John Carter, Warlord of Mars #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeJohn Carter, Warlord of Mars #2 is the second chapter of the first dedicated Marvel Comics series built around Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom hero — a Bronze Age landmark that brought the pulp science-fantasy world of Mars to a new generation of comics readers. The issue deepens the 'Air Pirates of Mars' arc by properly introducing the series' central recurring antagonist, Stara Kan, and delivers the comic-book debut of two Burroughs mainstays, Sola and the loyal calot Woola, rounding out the core Barsoom cast within the series' first two issues. The entire Marvel run was ingeniously framed as an untold story set inside a nine-year gap in chapter 27 of A Princess of Mars, giving Wolfman creative room to write original Barsoom adventures rather than mere adaptation — a bold editorial choice that distinguished the series from routine licensed fare. The series went on to win the Eagle Award for Favourite New Title in 1978, confirming that the Wolfman–Kane collaboration had genuine resonance with contemporary readers.
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Marv Wolfman conceived and wrote the series while also serving as its editor, with Gil Kane handling pencils — a pairing that gave the book a kinetic, sword-and-planet visual energy suited to Burroughs' action-heavy source material. Wolfman laid out the series' structural conceit in a two-page editorial in issue #1 titled 'Welcome Back, Carter,' explaining that the stories occupy the unwritten nine-year gap in A Princess of Mars; issue #2 continues to build the original villain and supporting cast that would drive the first ten-issue 'Air Pirates' storyline. Rudy Nebres, who replaced Dave Cockrum on inks starting with this issue, brought a lush, painterly line quality that would define the book's visual identity for much of its run. The cover of issue #2 was by Kane and Cockrum, one of the last collaborative covers before Nebres took over the interior inking duties.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'Air Pirates of Mars, Chapter Two: From the Shadows... Stara-Kan!' — the second chapter of the series' opening ten-part arc.
- First comic-book appearances of Sola (the compassionate young Green Martian woman) and Woola (John Carter's faithful Martian calot) within the Marvel series.
- Script by Marv Wolfman; pencils by Gil Kane; inks by Rudy Nebres; colors by Janice Cohen; letters by John Costanza; cover by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum.
- Plot: Stara Kan — the one-armed Zodangan warrior who is the arc's primary antagonist — escapes imprisonment and flees to the Atmosphere Factory, while John Carter battles White Apes.
- Release date: April 26, 1977; cover date: July 1977.
- Two distribution variants exist: a standard 30-cent edition and a limited 35-cent price variant, as well as a Whitman bagged-multipack variant.
- Reprinted in Scandinavian editions (Winthers Forlag, 1978; Atlantic Förlags AB, 1978), in the Dark Horse black-and-white trade paperback collection (March 2011), and in the Marvel full-color oversized omnibus (December 2011).
- The parent series ran 28 issues and three annuals (1977–1979) and won the Eagle Award for Favourite New Title in 1978.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Comic Reader #142 (1977), John Carter #1 (1978), John Carter #1/1978 (1978), John Carter #1/1978 (1978), Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars: Warlord of Mars #[nn] (2011), John Carter, Warlord of Mars Omnibus #[nn] (2012)
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