as a
contemporary “pop culture” view of the threat posed by fascism,
that none of the advertising material I ever saw leading up to the
release of this first issue made note of that source for this story,
but I was gratified at least to see within its pages a full-page ad
for The
Spider vs. the Empire State
from Age of Aces Publishing. Of course, in the original, the Spider
must contend alone (well, aided by his normal allies Kirkpatrick,
Nita, Ram Singh, et al.!) against an allegorical Nazi juggernaut in
New York state. Here we will be treated to a veritable “Justice
League of Pulp Heroes” that includes the Shadow, the Green Hornet
and Kato, and others who have yet to appear. If that weren't enough
to have me practically salivating ever since the pre-order
solicitations appeared several months back, then the fact that the
Alex Ross was slated to do the interior art as well as the main cover
(shown) had me from the word “go.” And we were promised a decent
writer, Chris Roberson, who in the past couple of years managed to
pick up the pieces left by J. M. Straczynski halfway through the
year-long “Grounded” arc in Superman
immediately pre-Flashpoint
and bring that mess to a satisfying conclusion, and turn in a fairly
good crossover between Star
Trek
and the Legion
of Super-Heroes
for IDW.
In addition to being the grandfather of 20th-c. fantastic fiction, Edgar Rice Burroughs was our nation's oldest war correspondent ever. He was present in Hawaii during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago today, almost immediately writing down his impressions as well as volunteering for service at age 66 and serving through the next four years. Michael Sellers of The John Carter Files reminds us of this today by linking to ERBzine's collation of ERB's account here.
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Everything
that has happened is part of the Shadow's plan – of course. Lamont
Cranston has been acting as an agent of US military intelligence to
successfully get the vital weapons-grade mineral Uranium 235 out of
China and into US hands. I misread the dumb-ass Finnegan as British
– he's actually American, but just as dumb-ass. He's serving a
purpose as well, however, providing cover and a diversion for
Cranston. The plan, of course, meets with success, with plenty of
Japanese blood being spilled along the way. The main Japanese
villain Kondo gets away, but the epilogue shows him being caught
unawares in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
I'm
sure there are a lot of Shadow
fans who are really enjoying this series, and it has been good
enough. But it's not really for me. It's obviously based more on
the radio version of the character, with plenty of tweaks even from
that, I'm sure, but even though I've not read all that many of the
pulp novels, those are myShadow.
I won't be continuing with this series from here on out.
The
villainous Canler, having been humiliated by Tarzan, kidnaps Jane and
her father to lure him into a trap. The confrontation goes about as
you would imagine it would. In the end, the only reason Tarzan does
not kill him is because he is trying to be “civilized,” for the
sake of Jane, so he leaves him strung up for the police to find. He
lives, I'm sure to return to Dynamite's adaptation/expansion of the
original Burroughs novels at some time in the future. He's basically
a blank slate as Burroughs never did anything with the character
after his minor role in the first novel.
As
for Jane and Tarzan, this is of course not enough to bring them back
together – that would be too
radical a departure from the books, and we're not to that point in
the saga yet. Jane is, however, upset because her fiancé Cecil
Clayton has been acting differently since they were in Wisconsin. In
a flashback, we see why – he found and read the discarded telegram
to Tarzan from d'Arnot, revealing that Tarzan is indeed his own
cousin and the true Greystoke heir.
This
was probably my least favorite of all the Dynamite issues thus far.
I found the art noticeably lower in quality. The story is so-so,
mainly redeemed by the intriguing fact that it is the longest (albeit
non-canonical) look at Tarzan's first time away from the jungle,
during the period between the end of the first book and the beginning
of the second.
We
find that Dejah Thoris has been taken prisoner by the mysterious air
ship she spied upon emerging from the cave in the frozen north of
Barsoom – and has been transported all the way to Titan, the
largest moon of Saturn, or rather Vano, the largest moon of Strio, as
her captor calls it, or
rather
Xasoom as the Barsoomians
call the ringed planet. She is in the hands of one of the Vathek, a
race of vampires intent on conquering Mars. With the help of a
fellow prisoner – one of the Palidors, a race kept by the Vathek as
cattle, sources of blood – she escapes on a flying mount, but a
lucky shot by their pursuers leaves her plunging toward the ground
from a height that even her increased relative strength imparted by
the relative size of Barsoom and Vano will not save her from.
Frankly,
this story is doing little more for me than the “Boora Witch”
story arc. I find the art strikingly bad, although the story on my
second reading turns out not to be as bad as I found it at first. At
least there is a pseudo-scientific reason for the Vatheks' vampirism
rather than being supernatural.
Opening
in mid-fall, we find that Dejah Thoris has not only super-strength
because of the lighter gravity of Titan as compared to Mars, but she
can all but fly like Superman! Actually, “That wasn't flying! It
was falling with style!”
In
any case, Dejah Thoris and her new pal Svero reach his people, and she enters
into an alliance with them to carry out a plan that will rid not just
Titan but also Saturn of the Vathek entirely. Wholesale genocide!
