Implied in this is that earlier scripts would have featured a modern Carter and human-sized Tharks, a scary prospect, although mucking around with source material is normal procedure in Hollywood. Though the script is not detailed in the Wikipedia entry, it states that when Jon Favreau later replaced Rodriguez, he argued for taller Tharks and retaining Carter’s links to the Confederacy. Apparently, the first steps toward the movie took place in 2004, with director Robert Rodriguez part of the project. Reading some of the history of the making of John Carter serves to generate both relief and ripples of fear. Is science fiction no longer box office gold? Did the movie fail because it didn’t adhere closely enough to the book, or because it followed the book too closely, or some other factor entirely? Why did it fail? After all, those early planetary novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs form the source material of so many movies in the past 50 years, from Star Wars to Avatar, and those science fiction epics raked in billions of dollars, despite borrowing liberally and lacking in original content. And yet, in 2012, John Carter turned into one of the biggest box office flops in recent years, at least in the US. So, when the movie adaptation, John Carter of Mars, (the focus from princess to a male character made to target a more fannish demographic, perhaps?) lost the “of Mars” portion of its title, maybe Disney thought they had a fighting chance. Perhaps shying away from naming that planet in the title is apocryphal, a convenient story to fit a funny pattern of failed movies. When Disney budgeted a quarter of a billion dollars for Andrew Stanton’s adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, A Princess of Mars, no doubt two thoughts went through the marketing department heads’ minds as the sought the male movie-going demographic: ix-nay on the “Princess,” and don’t mention “Mars.” Either under “the Red Planet” or “Mars” it’s almost as if evil telepathic thoughts stream from the Martians themselves to the movie-going public. From Mission to Mars (2000) to Mars Needs Moms (2011) and in between, cinematic tales of the Red Planet fail time and time again to recoup costs and to capture the imagination. Movies featuring “Mars” in their title appear to suffer much the same fate as NASA’s many unsuccessful missions to Mars. Under the mishaps of Mars-from ERB to silver screen Warlord of Mars Attacks #4 comes to us from writer Jeff Parker, artist Dean Kotz, color artist Omi Remalante, letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, cover artist Dave Johnson, and variant cover artists Marc Laming, Ramon Villalobos, and Ben Caldwell. We finally get back to Barsoom and John Carter fighting the Martian Moonheads head-on, and Kotz and Remalante do a good job on the visuals. Warlord of Mars Attacks #4 isn’t the smartest or most coherent comic in the world, but it is a good bit of fun. Omi Remalante ’s color work gives a bright and fairly well-balanced palette to it all to further invigorate the visuals. Carter looks heroic, the Moonheads look ugly, and the other humans are expressive and visually interesting. It’s an appealing aesthetic that relies more heavily on linework than shading. Also, there’s a chance that all of John’s comrades and friends from Barsoom could still be alive, and that adds a time travel element when it was previously said there’s just two different versions of Mars/Barsoom in the present.īringing back Dejah Thoris and the others at least means that the story will be more fun and a little less depressing the narrative is also extremely convoluted as a consequence.ĭean Kotz artwork is still the strongest aspect of the comic series. Technically, Mave, Norman, and Ramon should be functionally super-strong on Barsoom, but that’s not been acknowledged or alluded to at all. That said, I’ve well and truly lost the thread on how the rules of this story work. He jumps, stabs, and gets the Moonheads to fire at one another. John immediately gets to fighting the Martian Moonheads once he gets to Barsoom. This issue is a lot more fast and fun than the previous.
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