Comic Review: Dejah Thoris #11

Happy April Fool's Day! No don't worry there will be a review, no pranks.

This issue starts out a new storyline, "The Boora Witch," which finds Dejah out on an expedition to find rare materials-in this case ersite and forandus-that Helium desperately needs. Her trip leads her to the Toonalian Marshes where air scouts have reported several vast deposits. While investigating, Dejah and her team-including a Than named Kantos Kan-find several deadly beasts and the deposits. But Kantos becomes concerned, especially when Dejah wanders off at night in a daze. Before too long Dejah finds herself under the spell of a witch who craves power...and Dejah's young body! And not in some late night Cinemax way either.

With this issue, we get a change of writers with Robert Napton stepping in after writing Fall of Barsoom and the current Warriors of Mars series. So far he does a good job setting up the story and introducing Kantos Kan into the story as a young warrior whose ambition even has Dejah saying he will make a great Padwar. The idea of a witch possessing Dejah though might seem a little off to some ERB fans, though this isn't the first time in a John Carter of Mars comic book that it's been done as a three issue story arc from the 1970s Marvel series also had an evil warlock attempting to resurrect his beloved and use John and Dejah's bodies to put their spirits in so you might want to look at this as an homage. Still it moves at a fast pace and like previous writer Arvid Nelson Napton pays tribute to later Burroughs stories.

The usual comments for the Carlos Rafael artwork-nice, vibrant and eye-catching. He brings the creatures of the Marshes to life pretty well and once again a curvy Dejah at the center of it all.

I'll give this issue a recommendation. If you didn't like the previous Dejah Thoris story lines I don't know if this will change your mind or not so you might want to thumb through it before making a purchase. Otherwise if you enjoyed the previous issues than this one will be right up your alley.