Stuck in another dimension.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Alessandro Miracolo
Colors: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Dejah and John…captured! Whoever gains control of the Earthman’s secrets will rule all of Barsoom…just imagine a clone army of leaping John Carters! Can Dejah access arcanotech in time to receive help, or has she been reunited with her love just in time for their DOOM!?
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 designed 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.
With John Carter having come to the rescue the last time around, his desire to protect Dejah has led him to being captured by Rotak Gall, which was his plan all along. We got a lot of exposition the last time around about what Rotak was planning and his position within the greater scope of things, pleased to be a part of what the Longborn intend to do, but now he finds himself in the position of having to accelerate everything by their demand. The Longborn intend to do their conquering the old-fashioned way by steel and flesh but they’re not going to bring themselves into weak and simple bodies. Which is why having John Carter in his grasp is the current phase of the plan, allowing Rotak to get his genetic material and work on building new clones that already use Rotak’s base design but giving them what Carter brings to the table by being from Earth.
With Rotak off doing all of that now, that leaves John and Dejah to talk, which basically at different points in the issue has him somewhat apologizing for things and just accepting that what he did has made things worse, but that he did it out of love for her. The two do end up freed thanks to her ingenuity, and they begin to unravel more of what Rotak is up to and trying to figure out the best way to stop it. It’s through this that we get some fun action in the issue and to watch as they learn more about this in-between dimension that they’re in while searching for more clues. It puts things into motion that will likely go through by the end in terms of stopping Rotak and the Longborn, but it’s a matter of seeing if the cost is what they claim it will be.
In Summary:
There’s a lot going on in this installment in just making clearer how things are starting to unfold and what some aspects of the larger plan are. It’s definitely done well as it’s not just an infodump or anything but it does cover a lot of explanatory material. Rotak’s naturally gloating a bit and talking to himself at times but it gets the job done since he has no real underlings. The mild bickering between Dejah and John is a lot of fun to watch, especially since they had been apart for so long, and his understanding of the situation gets clearer which only makes him feel worse. But at least he doesn’t overcompensate, much, in trying to get back into her good graces. I’m definitely intrigued to see how far they’ll have to go to stop the Longborn since it’s going to require a radical solution.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: October 27th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
