Writer – Robert Place Napton
Artist – Rod Rodolfo
Colours – Nanjan Jamberi
Letters – Rob Steen

Robert Place Napton and Rod Rodolfo deliver a fun tale of action and adventure that sees everybody’s favourite heroes, both John Carter and Dejah Thoris, having to deal with an invading force from the neighbouring planet of Sasoom, better known as Jupiter. This force consists of what amounts to desiccated corpses called Morgors though they are very much alive and sentient. And so it is that Barsoom finds itself captured and taken over without so much as a single shot being fired due to the superior technology of the Morgors. Taking place outside of the current series as chronicled by Ron Marz, this one-shot ties into the previous volume and is an enjoyable way to spend a little free time with Edgar Rice Burroughs’ creations. Dejah Thoris and John Carter must not only deal with the invading force but must enlist the aid of other enemies in the hopes that they can overcome and take back the planet. Of course, one knows going in that they will save the day but Napton crafts a tale that keeps his readers hooked from beginning to end with a lot of action and some fun moments too. It is a good thing to get a story every now and then that involves one of the other planets, aside from Earth that is, to show there is more to this ‘world’ than the usual. Readers always see Earth and Mars in John Carter’s stories but very rarely do they see Venus or any of the others. Just for that alone, it made this story just a little bit more interesting as it opens up more possibilities for further tales down the road as well as creating more allies and quite possibly more villains. The artwork by Rodolfo was nice and clean and a step up from what the previous series of books used to feature, so that was a nice bonus as well. Solid artwork, some good writing and an engaging as well as amusing tale that make for a distraction well worth the time to seek it out.

3.5 out of 5