Warlord of Mars #20 wraps up the two-part story of Carthoris and Linea’s attempt to help John Carter stop a atmosphere-destroying machine built by the “First Born” . Here’s the official description from Dynamite:

Issus is dead, but her high priest has activated a doomsday device that will destroy Mars’s fragile atmosphere. Before they can shut it down, John Carter and his son Carthoris have to figure out where it is! Helping them is Linea, a beautiful black Martian princess with a very special heritage. Linea and Carthoris start to click, and a union between the black and red races could be just what the wounded planet needs. But unknown horrors await the young lovers at the end of their quest.

Plain, subtitle-less Warlord of Mars is easily my favorite of Dynamite’s Mars books. I generally think a book should be judged purely on it’s own merits, but just the fact that ordinary WoM is worth reading sets it apart.

This issue my complaints are mostly technical in natural. I’ve been reading Warlord of Mars for three issues now, and each one has featured a different artist. Obviously, each has his own style and brings something different to the book, but the constant changes are annoying, even on a monthly basis.

Arvid Nelson made some strange decisions with his script this month. I actually felt like I was watching anime. There’s lots of smiling with eyes closed, and panels with no dialogue where the characters just stand there grinning at each other, either with a “we did a good job and we’re best friends” look or a “we can do it!” look. Which one depends on whether the action just happened is or is just about to happen.

The book also undergoes a major pacing change midway, as the first half is made up of dialogue heavy pages with lots of panels, while the second half includes multiple splash pages with little or no dialogue.

I should be clear that Cifuentes’ art does not resemble anime in the character design, or in any other way than the posing and the expressions. It’s occasionally hard to differentiate between similar-looking characters, but his scenery is top notch and everything feels fully-formed. His creatures are also cool, although they’re still your typical giant monsters with lots of teeth.

As I said, technical issues were my only real complaint for Warlord of Mars this month. The plot and characters were great, and everything comes to an unsettling end. I really hope next month picks up on the emotional threads left over from this issue.

4/5