Comic Review: Warlord of Mars #24

It's been over three months so that means a new Warlord of Mars issue!

Having been captured, John Carter and Thuvan Dihn (still referred to as "Ptarth") are now prisoners of the really tall Jeddak of Okar, Salensus Oll. If that isn't bad enough, Carter's beloved Dejah Thoris has caught Oll's eye and he decides to make her his latest wife, along with Thuvia. Oh and the Heliumite Army is flying in, unaware of the Okarians' secret weapon, the electromagnetic Guardian of the North. Can Carter break free and destroy the Guardian and rescue Dejah from that "fate worse than death?" Not if an expert swordsman has anything to say about it...

As we head to the finale of this story, this issue really takes some liberty with Edgar Rice Burroughs' original tale. Maybe not as bad as say the second story arc in Dynamite's Lord of the Jungle series but there is some major changes and some surprises along the way. So to give you an idea here's some spoilerific things to look for (but read the issue first please!)

--John Carter goes all Hulk on some prison bars. CARTER SMASH!

--Salesnsus Oll was the biggest one in his class. Really, was he 10 feet tall in the book? I guess I need to reread The Warlord of Mars to jog my memory.

--Leonardo Olivera's Dejah would cause men to drool at the mouth. She might be the sexiest  version to date in the entire series.

--Oll grows tired of Matai Shang and pops a ray in his brain pan. I guess Andrew Stanton was right-immortal doesn't mean bullet proof.

--At one point Carter gets rescued and one of his rescuers calls it "a boring conversation." Han Solo hits Barsoom?!!

--The final sword fight between Carter and Solon gets short shrift here. Believe me a whole issue could have been made of this.

Otherwise Arvid Nelson and company do deliver some big Barsoomain thrills, without cannibals and makes me want to see read that finale. I just hope it won't be another three months.