Comic Review: Dejah Thoris and the Green Men #5

This issue proves Hell hath no fury like a scantly clad princess...

Following her escape from the Thark butchers, Dejah leads a manhunt to track down those involved in her kidnapping. Along the way she meets Kenda Than, a "murder master" who is investigating a thark's death and Rek, a royal advisor who it appears once carried a torch for Dejah. But as her pursuit for justice takes some turns she discovers that the truth is more violent than she thought and that it involves someone close to her and John Carter.

I'll give credit where it's due, this issue is quite good. Moving beyond the torture porn aspects of the earlier issues and into a revenge mystery story, it moves quickly and establishes Dejah front and center while throwing in some red herrings and possible suspects in well. Granted some of it comes across as a Barsoomian Death Wish but that's preferable to the Thark take on Saw from before.

The usual good work by Lui Antonio on the artwork, capturing the characters and darker subject, added by a more subdued color palette than the other Warlord of Mars series. The only nitpick is that the Red men and Dejah seem more pink and John Carter is a little pale here. Besides that a good job.

If you gave up on this series before I doubt this issue will make you change your mind but if you're open to it it's an improvement over the first four issues. That's something.