John Carter of Mars: Warlord of Mars Omnibus by Marv Wolfman

John Carter of Mars: Warlord of Mars Omnibus Reviews

• 
  Dan Schwent

  John Carter, Warlord of Mars Omnibus collects issues 1-28 plus annuals 1-3 of John Carter, Warlord of Mars published by Marvel in the late 1970s.
  
  I read the first three or four John Carter of Mars books sometime just after the dawn of time when I joined Goodreads. I liked the concepts well enough but wasn't a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' prose. I've had my eye on this omnibus for years and finally found one cheap enough to justify buying it.
  
  Marvel put a lot of heavy hitters on this book. Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont handled the bulk of the issues with Bill Mantlo, Peter Gillis, and Alan Weiss each taking a single issue. The art was also an all star team headed up by Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, Carmine Infantino, Ernie Colon, and others, with Walt Simonson and Frank Miller getting some early work.
  
  The bulk of the book is made up of two stories: Air Pirates of Mars and Master Assassin of Mars. Both are original works but capture the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs very well. Even by Bronze Age standards, Air Pirates is wordy as hell. I respect what Wolfman was trying to accomplish with his first person narration in captions but you know a comic is wordy as hell when Chris Claremont's stories aren't the wordiest.
  
  Anyway, the stories encapsulate the pulp fun of ERB's originals. There are sword fights, chases, gunfights, and countless reversals of fortune. Dejah Thoris is a lot more capable here than in the pulp originals that I've read.
  
  The art is fantastic in this omnibus. Despite having close to 20 artists and as many inkers, the series doesn't feel as disjointed as one might think. Dave Cockrum did great design work on the characters and the other artists stick to those designs for the most part. Dejah's look changes the most but a metal bikini isn't appropriate for all situations.
  
  Mars looks suitably bleak, the green men look as monstrous as they should, as do the white apes, thoats, and other creatures. This had to be a labor intensive book with all the Martian cityscapes and panels choked with figures to draw.
  
  I liked this book quite a bit but it got to be like Homer Simpson eating that 12 foot sandwich after a while. It's apparent nobody expected anyone to read two and a half years of these comics one right after another but nobody did back then.
  
  John Carter, Warlord of Mars Omnibus is a hulking tome of Martian fun. Four out of five stars.
  
• 
  Charles

  A mammoth collection of John Carter comics. 631 pages, with writers such as Chris Claremont, Peter Gillis, Bill Mantlo, Alan Weiss, and Marv Wolfman. Some of the episodes stay pretty close to ERB's tales while others spin wildly away. We get a lot more Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas in this collection than in ERB, which I liked. All in all, though, I much enjoyed the collection and thought it well worth the cost.
• 
  Peter

  As child this never failed to thrill. Even now it still gives that happy buzz...
  Pure bliss.
• 
  Terence

  On the plus side? Dejah Thoris gets to kick some a%&, she’s not just a bauble that people keep stealing from John Carter. [Of course, she still gets kidnapped. A lot. Nevertheless, she’s often instrumental in her escapes, and give her a sword or a radium pistol and she gives as good as she gets.]
  
  On the down side, the stories tend to drag like a B-movie where the director has no sense for pacing, and they still suffer from ERB’s penchant for lazy writing – aka “John Carter’s dumb luck.”
  
  I shouldn’t pine for the days when I was stupid, but I wish that I could continue to enjoy some of my childhood favorites without being gob smacked with their racism and sexism today. You lost me on this one when John Carter reminisces about the “good old days” before the war and imagines taking Dejah Thoris to a plantation ball. Then, later in the story arc, he credits his guerilla warfare skills to those honorable Southern gentlemen Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the first KKK, and J.E.B. Stuart.
  
  Two stars – not recommended unless, like me, Barsoom played a big role in getting you interested in SF and you can still extract some pleasure in going back to the Red Planet. This series introduced me to ERB and eventually led me to read my first John Carter novel, The Gods of Mars.
  
  If we don’t want Barsoom to become a forgotten bit of American pulp literature remembered only by academics, we need to reimagine John Carter for a modern audience since a former Confederate officer obsessed with race, who confronts most obstacles with violence, and is – let’s face it – dumb as a rock, is no hero. [Fortunately, my perfervid imagination has tackled the problem much to my satisfaction, though I have no plans to publish any of this fanfic.]
• 
  Dlotempio

  John Carter, Warlord of Mars, is one of the great pulp adventure properties of all time, eclipsed only by the Shadow, Doc Savage and most definitely by his literary brother Tarzan of the Apes. The series by Edgar Rice Burroughs is the epitome of fantasy wish fulfillment: a young man (sort of) feels out of touch and out of place in his contemporary world, and he longs for a world that accepts him as the gallant hero hidden inside. Lo and behold, he finds his body magically whisked to the world of Mars where he finds a world technologically advanced by socially barbaric. Add in green 4-armed men and voluptuous martian princess and the male fantasy world is fulfilled. But the series has never had a successful sustained comic book version despite seemingly obvious strengths of handsome, noble men, beautiful women and derring do. In the late 70s, Marvel Comics acquired the rights to produce a John Carter series and this book collects that series in its entirety.
  