You go, girl! Then victory becomes crucial when it transpires that
the Vathek are even now carrying through with their invasion of
Barsoom and have deployed a device that will destroy the Atmosphere
Factory. Dejah Thoris attacks the control tower for the device –
but is then betrayed by Svero himself!
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Well,
I was wrong last month about which boat exploded! Lamont Cranston,
Margo Lane, and the useless Limey are left hoofing it. Nevertheless,
they catch up with Kondo and Wong at a village where Wong is
basically scamming the Japanese into thinking they're mining the
weapons mineral. The Shadow does a lot more of the supernatural
stuff to wipe out the bad guys, ultimately including Wong. Kondo
discovers that he was deceived, but he swore to the Emperor that he
would bring the mineral back. So he prepares to show his aide a
lesson in Japanese honor. Along the way there are plenty of graphic
depictions of the outlaws and Japanese and atrocities against the
Chinese peasants.
This
is a standalone tale of great evil in the form of childlike innocent
come from the Far East to US, which the Shadow must destroy. This
Annual solidifies Dynamite's take on the character as a supernatural
figure, an agent of fate, with mystical dreams and powers. Perhaps –
I suspect that – this owes far more to the radio Shadow
than to the pulp magazines' more human crime fighter. I'm not sure
I'm going to stick with this title, at least in monthly issues.
By
the way, isn't Margo Lane a blonde in the main series?
Wow!
This is a gorgeous
cover by Lucio Parrillo. I could do without the fresh clawmarks on her thigh, but I
can easily see that face as “The Most Beautiful Woman of Two
Worlds.” I don't know about butterflies, but insects do existon Barsoom, according to John Flint Roy's A
Guide to Barsoom: “Barsoom harbors a wide range of insects – from dainty, beautiful
creatures that move silently from flower to flower, to giants with a
wingspread well over thirty feet” (Kindle edition at 53%, location
1298 of 2425). I'm not sure if the title given above is of just this
issue, or properly part one of a multipart story by the above title.
Effectively, it seems to be part one of Dynamite's adaptation of
ERB's third novel in the Mars
series, The
Warlord of Mars.
It actually tracks closely with the novel, which I would not really
have expected. Rather, I was expecting to see an expansion of how
John Carter got to the point where the narrative drops us right in to
him eavesdropping on Matai Shang and Thurid.
On
the journey undertaken after her traumatic possession by the Boora
Witch, which she herself seems undecided between being penitential or
punitive in nature, Dejah Thoris is dozing on a boat on the River Iss
when she hears a child's scream as it is taken by one of the giant,
insectoid bumblebee-like siths in the Kaolian Forest. The route of
the River Iss is quite mysterious, as is its relation to the Kaolian
Forest – also difficult to place from the information given across
the Mars series
by ERB – as discussed by
Woodrow Edgar Nichols, Jr. on the online ERBzine Vol. 3386. The
princess of Helium takes flight, thanks to the flight pack she still
possesses from the first story arc, and saves the child, who leads
her through the Forest to the city of Kaol, where she ends up helping
the Kaolians defeat a growing infestation of siths. After which she
moves on. So this looks to be a multipart grand tour of Barsoom,
which could be interesting.
Once
again, as seems to be by and large the case for covers to Dynamite's
comics, the image by Fabiano Neves has absolutely nothing to do with
the story inside. Once again, it's basically a pin-up, this time
with a bondage theme that would
actually be appropriate for the story contained in the next issue....
Art by Fabiano Neves
Warlord
of Mars: Dejah Thoris
#16
[“The
Exile of Dejah Thoris,” Part 2]
Three
months into her self-imposed exile, Dejah Thoris has wandered from
the equatorial region where Kaol is located up into the barren north.
There, on the ice (and as scantily clad as ever, just like in the
southern ices 'way back in “Pirate Queen” – oh, pardon me, she
has a tiny little fur parka!), she is attacked by one of the
gargantuan, savage, white-furred apts. A yellow man – an Okarian
of remote Barsoomian legend, comes to her rescue … then promptly
declares her his slave, imprisoning her in what looks for all the world like a
frontier ranch cabin from the US Old West. She does manage to
escape. The Okarian gives chase. They end up fighting each others
and apts in the Carrion Caves which John Carter will himself pass
through four centuries later in the novel The
Warlord of Mars.
Ultimately, however, she is more chivalrous than he in that she
saves his life from a pride (?) of apts, winning her freedom as the
Okarian grudgingly points out that he would not have done the same
for her. Almost as soon as she emerges from the Carrion Caves,
however, she is overshadowed by a vaguely bat-winged air ship, and we
are left this month with a teaser title: “Next: The Vampire Men
of Saturn” – !?
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Aboard
a junk in Shanghai harbor – or possibly somewhere else on the
Yangtze River (I think) – , the Japanese criminal Kondo tells the
Chinese crime warlord Wong and a Chinese general the story of one
Kent Allard, basically the story of the origin of the Shadow without
intimate knowledge of the details of what happened to transform a
wastrel into a supernatural arch enemy of crime. Meanwhile, Lamont
Cranston and Margo Lane are accompanying a military expedition
searching for Kondo and Wong – and following the Shadow's wake of
destruction. Margo as well as a implicitly “invert” (Cranston's
term) British diplomat get a graphic introduction to the realities of
the atrocities the Japanese are inflicting on the Chinese, leading
Cranston to soliloquize to Margo on the evil that is growing in East
and West. Their boat catches up with their prey only to see it blown
up by a mine. I'm enjoying the pieces and parts of this story
without being able to really see the overall picture yet.
