Thursday, November 17, 2011

Review of John Carter: A Princess of Mars, issue 3

I’m really loving the adaptation of A Princess of Mars from Marvel Comics. It’s a measure of how much that I’ve been checking the Marvel App religiously every day for the last week desperate for the latest issue to appear. The wait has been worth it. Issue 3 certainly does not disappoint, in fact it’s probably the best so far.

I expressed some concern in my review of issue 2 that the modern language was proving a little discordant, but if I felt the balance was a bit off then, then it’s spot on here. In fact it’s a joy to read, with a light exuberant bounce to the dialogue and some great character moments between John Carter and Dejah Thoris as their romance begins to blossom. I think it’s fair to say that writer Roger Langridge and artist Filipe Andrade are completely in sync now, producing work that perfectly compliments each other.

I’m particularly impressed with the way they can switch seamlessly between light and dark moments, none more evidently in this issue than when Carter goes into berserker mode in a Thark arena. Andrade quite literally goes dark, he and colourist Sunny Gho (whom I can’t praise highly enough) forgoing the normal rich colour palette except for vivid sprays of arterial blood which splash shockingly across the page. A tip of the hat also to Skottie Young, who continues to provide fantastic cover illustrations.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this may well prove to be the definitive John Carter comic book adaptation. I can only hope that the same team can be persuaded to carry on adapting the other books in the series.