  First let me say that the reproduction and paper type are fantastic (as mentioned by a previous reviewer). Everything is crisp and clean. The number of comics contained herein also offers a good value for your buck. But I found myself deeply disappointed by the content and feel I should have purchased something else.
  
  The book roughly falls into 3 sections. The first section features the initial arc The Air Pirates of Mars, by Marv Wolfman, artist Gil Kane and inkers Dave Cockrum and Rudy Nebres. Marv Wolfman composes perfect pastiche of Burroughs' writing. The story is first-person narration - like most of the John Carter books - and maintains Burroughs penchant for crazy cliff-hangers, occasionally long exposition, and John Carter famous dumb luck. The basic idea is good too: a cabal strives to control the air generators, which provide all the atmosphere on Mars, and use them as a pogrom to destroy everyone else. It starts off fine but I quickly found myself losing interest as the story went on for 10 issues with more contrived problems and melodrama occurring in each episode, with little character development. It was adequate at best.
  
  The second section contains the "Master Assassin of Mars" arc written by Chris Claremont (of X-men fame) and drawn by a variety of people, notably Ernie Colon, Mike Vosburg, and Frank Miller. The story is a bit of a mess. An assassin has attempted to slay John Carter (for unknown reasons) and Dejah Thoris rushes off to avenge her beloved before discovering he isn't quite dead. The story then spends approximately six issues on Dejah and John imprisoned by a hereto unknown Martian civilization. Dejah is forced to become a concubine for the chief and John spends his time getting into and out of trouble. The emotional drama of Dejah's sacrifice of fidelity for John is intriguing but is resolved so quickly and without repercussions that I was left wondering what was the point of the previous 6 issues. Apparently none, because the story immediately jumps into the search for the Master Assassin after this long distraction with nary a look back. You could skip those six issues and have missed nothing of importance. When we jump back into the Master Assassin story, we learn details of the conspiracy that would have been helpful earlier in the story. Also, the rotating artists rob the series of any momentum. The Vosburg issues in particularly look flat and unimaginative. The storytelling and narrative is done well but there is nothing particularly interesting to look at on the page, except of the Frank Miller issue and an issue inked by Ernie Chan. This arc also involves a plot to control Mars but this time the Master Assassin seeks to unite all of the tribes - well, except for maybe those hidden ones - to create a more civilized society. and if he has to kill a few people to do it....oh well. How John Carter's assassination fits into that plan is never clearly explained. Effects seem to occur with little cause in this series.
  
  Lastly, the book contains a number of short adventures that include the annuals. I enjoyed these stories much more than the longer serials. The brevity meant little fluff or distraction could enter the stories. "March of the Dead", "When Walk the Ancient Dead" and "The Amazons of Mars" were fun and well-drawn by Carmine Infantino, Sal Buscema, Ernie Chan and Tony DeZuniga. But I wasn't impressed by this collection's content. It is adequate at best but often awkward. I would encourage readers interested in John Carter to find and read the first books by Burroughs - A Princess of Mars and Warlord of Wars. They are easy to read and inexpensive and much better introductions to the characters.
• 
  Love of Hopeless Causes

  Pulpy and sweet like a Danish Bakery cupcake. Tried the book far too young--didn't finish it until last year, but the comics were cheap and easy. I'd read it again.
• 
  Brent

  The characters of Edgar Rice Burroughs in a comic book from the 1970's! I suppose there could be someone who wouldn't like it. Just kidding.
• 
  Matthew J.

  This is a gigantic collection of John Carter comics, and it's....OK. Some of the art is pretty good. Some of it is meh. Most of the writing is in that old Stan Lee Marvel style, where there's WAY too much unnecessary dialog and caption. Some of it is based on Burroughs' novels. Other parts are 'original.' Nothing is all that great. I can't really recommend it. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm the target audience, and I had a hard time making my way through it.
• 
  Stephen

  Some great art- some lackluster story lines. Some great quotes and amazing panels. Sometimes old comics are just what I need.
• 
  Allan Olley

  This massive collection of Marvel comics adapting the John Carter of Mars characters. I am not clear having only read the first John Carter book, but I think it is mostly stories created by the comic writers usually occurring in the period of his first visit to Mars which the first book sort of skims over. Many strange and wonderful creatures and machines are on display that our main characters have to contend with.
  
  The stories of swashbuckling adventure are evocatively told in this comic, very typical of 70s comics and including various notable creators like Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont. The violent and amoral (although not completely unprincipled) aspects of the main characters is often on display, often involved in brutal struggles for survival. This story of an Earthman who displays incredible strength and leaping power (thanks to lower gravity) when mystically transported to Mars is sort of what you might imagine by the idea of Conan on Mars with the occasional explosive radium round or flying barge thrown in.
  
