Comic Review: Warlord of Mars-Fall of Barsoom #2

As you can now tell I don't have a snappy opening. So let's just jump in shall we?

After rescuing an unconscious red woman from a savage group of green men, scientist Tak Nan Lee heads to the Atmosphere Plant and again attempts to bring it on line. But a failure to infuse electricity to the Ninth Ray which leads to an unstable reaction causes him to shut it down. He also gets a less than friendly welcome from Anouk, the woman he rescued who reveals she is now tribeless and was a captive of the red men. While that is going on the Orovar army attempts to halt a band of green men at the city of Thark, leading to a full scale battle that threatens not only to obliterate the city but possibly the Orovar capital of Horz. But the Orovar King might be hiding something that could change everything...

Picking up after the excellent first issue, writer Robert Place Napton keeps the story going at a good pace while working in subtle homages to the novels-a discussion about using telepathy to open the doors of the Plant for example-that fans I think will appreciate. But the real draw is the artwork by Roberto Castro who stages the battle scenes with an energy that some of the previous John Carter/Barsoom comics have lacked. And he draws a mean looking Green Man who you would not want to meet and a pretty sexy Red Woman as well. There is still some artistic things that I'm having trouble with-the Orovar military and the king would look at home in Asgard-but these are minor quibbles.

So if you haven't picked this one up, do so and I'll think you'll enjoy it. I just wonder if Marvel's prequel series will be just as good?