Worldwide chaos.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Dean Kotz
Colors: Omi Remalante
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
“The Lost Hero” – John Carter is back on Earth! Unfortunately, there’s also a seemingly-unlimited army of lil’ green dudes here, hellbent on killing every woman/man/dog/llama/vegetable in sight. Can our intrepid sci-fi hero get his head wrapped around the madness and strike back, or has he arrived just in time to see his homeworld’s destruction? By JEFF PARKER (Aquaman, Future Quest) and DEAN KOTZ (Dungeons & Dragons)!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this miniseries didn’t do too much for me as I couldn’t quite get into its rhythm. Which frustrated me as I’ve really enjoyed a lot of Jeff Parker’s works and wanted to see how he’d blend these two properties together. The second installment feels like it smooths out the narrative elements that I wasn’t quite getting from how the first was presented and that makes it easier to go into the remaining issues of the run and just enjoy the weirdness and chaos of it all. Dean Kotz does his best to keep up with with the crazy coming out of Parker here and there are some great pages with layouts that stand out well with how it’s sliced up. He’s definitely got the look of the aliens down well and getting the chance to illustrate so much destruction makes for a lot of fun.
There really is a two-track approach going on here for most of this issue before it starts to blend together. On the Martian side, they’re going through destroying as much as they can and I like that we get the nod from their leader that they went through Mars far too quickly and that they’re intent on savoring things here. The large scale destruction is engaging to watch with monuments and locations getting blown up but I like when it slows down and we get the various standard character types that are brought before the leaders and the Martians try to figure out what it is that they’re actually trying to communicate. The martian culture feels very minimal to non-existent beyond destruction so they can’t be swayed by money or yoga, resulting in a lot of disintegrations before getting back to the big picture destruction.
The other track is with the group of humans whose names continue to escape me. Their introduction in the first issue was awkward at best but here they’re trying to get out as the one guy that was involved int he Mars Lander program reveals that he’s been trying to get the device up there for years because it was designed to be a gateway between Earth and Barsoom. It turns out, as is a familiar story point, that the Burroughs novels were based on the real events of John Carter and his body is in stasis, preserved in the upgraded mine where things went so badly for him initially in sending him to Barsoom. It’s a fun little bit of weirdness in how they deal with all of this, taking the huge leaps with the book that you have to, but it has the right level of camp while at the same time building up the legend that is John Carter.
In Summary:
I do feel bad that the human cast isn’t connecting much but I struggled with a decent chunk of the first book that they really didn’t register well. This issue has a lot of fun with destruction across the world and a few political bits here and there that you’d expect. The material with the Martians is a lot more enjoyable this time around as they interact with mankind more and we get a few more touches of their own personalities. Combine that with explaining how John Carter will make an impact in all of this and the connection between the two worlds and it feels like we have a better foundation this time compared to the first issue.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 24th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