  The book also contains some character design sketches by Dave Cockrum, alternate cover art for the series, an interview with Marv Wolfman from FOOM (Friends Of Old Marvel) about the comic series and a reproduction of that cover of that FOOM issue (No. 20).
• 
  Lolo García

  There are plenty of reasons why I love 70s Marvel so much. I could go on and explain many of them and, as for so many others, I just can't. If there's a time when Marvel embraces pulp with a passion and delivers something with such a fresh look but retaining all the old school charm it's this, and John Carter, allegedly all-father of pulp, definitely shines.
  
  But let's calm down here. This might not reach the levels of excellence of, say, Conan, Shang-Chi, Killraven and/or Tomb of Dracula and you can easily see the outline and pattern followed so many times in the past (and future). Plus, the horrible cheesiness between lovebirds John and Dejah Thoris can be unsufferable. I'll spare you the number of times they save the day thanks to the "power of love"... but again, it still showcases the talent, good eye for epic and thirst for adventure of this awesome bullpen, tapping the beat of what makes a popular comic book great. Not only that, but I can't help awarding it four shiny stars even if it's just because of the wonderful opening arc, adapting one of Burroughs' novels through 12 issues, penned by Marv Wolfman and astonishingly drawn to life by Gil Kane himself.
• 
  Rumi Bossche

  A omnibus you dont see quite often, i did not grew up with John Carter, and have not read anything of the character, until now. This omnibus has some serious talent attached! The first half is writen by Marv Wolfman with almost every issue a new artist. Dave Cockrum, Sal Buscema, Frank Miller, Ross Andru, Walter Simonson and Carmine Infantino, just every one a class act in its own ! Especially liked the work of Infantino. The second half is writen by none other then Chris Claremont. Crazy how many great comic legends are attached to this book.
• 
  H.Friedmann

  This is not a graphic novel version of Edgar Rice Bourrough's novels. Rather they are Marvel's exploration of events that may have occurred between paragraphs 2 and 4 of chapter 27 or so, where a 9 year gap is indicated. (Per notes by the creator). It was a great pulpy read and nice brain rest after the heavy duty read of the Icelandic Sagas, and fit the bill of being a large hardcover, perfect lockdown reading.
  
• 
  Deborah

  another lets fight through the whole book story
• 
  Tundrorock

  This may not be fair, but impossible for me not to compare with The Savage Sword of Conan.
• 
  Randall Andrews

  The first stories were amazing, when Claremont took over writing, it became tiresome. Having an overarching story that never seemed to end, 50/50
• 
  Patty

  Alas, my copy was missing a few pages (they were blank), but they were issues of the comic in which I had the originals. I primarily purchased this omnibus edition to get those two issues (one main series issue and one annual issue) that I did not have in my collection. Marvel's series is pure adventure fare, like much of their work in the era...there were good writers and artists who worked on this series and is well worth a read if you're a Burroughs "John Carter" fan, or a fan of the writers and artists who worked on the comic itself.
• 
  Marc Leroux

  I picked this up after watching the John Carter movie on a plane coming back from Europe. I have always been a fan of Burroughs Barsoom, and I had read the original comics many, many years ago. I wanted to re-read them, and this was an affordable way to do so.
  This collection is reprinted in black and white, and the lack of color enhances the artwork. The stories are well paced and the art adds to the impact.
  A good read. I enjoyed slipping back in time and reading these again. This is the quality that you would expect from Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, Gil Kane and Frank Miller.
• 
  Marcus M.

  While this became a slightly less faithful comic series adaptation of the Barsoom novels after Marv Wolfman used all the material in those books, I think this collection will hit a homerun with the same audience that enjoyed the novels because it successfully achieves the same kind of otherworldly, Sci-Fi essence that ERB achieved with the books. This collected edition is usually $100.00 so I wouldn't recommend it for those who aren't serious hard-core fans of
  John Carter or who aren't collectors of graphic novels.
• 
  Rich Meyer

  This omnibus is definitely worth the price tag! Marvel's John Carter series was a fun comic book, but one I'd never think to ever see reprinted. The entirety of the series featured adaptations of two Edgar Rice Burroughs novels, along with some shorter tales. Lots of great artwork, from Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, Mike Vosburg, Ernie Colon and many more. Well over 30 issues of sci-fi goodness reprinted in full color!
• 
  Timo

  Maybe this was a classic and good old fashioned sci-fi fun, that was just the problem. There are "good old" stuff and then there is stuff that is just old. This was just old and time had not been kind to it.
• 
  John

  The comic books were definitely a good subversion from the first five novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. They at some points seemed as revisions of different stories in the novels revamped with John Carter and Dejah Thoris as the main characters.
• 
  Philip Fracassi

  Classic schlock. Funny stuff.
• 
  Brent

  Dave Cockrum! C'mon, Goodreads, one of these authors, the comics artist - more than an illustrator - is the late, great, Dave Cockrum.
• 
  Sara

  Good old fashioned si fi.
• 
  Charlie Potter

  way better than i thought it would be
• 
  Artur Coelho

  Puro silver age...