This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post takes a look at the early issues of Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1911 literary creation John Carter of Mars.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #1 (June 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter One
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: For my fellow geeks for Burroughs’ John Carter novels, let me point out that this entire Marvel series was set during the 9-year gap between John Carter marrying Dejah Thoris and the malfunctioning of the Atmosphere Plant in the final part of the first book, A Princess of Mars.
When John’s wife Dejah gets abducted by the Air-Pirates of Mars, he sets out to find her and free her from their clutches. Unfortunately, he falls into the hands of the adversarial Warhoon tribe of Green Martians. Naturally, Marvel kept all the swords, aircraft and radium pistols from the novels.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #2 (July 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Two: From the Shadows … Stara Kan!
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: John Carter slays every member of the Warhoon war party and captures the air-pirate leader Stara Kan, who possesses a bionic arm.
The villain escapes from Carter, initiating a pursuit which leads John back to the Atmosphere Plant for the first time in years. Another result is an encounter with one of Mars’ species of multi-armed White Apes.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #3 (August 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Three: Requiem for a Warlord
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: Stara Kan forces John Carter into his service by threatening to kill Dejah Thoris. Our hero reluctantly submits, while staying alert for the first opportunity to turn the tables.
NOTE: This issue also included background information on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ lore about Mars, called Barsoom in his novels. Earth was called Jasoom.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #4 (September 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Four: Raiding Party
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: To keep his beloved Dejah Thoris alive and well, John Carter (or Dotar Sojat, to use his Barsoomian name) is forced to lead air-pirate raiding parties against various city-states of the Red Martian people.
Among those targeted locales – Helium, where Dejah is a princess and her family rules the kingdom.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #5 (October 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Five: … And One Shall Die
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: When an army from Helium, led by Dejah Thoris’ father, engages the air-pirates in combat, John Carter takes advantage to slip away in the chaos. Stealing one of the vessels from the air-pirates, he flies to Stara Kan’s personal hideaway, built into a volcano near the Atmosphere Plant.
Carter overcomes a gigantic golden spider, then faces Stara Kan in solo combat. The villain has sent Dejah Thoris to a new location, so our hero tries to take him alive, but due to the air-pirate leader’s own foolishness, Stara Kan dies during the battle. In passing, he boasts that no one else knows where he sent Dejah Thoris.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #6 (November 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Six: Hell in Helium
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: A determined John Carter searches desperately for clues to the location of his beloved wife Dejah Thoris.
The greatest obstacle to John’s efforts is the way his recent reluctant service with the air-pirates has made our hero wanted by most of Barsoom. Even in his and Dejah’s home city of Helium.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #7 (December 1977)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Seven: Dejah Thoris Lives
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: John Carter and Dejah Thoris are at last reunited but they and the entire planet are in danger from the newest plot of the air-pirates.
With their leader Stara Kan dead by John Carter’s hand, his loyal pirates are determined to avenge him by snuffing out every life on Barsoom, including their own. The air-pirates launch kamikaze attacks on the Atmosphere Plant, with John and Dejah fighting to stave off its destruction and the resulting death by suffocation of the planet’s entire population.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #8 (January 1978)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Eight: Flesh May Wither and Stone May Crumble
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: As if our heroes weren’t already dealing with their hour of maximum peril, a subplot from earlier chapters comes back into play.
John Carter learns that the Issus Stone, the theft of which was the main objective of the late Stara Kan’s Carter-led pirate raid on Helium a while back, is more powerful than first assumed. It unleashes huge stone monsters which run amok in Helium. John’s faithful Green Martian friend Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, stands at his side to try to save the royal city.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #9 (February 1978)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Nine: Armageddon at Last
Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: John Carter and Tars Tarkas engage in final battle with the air-pirates’ Council of Five in a valiant effort to save all of Barsoom.
Just when it seems that they may have permanently finished off the menace of the air-pirates and their nihilistic bid to avenge Stara Kan, they stand face-to-face with the ancient Great One.
