Everything’s connected, eventually.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Dean Kotz
Colors: Omi Remalante
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
JEFF PARKER (Aquaman, Future Quest) and DEAN KOTZ (Dungeons & Dragons) invite you to behold the battle between the dashingly heroic John Carter Of Mars and the neverendingly power-hungry little green men of Mars Attacks! HOW has John encountered never encountered these Martians before!? WHY do these cackling monsters want to conquer Mars? And WHAT happens when the war spills over to Earth!? Find out in the stunning first chapter, ATTACK FROM SPACE!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ve been enjoying a lot of the crossovers that Dynamite has been working, from serious to silly, but I was kind of inclined to pass on this one. While I like John Carter and the character has been kept on the quiet side for a while now in favor of Dejah Thoris, the whole Mars Attacks! thing just never really cut it for me, though I do like the film. What pushed me over the edge was that Jeff Parker is writing it and he’s been spot on perfect with a lot of his works the last few years, especially some of the quirkier concepts from the Gold Key era. With this series he’s teamed up with artist Dean Kotz and colorist Omi Remalante, who put in a solid job here and definitely capture the look of the invading Martians well. That’s definitely one of the key parts to this.
That said, Parker pulls a twist here that I’m not sure works and will take another issue for me to really find out of it does. The book opens on the ending minutes of the war on Barsoom being fought as John Carter and the rest fall back on Helium more and more in the face of the onslaught of the Moonheads. They appeared out of nowhere some time ago and it’s been a ferocious attack, but one that now has Dejah Thoris drawing them all into one place so she can overload the city and destroy them all. It works nicely in doing the quick catch-up moments with Tars Tarkas and setting the stage for the bond that exists between John and Dejah, but it’s a mile a minute kind of approach as they fight and fight while Dejah hopes that John will return to his world before everything blinks out of existence.
Which takes us to the present day where the Insight rover has landed on Mars and we get to see it take place through JPL. There are a few characters introduced here, such as the intense Dr. Norman and the more outgoing Maven, but there’s also the problematic Ramon, who won a contest to be here for the big event. Only it’s supposed to be someone named Cody, and not this relative boor. He’s in for the ride of his life as the Martians have suddenly appeared and begun attacking out of Arizona with a huge fleet of ships moving out and killing people with glee once again, left and right. There’s a lot of time spent with the Earthside here and JPL but I’m hard-pressed to connect with anyone at this stage and am just left wondering where Parker is going to go with it, though the end panel provides a minor clue.
In Summary:
The first few pages are a lot of fun as we see events play out on Barsoom and the way the fight is not going their way as the moonheads are dominating everything. I like how this plays out with some good action and intensity, along with some really well-animated moonheads that also gave me a taste of their language in translation. Parker has some fun here and ups the stakes nicely and quickly but it feels like the shift to Earth in the present doesn’t work as well. I get that it’s following John Carter and there’s some form of him likely to be here in the present, planning for this, but I’m not sure bringing it to Earth is the good choice or not as I’d love to see more of a fight for Mars/Barsoom thing going on. There are some good bits here but right now almost the entire Earth cast of characters are annoying me and that doesn’t set a good stage.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 19th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
