John Carter, Warlord of Mars #6

Writer – Ron Marz
Artist – Roberto Castro
Colours – Nanjan Jamberi

Tars Tarkas and the Warhoons face off against the Kahori forces while on another front, John Carter battles Captain Clark for the last time with the stakes being winner take all. Captain Clark is not playing around and is out for blood as he feels like he has been wronged by Carter in their past lives. Carter on the other hand is not only fighting for his life, but for all of Mars and the woman he loves, one Dejah Thoris who is in a bit of a predicament herself. As the first arc of the book comes to a close, it is a bit of a shame that Abhishek Malsuni is not on board to illustrate it but Roberto Castro manages to do a fair job in his absence. The battle scenes are quite good and the opening of the book is perfect as we see the Warhoons led by Tars Tarkas engage the enemy. The battle between Carter and Clark is a vicious one and it finally ends as it was supposed to with only one man left standing. For those who might wonder exactly which man that was, his name happens to be in the title of the book. Ron Marz has done a great job of reinvigorating the book, giving it that widescreen action feel that was always missing from the previous run. The threat that our hero faced was not only a big one but a personal one and that too had been something that the book needed, not only a villain, but one that meant something to our hero, something that would up the ante in a way that other threats Carter had faced did not. A great addition to the title is the White Ape who now considers Carter a friend and it should make things interesting going forward to see just how it reacts to the people of Helium and them to it. All in all, the new John Carter, Warlord of Mars book has been quite fantastic and it will be fun to see what comes next.

4 out of 5

Swords of Sorrow #1

Writer – Gail Simone
Artist – Sergio Davila
Colours – Jorge Sutil

As far as introductory issues go, Swords of Sorrow does a fair job of it introducing our cast of heroes and villains though very little of anything else. It is a big cast for this latest event book from Dynamite consisting of Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris, Jana the Jungle Girl, Lady Zorro, Lady Greystoke, Irene Adler, Jennifer Blood, the female Kato, and Vampirella. They are all off doing their thing when a nameless man delivers them ebony blades with the knowledge that they are going to need them. Said nameless man was sent by a seemingly all-powerful woman for a task of which only she is aware of at this moment. Opposing these strong and heroic women is another set of ladies, namely Purgatori, Chastity, Bad Kitty and other women of Chaos! who have been summoned to duty by a very mysterious man who seems to have something against that other mysterious woman. Despite the ambiguous nature of the story, it is pretty decent and a very quick, fun-filled read. The only problem is that ambiguousness lending to there being little meat on the bones. Why are the women of Dynamite receiving these blades and who are these magical-type figures that are summoning them to their sides? The book would have benefited a bit more if it had answered at least a couple of those questions. As such, all you take away from this is that there is going to be a very big cast involved and at least some of them are going to be wielding these blades called Swords of Sorrow. Again, it was enjoyable and Sergio Davila’s artwork looks great, but a reason for this gathering so to speak, would have been nice.

3 out of 5