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #10 (March 1978)
Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter Ten: Confrontation
Villains: The Great One and the Air-Pirates of Mars
Comment: With the umber clouds unleashed by the air-pirates spreading across the planet, threatening to snuff out all life on Barsoom, the final chapter of Air-Pirates of Mars plays out.
To save the world, our heroes clash with the Great One, an ancient hybrid of Mars’ red, green and white races, complete with larger size and multiple arms. John Carter purists may not like it, but Marvel’s writers took the liberty of adding their own “senses-shattering” secrets to Barsoomian history and lore.
A reasonable part of Marvel’s additions was that the portal which first transported John Carter to Mars long ago also transported him back in time five million years to when the Red Planet still had life and high civilizations. A bit forced, but at least it resolved why Earth astronomers never detected all the activity on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars.
NOTE: This Marvel series lasted until issue #28, with three Annuals along the way. Other comic book companies later licensed the John Carter character for their own attempts at a series.
FOR MY LOOK AT THE 1905 NOVEL GULLIVAR JONES ON MARS AND THE CONFLICT BETWEEN FANS OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS AND EDWIN L. ARNOLD OVER POSSIBLE PLAGIARISM CLICK HERE.
Balladeer's Blog 
I read all 11 John Carter novels by Burroughs by age 14.I was mesmorized. The movie was ridiculed by Hollywood critics bit I thought it was wonderful seeing what my mind pictured portrayed on the big screen. I think the comics of today make Dejah Thoris look like a musclebound, huge breasted super sex symbol which is horrible but I suppose that’s from the super hero influence of tody’s films.
I read the Burroughs novels in my early teens, too! I agree, the movie did not deserve the bashing it got. The John Carter stories led the way in a lot of story elements that modern audiences have grown up with. And yes, the people who draw Dejah Thoris now go to weird extremes.
Love John Carter, and while the Disney film wasn’t wholly spot on to it, I feel that film is way underrated.
I agree. The John Carter stories pioneered a lot of elements that viewers today just take for granted.
That’s because the critics never read the books.
Exactly!
John Carter was a great writer! Well shared👌
Thank you!
😁
😀 😀
😮😮😮😮
WOW!
😜😜
You are a character!
🎇🎇🎇🎇
What are these?
They are firecracker 🧨
Aah. I understand.
Yeah 🤩🤩
There you go!
😘😘
**
🫡🫡
()()()
🤐🤐🤐
I think the first time I heard of John Carter was when Carl Sagan mentioned the character in his old “Cosmos” TV series. I never did read any of the books or the comics or see the movie, but I kind of absorbed the story via cultural osmosis …
Wow! I remember reruns of Cosmos and Carl’s “Spaceship of the Imagination” on the show.
I was too young to appreciate the Wolfman/Kane collaboration, but I read all the Del Rey paperbacks with the Michael Whelan covers. To be honest, after the Master Mind, it slowed down for me.
I’m also positive about the movie, too. It had a lot going for it. I didn’t care for the leads but I understood why they were cast. They weren’t the problem anyway.
I go along with the opinion that the general public had no recognition of the name (outside of the character in E.R.). “Warlord of Mars,” “John Carter of Mars,” or even, “A Princess of Mars.”
With the latter, can you image Disney Princess Deja Thoris roaming around Disneyland?
Definitely! Because John Carter movies would have been budget busters or would have looked really bad with cheap special effects, so by the time anyone could do half-decent special effects for a Barsoom movie a lot of viewers didn’t realize how pioneering the original stories were. And yes, who knows how Disney would let a Dejah Thoris model dress!
A great comic book review. I’m not a big fan of John Carter but do think that he seems like a fascinating hero. His effort to save the galaxy from dangers brings to mind the Guardians of the Galaxy. A fantastic team of misfits which strive to rescue their endangered galaxy.
I love the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” film that introduced the team. I think it’s arguably the best film Marvel had ever made. Here’s why it’s worth watching:
Thanks, the Guardians of the Galaxy were fun, too.