Dejah’s life continues to move in surprising directions.
Creative Staff:
Story: Frank J. Barbiere
Art: Francesco Manna
Colors: Morgan Hickman
What They Say:
She’s been exiled from her home and is searching for answers, but now Dejah has a new destiny – leading a platoon in the army of Barsoom! Dejah ventures into the badlands on her first military operation, and there’s danger lurking around every corner. See Dejah as you’ve never seen her before, as she unravels the mystery of her past!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some struggles in the last couple of years in attempt to connect with the Warlord of Mars property, the Dejah Thoris series has been a pretty strong endeavour for me. While there are plenty of familiar elements to be had throughout, Barbiere has made Dejah an engaging character to watch while giving Carter just enough to do in the background so that his lack of presence doesn’t feel weird considering the scale of events playing out. The subplot with what’s going on in Helium is kept minimal but effective by this, showing us events playing out there and the greater impact while allowing the bulk and core of the story to be about Dejah and her journey itself, as it should be.
With her dreams pushing her toward M’rkassa to try and find answers about her past, Dejah’s falling in with the People’s Army is largely working well for the moment. There are the obvious moments of getting to hear from the people of this class talking about the leaders in Helium and their foolish ways and she certainly takes the barbs well as they land pointedly enough, reminding her again of her own disconnect from the population in general and more particularly outside of her immediate city for so many years. Amusingly, because she did so well the day prior, Davex has now put her in charge of an elite squadron that’s like an independent group to deal with things because of their skill. This gives us the rough and ready burma, the silent but deadly with a crossbow Tulon, and the hand to hand specialist in Wylock. Dejah’s just the latest squad leader, but it’s fun to see how quickly she falls in and handles them since she’s certainly had experience with a range of people over the years.
A good bit of this is just getting to know the dynamic of this new group as Dejah as Larka picks her first mission – heading to M’rkassa – and seeing that there’s something unexpected going on there as both slavers and red martians have been butchered. It’s setting up what’s to come and with Davex in tow, acting very un-captain-like, we get to see the way Dejah so naturally assumes command and sets the tone for her team as she admires their abilities and sees a lot of learning opportunities. While Francesco Manna has been doing great work throughout the book, his action pages really work well here and you completely get why Dejah would be interested in what they can do, Wylock in particular. Manna’s work is really enhanced by Morgan Hickman’s coloring style for it as well as working with such dusty colors and reds for the skin and all black hair can make things feel kind of bland after a while. But the pairing is solid and there’s a lot of life to this that I haven’t found in past books within this larger franchise.
In Summary:
Dejah Thoris has been the strongest of the female-centered relaunch books recently for me with what it does. Frank Barbiere is hitting the story in a way that clicks well for me and feels like it’s better plotted and laid out than some other recent works of his that I struggled with while enjoying (Looking at you, Solar!). Dejah herself is solid and engaging and he’s building up a good new cast around her that hopefully manages to last a bit rather than just being set up for fodder. Barbiere also makes out really well by having Manna and Hickman on the team as they’re bringing this world and characters to life in a great way. There’s a wonderful naturalistic feeling to the backgrounds and design and the character designs are spot on in feeling otherworldly but familiar – especially with the color work. I’m definitely excited about this book and hopeful that the first arc leads to some really good stuff beyond it with this as the foundation.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: April 13th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