“7:
The New Guy / The Concrete Jungle 1 of 2” [
previous issue ]
This
is the first half of an apocryphal story occurring between Tarzan
of the Apes
and The
Return of Tarzan,
set in Baltimore where Tarzan is working manual labor to earn his way
back to Africa. He has by now become a minor media celebrity.
Inevitably he comes into conflict with the crime boss whom he's
already humiliated, Canler – and again humiliates him in front of
his men. Canler knows how he can strike back at Tarzan, though –
through Jane Porter. Not
a good idea, as I'm sure we'll find out along with him next time!
Canler is also involved in some plot with an unnamed Russian who's
obviously the villainous Rokoff of the next two novels. Tarzan's
unacknowledged – to say the least – cousin Cecil continues to
show himself an ass. Esmeralda continues to show herself more
perceptive than the white aristocratic Porters and Greystokes put
together. And Jane is obviously having second thoughts about the
choice she made. A good filler tale.
This
completes the apocryphal bridging story between Gods
of Mars
and Warlord
of Mars
(ERB's novel). John Carter, Carthoris, and company, with the help of
the deceased “goddess” Issus' granddaughter Linea find and
destroy the anti-Atmosphere Plant, but Linea is fatally injured in a
fight with its guardian “worms of Mars” – really sea-serpents
called silians.
In the end, she professes regret for her haughty treatment of
Carthoris, who had so obviously fallen for her … despite her color.
That's an interesting, perhaps metatextual twist – John Carter,
the one-time Confederate officer, now married to an oviparous
non-human (strictly speaking), sees great advantage in a prospective
dynastic union of the royal houses of Helium and the Black Pirate
First Born of Barsoom in reply to a rather glum (having just again
been figuratively kicked in the balls by Linea) Carthoris' comment,
“But she's … you know, she's … / black...”.
Anyway, as she dies, Linea does also order the First Born, as the
last command of the last descendant of Issus, to make peace with the
red men. From John Carter's journal: “All First Born resistance
ceased shortly after the deactivation of the Doomsday Factory. / My
son never spoke of Linea again, but I do not think it was because he
wished to forget her –no. / It was because remembering was too
painful.”
50% alternate cover (Somebody's getting poked!)
Last
time I made a snarky remark about how annoying sideways covers are.
Maybe equally annoying are the covers that have absolutely nothing to
do with the contents. I guess I should count myself blessed that I
didn't get the other 50% alternate cover, however.... (And it is
just luck of the draw – one of my friends also gets this title from
the same monthly on-line service, and he did.) … Anyway, I greatly
prefer covers that have something to do with the specific contents of
the issue, no matter how symbolic that correspondence might be.
In
Helium, the possessed Dejah Thoris seems to triumph over her father
and grandfather, but at the moment she is about to execute them,
Kantos Kan returns. He had discovered the truth in the Toonolian
Marshes, bringing back the Boora Witch's body. “Dejah Thoris”
tries to bluff him, but he calls her on it – and beheads the body.
This destroys the witch and restores Dejah Thoris' soul to her own
body. The Boora Witch was originally an Orovar woman who obtained
forbidden knowledge to prolong her own life through possession of a
series of bodies. In the end, although nominally forgiven, Dejah
Thoris exiles herself from Helium. I'm not sure if the next issue
will be considered a continuation of this arc or the beginning of a
new arc – or a bridging story before a new arc takes up. In any
case, this has been the end of a very disappointing, very un-ERB-like
tale, and hopefully we can look forward to something better. ERB did
not write Swords and Sorcery
tales – at least in his Mars
series.
[“Gullivar
Jones and John Carter of Mars, Part 2”]
[ previous issue ]
Our
heroes make their way to the Thither People city in the southern
wastes of Barsoom, intent on rescuing the abducted Dejah Thoris. But
meanwhile Zar-Hap casts the princess of Helium into a pit to coerce
her into revealing the secret of Gullivar Jones' carpet. There Dejah
Thoris longs to see her deceased mother – and the carpet brings
Heru to her. When John Carter and Gullivar Jones attack, they are
all united and escape with Dejah Thoris commanding the carpet, which
now responds only to her. Gullivar Jones and Heru are reunited, but
she cannot stay. With his lost Barsoomian love fading back into the
dead, Gullivar Jones determines to see the future of Mars. Dejah
Thoris commands the carpet to respond to him … and he reappears one
thousand years later [caption] – on an ocean.
Besides the fact that this is all utterly uncanonical, it's not a
bad story this go'round. I've not been terribly impressed with the
past couple of issues, but this one was fine. One random comment:
John Carter on p. 3 looks so much like Russ Manning's image of Tarzan
that I did a double-take.
Russ Manning's Tarzan vs. Jack Jadson's John Carter
