John Carter, Warlord of Mars #10 - March 1978

"Confrontation!" by Marv Wolfman, Gil Kane, and The Tribe.

This issue opens with John Carter's best friend, Tars Tarkas, who is tormented with dark and troubling thoughts:

John Carter and the ape fly for many hours, until they finally land in the desert, at the mouth of a cave. Carter enters, and waiting for him is The Great One (a title Carter dislikes)!

The Great One alleges that he has lived for eons, and his very existence is tied to that of Barsoom. He now believes his mission is to restore their world to its former greatness--but standing in the way of that plan is John Carter!

The Great One's plan involves nothing less than the slaughter of millions of "unworthy" Barsoomians, leaving only those who he deems capable of being the buildings blocks of a new society.

John Carter is unimpressed, and does what he knows best--draws his sword:

They're brutal fight continues all the way outside of the cave, with John Carter refusing to give in, no matter what. Gil Kane seems like he's really enjoying himself here with this extended battle, leading up to this fantastic full-page shot:

The Great One gets in a good shot, knocking Carter to the ground. Not wanting to risk his plan further, the giant would-be conqueror climbs into an airship and departs, heading for the Tree of Life, not realizing that Carter has stowed aboard, hanging off the ship's wing.

The Great One begins to feel disoriented, and suddenly finds himself in a lush jungle! As he begins to talk to himself, Carter, watching all this, thinks his foe has gone mad.

Carter sees that the Great One's ship is headed straight for the Atmosphere Factory. He jumps off it just as the ship crashes into the ground, exploding into bits. Carter, having landed in a small lake, stumbles onto land and passes out:

The end...for now!


Another very unusual issue: the big villain is, at first, your typical world conqueror, but he's not done in by our hero John Carter, at least not directly; no, he simply goes mad and does himself in. Very 1970s!

The art here is kind of all over the map because of the melange of inkers; some pages look better (way better) than others. Too bad Marvel couldn't have found someone like Tom Sutton to do the whole issue--Kane does some really knockout work here, marred only by the inconsistency of the finishes.