John Carter, Footnote of Mars.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Alessandro Miracolo
Colors: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
John and Dejah are captured! Despite this, Dejah is delighted that John cared enough for her to attempt a rescue…perhaps their love is not lost! But John, headstrong as ever, has handed their enemies exactly what they want…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The scale of this series continues to grow with each issue and I’m seriously loving that it’s taking some chances to do things that haven’t been done before. Working with the Longborn certainly helped to paint a bigger picture for Dan Abnett to work with while still keeping it small and personal thanks to the group that Dejah is operating with, one where John Carter is on the outside for the moment. This issue once again looks fantastic thanks to the richly detailed and design pages that Alessandro Miracolo’s artwork presents. There’s such a great angular look to the designs, especially with Carter this time around, that really hits a sweet spot for me in making it engaging and stylish.
The two-track method is tried and true and it certainly works well here. For John Carter, it’s not much of a track but it’s one that visually works beautifully. With him focused on finding Dejah, his arrival at Dar Shadeth is one filled with him fighting against Gall’s creations. And Gall is throwing so many of his synthetics against him that it’s like wave after watching. Carter definitely has a lot of pent-up anger and ability to back up what he’s doing and it’s brutal as the bodies stack up all around him as he plows forward. But we also know, and Gall narrates toward the end, that even Carter can’t go on forever because he is human. Superhuman in a number of ways, but he will tire eventually and we see him basically hitting that point upon the relief of finding Dejah. But it’s that moment of joy where the fight gives out on him and allows him to be overwhelmed.
For Dejah, Gall goes kind of cruel here once he’s captured her since he’s stripped her away of the meager clothes that she had and is basically wheeling her around Dar Shadeth. Gall’s able to show her to an ancient portal that allows communication with the Longborn, which is her first time seeing them. I really like the Kirby-esque designs here and we see how they talk only to Gall about their plans and how Dejah’s cunning has them moving everything up faster because she’s proved that Barsoom is not what they thought it was. A mission that would take centuries is now likely to play out in weeks or less depending on how Gall is using the situation. It’s an interesting conversation as it brings us a good bit of backstory and history for the Longborn and getting a handle on how they view things allows us to connect with the story more, which circles back to Carter’s arrival.
In Summary:
Dan Abnett has been building toward some of these moments for a while and each new piece we’re introduced to definitely helps to expand on events and the larger intent. I really like what we get from Gall and Dejah this time around as it fills in a few more blanks toward the big picture and I really enjoyed just soaking up the details of the fight scenes for Carter himself, which let Miracolo really shine with his artwork. It’s a strong and powerful installment that puts us on such a large stage with characters that are being humbled by their opponents – but not backing down. It’s a solidly put together work and a hidden gem that far too many are missing out on.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 29th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99