Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom #4 – Review

By: Robert Place Napton (writer), Roberto Castro (illustrator), Alex Guimaraes (colors), Joseph Rybandt (editor), Edgar Rice Burroughs (inspirer)

The Story: General Van Tun Bor makes some hard choices about what kind of man he is and how far he can follow the Jeddak of Horz. In the meantime, the Jeddak is sponsoring some lurid biotech through his cannibal mad scientist. And, the great scientist Tak Nan Lee reaches a crossroads not that different from the General’s.

The Review: Napton had pretty firm control of the plotting, emotional moments and the reveals in this issue. All parts of the story were competently done, but some shone. For example, although the wistful sense of loss associated with a dying planet had been communicated in many ways, both in words and pictures, in the first three issues of this series, Napton nailed me with a powerful, personal, emotional moment with General Van Tun Bor. The immediacy, intimacy and suddenness of Barsoom’s fall was surprising. The Jeddak’s arrogance and Bor’s struggle, as well as Tak Nan Lee’s were well developed, with the growing sense of tension as the Jeddak started making his moves. The other powerful emotional high of the book was the passing of the symbolic and thematic torch from white man to red woman. Very well done. The story is now set to conclude.

Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom #2 – Review

By: Robert Place Napton (writer), Roberto Castro (artist), Alex Guimaraes (colors), Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator), Joseph Rybandt (editor)

The Story: On the Barsoom of 100,000 years ago, the scientist Tak Nan Lee from Korad races against time to find a way to replenish Mars’ atmosphere before there is nothing left. And he learns something of the strength of the red woman he has rescued. In the meantime, the Horzian general leads troops against the savage and powerful green hordes.

The Review: You know how sometimes in sales, you have a product that sells itself? I feel a bit that way about Dynamite’s new tale about ancient Barsoom. Dynamite is cracking open a mythos whose every nook I thought I’d explored long ago. Napton is injecting a healthy does of alien steampunk into a high-stakes tale of global extinction with epic battles that feel nearly Tolkeinian is scope, filled with a broad set of characters who are all definitely self-interested, with smatterings of altruism and humanity. The dialogue was pretty good, although I found a bit of flab in the beginning pages. One thing I usually trash a writer for is heavy exposition in the dialogue, but Napton was cautious with this and made the dialogue sound close to natural while giving the reader necessary information about the vast canvas he was painting on.