Lords of Mars #2 Review


Two very distinct franchises from the mind of the same creator find the thread that crosses them over, but should this even be happening?  Read on to find out.

The official description from Dynamite:

Lord Greystoke and Jane find themselves transported to Mars, where they learn of a terrible tyrant named John Carter who has enslaved the dying planet. The Ape-Man’s newfound “friends” are putting on an elaborate deception, but to what end? John Carter, meanwhile, deals with the sinister machinations of a strange new cult… devoted to none other than him!

I have to be honest, the thought of these two properties crossing over made me a little bit uneasy when I first heard of this series.  But after reading this issue I found myself quite pleased with the results as this fairly straight forward narrative dug in deep and set up what’s sure to be an out of this world adventure.

Arvid Nelson pens the script and the scribe easily brings life to both of these worlds.  He uses what we know of each protagonist to build a logical conflict that’s destined to end up like any first meeting between two iconic titans.  The easiest and most readily accessible version of this is Batman and Superman, two characters that stand for the same thing but go about achieving it very differently are initially (in many versions) pitted against each other only to find a common strand that binds them.  Sure, based on that, this release sounds rather formulaic but the execution by this author is top notch.

The art by Roberto Castro matches the quality of the text as a believable version of Barsoom welcomes more confused travelers from Earth.  The illustrations are beautiful to behold, as solid line work easily builds up the core mechanics of each tale while slowly but surely blending them together.  In a lot of ways this crossover feels weird but thanks to this talent the art is not one of those transparent reasons.

Warlord of Mars #2 is a great comic that’s slowly but surely building up the groundwork for this epic.  Recommended.

4/5

S#!T Talking Central