It’s time to reshape the world.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Alessandro Miracolo
Colors: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
An epic adventure, reuniting fiction’s greatest lovers: Dejah Thoris from Barsoom, and John Carter from Earth! But their reunion is short-lived…THE LONGBORN, an ancient and mysterious race of immortal “gods” have arrived to reclaim what is theirs: MARS!
Can Dejah and Carter’s love hold through a planet-sized war? Find out, courtesy of superstar DAN ABNETT (Guardians Of The Galaxy, Justice League) and ALESSANDRO MIRACOLO (Red Sonja)!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the previous Dejah Thoris series being one of the best ones dealing with Barsoom in years, I’m both excited and wary of this new series because of that versus in the middle. Dan Abnett is certainly a talented writer and I like what they did before so there’s plenty of leeway to be had here and the opening installment is strong and it all makes sense. Abnett is again paired with a great artist for this series with Alessandro Miracolo, who did some great work on the previous run and knocks it out of the park here right out of the gate. I love the character designs, the expressions, the creatures, the technology, it all has a distinctive look and Kelly’s coloring really does bind it all together well.
With all that went down before, Dejah Thoris is now in a position where she sees the battle ahead with Longborn and has to work a lot of different things in order to achieve what she needs for that endgame. This has her smartly delegating tasks to others like Llana and even Clyde as they race about Barsoom to complete missions. The only one without a mission is Carter himself as he’s been tasked with just healing and recovery. He spends his time here with Tars Tarkis and it’s clear that while he does need to heal he is in great shape and in command of himself fully. But he seems himself now as a hindrance to Dejah, who accomplished so much while he was away, and that there are lingering issues over his being controlled and attacking her. It’s not self-pitying for the most part but he’s intent on taking his leave of Barsoom as he believes he really only makes things worse.
For Dejah, she’s taken Kantos Kurz with her and a lot of warriors along with a group of Therns and have headed out for a secluded valley to hunt down a man named Rotak Gall. He was exiled ages ago but apparently secretly working for the prior Jeddak and that has Dejah concerned about disturbing weapons and more that they may have produced. They don’t quite get to the full thing here but the valley in which they land is rich disturbing and large creatures that are tough to kill, though Dejah does her best to go the traditional route with it. It provides for some good action and narration from Dejah as she relates how well Kantos serves at this point while also reinforcing just how bad Gall is and what evil he may have crafted here that needs to be dealt with (or co-opted) in defense of the Longborn threat.
In Summary:
There’s a lot going on in this book and while it doesn’t recap what came before in the previous twelve-issue series, it covers the basics well enough so that you can jump on with ease and just have a great time. Abnett has a lot of pieces at play here and it’s definitely welcome to have Carter back in the picture, making me serious how they’re really intending to use him. The bigger-scale storyline has me hooked and wanting even more. And after some great work in the previous series, Miracolo puts in more gorgeous pages here that are making him a definitive Dejah Thoris artist.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 21st, 2021
MSRP: 3.99