What Price Victory?

-

JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS — Issue no. 17, July 1978

Book: John Carter, Warlord of Mars

Issue No.: 17

Published: July 25, 1978

Title: “What Price Victory?”

Cover Price: 35¢

Format: Original paper copy

When I started reading 1978 comic books for Marvel Time Warp, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Marvel’s licensed books were some of my favorites. Marvel’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters is probably my favorite book of the era, at least so far. And I also really dig Marvel’s Star Wars and John Carter, Warlord of Mars books.

I just noticed that Marvel’s Godzilla and Star Wars licenses apparently started around the same time, as July 1978 saw issue no. 16 of both of those books released. Marvel’s Edgar Rice Burroughs license (which included the John Carter and Tarzan characters) must have started a month earlier, as those two books saw issue no. 17 released in July ’78.

Peeking into the future (thanks, Fandom.com Marvel wiki!), the Godzilla license ran an even two years — Marvel’s Godzilla book ended with issue no. 24. (Which is a shame, as that book should have run for hundreds of issues!) The Burroughs books ran a little longer — Warlord of Mars ended with issue no. 28 and Tarzan ended with issue no. 29.

But that’s the future. (Well, the Marvel Time Warp future — these comic books are all 40-plus years old now.) At the moment, I’m on John Carter, Warlord of Mars no. 17, where Earthman-on-Mars John Carter has barely survived an attempt on his life and now finds himself and his Martian spouse Dejah Thoris captured by a society of winged people. These flying folk keep red-skinned Martians like Thoris as slaves. Writer Chris Claremont (who took over this book with the previous issue) uses the situation to have Carter comment that he is anti-slavery. Carter is a character of a different era, but it’s always bugged me that he’s supposed to be a great hero, but he fought for the Confederacy (AKA the bad guys) in the U.S. Civil War. Claremont’s iconic work on the X-Men comic books often embraced progressive ideals, so it’s not surprising to see him at least clarify that Carter is an anti-slavery Confederate.

A panel from this issue showing a winged man flying up from an open balcony while carrying John Carter. The winged man says, “For the moment, John Carter, you will be accorded the rights and privileges due to all of my guests — no more, no less. Come. We have been summoned to the Jedak’s palace.” Narration reads, “In an instant, we were airborne, Gar Karus’ great wings supporting both our weights with ease.”

And, yes, I realize that someone could write a whole book on the politics of the Civil War and various contributions (both willing and accidental) to the “lost cause” Civil War narrative in 20th century popular culture. But I am not that someone. I’ll just say that fictional heroes who were ex-Confederates, or who embraced Confederate iconography (looking at you, Dukes of Hazzard), are more common than they should be. But, in the case of John Carter, it’s one of those backstory elements that, though ill-considered, rarely comes into play in the Warlord of Mars comic book. Still, it’s nice to see Chris Claremont take a couple of lines of narration to at least grapple with Carter’s inglorious past.

The winged people live in Karanthor, a cool Martian lost city that’s hidden deep in what is basically Mars’ Grand Canyon. After John Carter gets the nickel tour of the city, he fights one of the winged guys for Deja Thoris’ honor and freedom. Carter barely wins the fight (he’s still weak from being almost poisoned to death), but by the time its over, the skeevy ruler of Karanthor (a dude called Chan Tomar) has absconded with Thoris.

The tease for next issue is “Tars Tarkas fights alone!” Since Tarkas (four-armed green Martian and friend of John Carter) isn’t a major part of this story, I’m thinking we might be in for a fill-in issue. Or maybe Tars is coming to rescue Carter and Dejah Thoris.

Next time — Tarzan journeys to the center of the earth!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Jack of Hearts!

-
Image
MARVEL PREMIERE — Issue no. 44, July 1978 / As I understand it, MARVEL PREMIERE served, at least sometimes, as a try-out book. It was an anthology title, and it generally featured a different character each issue. Marvel’s editors could spotlight a superhero in MARVEL PREMIERE and, based on sales and reader mail, decide whether that hero might warrant their own title. Writer and Jack of Hearts creator Bill Mantlo states this all pretty directly on this issue’s fan-mail page (which, in this case, is more of an editorial and doesn’t feature any letters from fans), encouraging fans of Jack to write in with their thoughts. And to also maybe buy an extra copy of the book and gift it to a friend. Early in the book’s run, Doctor Strange and Iron Fist were both featured in multiple issues of MARVEL PREMIERE before getting their own titles. Book: Marvel Premiere Issue No.: 44 Published: July 25, 1978 Title: “The Jack of Hearts!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Original pap...
Read more

Stairway to Rage!

-
Image
MASTER OF KUNG FU — Issue no. 69, July 1978 / This issue of MASTER OF KUNG FU ends on a confusing note. It’s a literal note, at the bottom of the story’s last page — “See our letters page for news about next issue!” But there’s no letters page in this issue. So I guess I’ll have to wait till I read the next issue to see what it’s about. I was kind of confused for a lot of this issue, because it features several flashbacks, but I couldn’t remember if they were from MASTER OF KUNG FU no. 68 or if they were filling in some backstory. I finally figured out it was the latter. I think. After the multi-issue epic that wrapped up in the previous issue, this book features a one-and-done story. It’s a fairly straightforward (other than all the flashbacks) gauntlet type of story, with kung fu master Shang-Chi defeating a series of opponents to get to Skullcrusher. (This book really delivers on the kung fu, with the fights dynamically illustrated by the great Mike Zeck.) Skullcrusher (his...
Read more

Betrayal!

-
Image
THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN — Issue no. 115, July 1978 / The penciler of this issue of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN gets the biggest credit on the opening splash page — “And introducing the pulse-pounding penciling of… John Romita Jr.! Marvel marches on!” I’m familiar with Romita Jr. from his work on the early 1980s UNCANNY X-MEN book — Romita took over penciling duties on that series after Paul Smith left, around issue no. 175. As I’ve mentioned before, that X-MEN run is probably my favorite comic book run ever, so I’ll always have a soft spot for anybody who worked on it. I’m assuming that, based on the “introducing” credit, IRON MAN is the first book that John Romita Jr. was the regular penciler on (an assumption backed up by Wikipedia). Book: The Invincible Iron Man Issue No.: 115 Published: July 25, 1978 Title: “Betrayal!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Digital scan The penciler of this issue of Invincible Iron Man gets the biggest credit on the opening splash page — “And in...
Read more