New dangers afoot along with a lot of intrigue.
Creative Staff:
Story: Amy Chu
Art: Pasquale Qualano
Colors: Valentina Pinto
Letterer: Thomas Napolitano
What They Say:
Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium sends Dejah Thoris on a scientific mission to chart air currents and atmospheric density tests. But Dekana Lor, Headmistress of the Royal Academy of Helium hints at a second secret mission to the princess. And who is this handsome Red Martian prince and why is he suddenly part of the team?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I enjoyed the opening arc of Dejah Thoris fairly well but it felt like it was working through somewhat familiar territory with the people it was working with and Dejah being caught up in the situation she was. With this new arc, Amy Chu continues on the writing duties and expands on where this takes place which works out well for Pasquale Qualano. Getting off the sands for a bit and into the air with a good sense of refinery, the series gets to play with costuming and seductiveness more as well as some pretty blunt sexuality at times. It’s a welcome aspect that the franchise as a whole sometimes doesn’t embrace as much as it should, or at least as much as the covers indicates that it should be like. So letting Qualano get all into it here in a good teasing way works really well.
The focus here has Dejah going to the city of Hastor, quite some distances from Helium. While she’s there with Sajad once again as her protector, her grandfather is there as well as is Dekana. It’s an unusual group overall considering they’re just checking out what is a pretty impressive aircraft but there’s a lot of posing and primping going on here as the locals aren’t exactly showing off but they’re very proud of the massive airship. A lot of this is lead by Keels Kor and plenty of it comes across as someone that’s just intensely proud of what they’ve accomplished here. The opulence of the whole thing is really nicely done for the ship but I think Qualano captures it in Keels as well with his very minimal outfit, chiseled looks, and just his general approach to things.
What makes things complicated here is two-fold. The first is that there are some Zodangan’s that are attempting to take down Dejah and the others from Helium as there’s a lot of hate for all of those from Helium here. We get a couple of pretty close attempts before and during the flight that ramps up the tension. The other complication is on the sexuality side as we get Keels doing his best to place himself with Dejah while she plays at being bored pretty regularly when it comes to him. Qualano really captures both of them beautifully here with the movements and positioning to make clear just how it’s unfolding. But it also gets more complicated in the sexuality side with who Dekana is apparently involved with and that’s going to open a whole host of potential questions as it progresses.
In Summary:
The world Dejah Thoris inhabits is one that’s open to a lot of different things to explore and I really like what Amy Chu brings to it with this installment. It feels like it’s matured between arcs pretty nicely and putting Dejah in the mix of politics and intrigue – and assassination attempts – delights me. I’m also glad to see a bit more embracing of the sexuality of Dejah and others in the fold as there has always been that element there to me and this is letting Qualano bring something new to the book that doesn’t feel like it’s out of place or anything. It’s a solid start to a new arc that I’m putting a good bit of hope in to be able to really spread its wings some.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 11th, 2018
MSRP: Free