Posted in: Comics | Tagged: warlord of mars attacks

Jeff Parker's Writer's Commentary on Warlord Of Mars Attacks #4 –

Published Tue, 01 Oct 2019 16:00:42 -0500

Jeff Parker's Writer's Commentary on Warlord Of Mars Attacks #4, on sale now from Dynamite Entertainment. He writes,

Omigod, we're already at Book 4, the penultimate WARLORD OF MARS ATTACKS. Please grab your copy at your favorite seller and read along.

Page 1
The leader of the Martians has John Carter in his sights, right as he's attempting to vape himself to Barsoom! He fires his Death Ray! Welp, looks like it's over for John Boy; congrats, Martians.

Pages 2- 4
Meanwhile on Mars, our Earth Team has arrived through the portal, only to see most of the Martian fleet hot on their tail. They're screwed, look at all those flying saucers Dean had to draw. Just like John, it is OVER for the gang from Pasadena. But then whaaaaaaaaaat, everyone blipped away…

Pages 5- 7
Hey, John's back! He made it after all. I love this whole sequence, Dean finally gets to sink his teeth into drawing the landscapes of Barsoom with John bouncing everywhere in his superhuman body. It's the first you've gotten to see him do that since the first issue, and if we did our job right, you almost didn't realize he hasn't had his jacked up Marspowers the whole time because he's a great fighter anyway. Still, it comes as a nice boost now, when the story is about to get heavy.

Pages 8-9
Back to Emperor / Director Gagus and his immediate team of Martians. Everyone else is essentially a hive drone, only Gagus has the higher mind power to realize what has happened, the weird quantum shift that Maven predicted would happen when John returned to Mars. In short, it put the planet back to John's reality, and therefore all the Martians that flew in through the portal and were waiting… ceased to exist. I admit, I wanted a complex sci-fi concept in this story and I went for it. Could I have made it simpler? Of course! But we have to simplify all the time and it gets old. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that our readers are not newbs and have no problem holding some wacky theoretical stuff in their heads for a few books. And if you don't like it, then you can identify with the Martian crew who clearly think their boss is crazy.

Pages10-11
Zook Zooka is here! And he's way scarier now that he can jump a mile and beat on alien ships. But how long can he fight the fleet by himself?

Page 12
WOOLA IS HERE! I would have done this anyway, but there is no way editor Nate Cosby would have let this series happen without a big moment for Woola, the best dog-thing on Barsoom.

Pages 13-15
The chase is on, but Woola is at least as fast as a walking Martian saucer. I really like the way Dean drew this rocky valley, and Omi Remalante did some nice color work distinguishing all the elements in play here.

Pages 16-17
The Cavalry is here! Finally you get to see John's Barsoom pals join forces with his new friends and go off. And now I'm bummed because I see there's a line from Ramon that somehow got dropped (it happens) where he yells TARS TARKAS IN THE HOUSE as Tars spears those Martians. Dammit.

Page 18
That's right, you better run.

Page 19
John explains things to his allies as a mysterious figure boards…

Page 20
That mysterious figure is revealed: It's everyone's favorite nearly-naked Princess, DEJAH THORIS. I like Tars being proud of this prank.

Page 21
Meanwhile, Gagus isn't stupid, he's had an INVISIBLE SPY with them all along.

Page 22
And oh dip, look who just took a death ray for his hero! And he had to do it right on the last page! That's a cliffhanger, folks.

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